Liz Weir

You can listen to Liz’s video start to finish—or use this list of time markers and quotations to fast forward to those locations in the video: [3:03] “[When I was a child] my favorite book was called “The Princess and the Goblin” by George MacDonald.” [3:24] I was a very shy child. When I went to secondary school, I continued to be shy. When I went to university, I studied English, I was lucky enough to have the bell prize winner Seamus Heaney as my English lecturer. So I have a great love of literature, and W.B. Yeats, who was very influenced by stories by ‘the peasantry’ as he called them.” [4:00] On first time telling stories for children, in library school: “I chose Library Services for young people, and they said part of that was to tell stories to young people, and I was completely horrified. Because I’d had nothing to do with children, I was the youngest one in my family, I was shy, I was nervous, I’d never told stories for anybody… “I told my first children’s story which was the Three Billy Goat’s Gruff. I told it in 1973—oh goodness, I’ve been telling stories since then, gosh that’s 50 years…” 4:30 -- “As a part of my library training, we were taught how to read stories, to tell stories through picture books. Which I still think is a very valid thing to do, because—you can actually read a picture book kill it stone dead, and you can read a picture book and give it life. So I first came to storytelling, reading through picture books.” 5:32 -- “[In Ireland], there was no such thing—nobody told stories for a living…In the 1970s it was unheard of [to be paid as a storyteller]. And I was doing storytelling as part of my work, when I heard about storytelling for adults….” 5:50 -- “In those days, in Belfast, had a lot of violence, and children couldn’t easily get to the library. They had to cross, dangerous streets. So, I organized a summer storytelling program where I hired students and we went out into the streets, we went out into the play centers and the parks, and we told stories to them…And then I noticed that, adults would hang about and listen…” 6:40 – Course named Yarnspinning: Who Says Storytelling’s Just for Kids, over 100 participants 7:00 – First professional storytellers Bob Gash, Shirley Fisher, American storytellers coming to visit 7:40 -- I’ve told stories everywhere 9:05 – “In 1990, I hit 40 and I had to decide, whether to give up my good, pensionable, job and become a freelance storyteller, or to just do storytelling on the side. So I decided I’d go for it, I’d become a storyteller...” 9:42 – “The more I told stories, the more I wanted to tell stories.” 9:47 – a turning point in Dunalley Valley, the road to Damascus 10:39 – “I have to love a story. If I don’t love a story, I don’t care how good it is, I don’t care who tells it—if I don’t love it, I don’t want it. I’m drawn to stories of magic, enchantment, heartbreak—the story of my life, I’ve kissed many frogs in my life…” 11:20 – Liz’s process of developing the stories she tells 11:40 – an example of telling a story she wasn’t in love with, and a story finding her “…The books fell on the ground—seems to happen to me often, things fall on the ground—this book fell open, and it ws the perfect story. It chose me, instead of me choosing it…that’s my process, sometimes it’s magical.” 13:43 – getting to know an audience, visiting nursing homes, preschoolers 14:40 – the importance of having a good repertoire and being flexible “You have to be very adaptable to be a storyteller.” 16:00 -- “Storytelling is the most democratic of all arts.” 16:25 -- “I really believe storytelling crosses all sorts of barriers—age, ethnicity, gender, all sorts of orientation. I think my aim in life is to make it accessible for everybody, I don’t care what their background is, I don’t care if they’re rich or poor. Ethics—people need to remember where they come from. “Find out something about the culture, for the story you’re telling. One must remember where we’ve got the stories from.” 18:20 – If it’s a story from somebody else’s repertoire, get permission for that. Don’t tread on other people’s toes. “Respect the people who’ve told you the story.” 19:58 – on personal stories and fairy/folk tales “We have such a rich legacy of folktales…this involves a bit of work. Not everybody wants to do the work.” 21:56 – “Folktales are subversive….they can get through keyholes, and under doors…” 23:50 – “I do not use storytelling. I work with stories…if you use a story, the story will come up and bite you.” 24:20 -- Conflict resolution and storytelling; giving others a story structure and letting them set it in their own setting 25:13 – integrated schools in Ireland, it’s impossible to hate people when you know their story, walking in others’ shoes, sharing stories with diverse groups 27:05 – Liz’s MBE award 29: 50 – On her guest house: “I always wanted a place where people could come to me for storytelling. I always wanted a place where I had space to host workshops and where they could stay for residentials and so on…I saw a for sale sign in the middle of nowhere…the minute I stepped into my house, I thought—I want to live here…” 32:50 -- “Developing young tellers…we need to be developing young tellers, and young audiences.” “From my mouth to your ears to your heart” 34:06 – “it’s an oral art, not a written art. Storytelling…I think we have to stress it’s an oral tradition that doesn’t rely on props…staging…as I always say, from mouth to ear to heart.” “I don’t think we should be exclusive….stretching our audience to like more than just the funny, I think we need to develop people’s emotional intelligence.” 35:40 – “The story has to come through the storyteller. There’s a definition that says, the best storyteller is the one whose stories you remember long after you forget the face of the teller.” “Some get in front of the story. It’s all about them.…Storytelling is not all about you, it’s about your audience. It’s about your interaction between you and the audience…you need to draw people in, make them feel as if they’re a part of what you’re doing.” 37:35 – about telling for audiences in nursing homes, don’t get offended or too precious about yourself 39:00 – The future of storytelling, training young people 40:44 – telling stories in the children’s ward at the hospital, storytelling as therapy “This ability to listen to stories is something you have to develop, to engage in active listening.” 44:36 – on writing her memoir 46:07 – practical advice on storytelling 47:15 “People get this idea of storytelling as an older person sitting in a chair, maybe an old man with a pipe—we’re doing some really cutting-edge stuff in Northern Ireland at the minute, with digital technology…animation projects [with] a geodesic dome…so the storyteller ‘s still going to be there actively with the children while the animation’s going to be projected on the dome…Storytelling isn’t stuck in the past, we’re constantly evolving…”