Summertime...

Summertime in the Sierra foothills always flies by! There are so many fun things to do outside, concerts and live theater and farmers markets and so many other events going on. Many many things to keep you busy and keep a smile on your face.

The Mother Lode Storytelling Guild has had fun every month this summer at our MONTHLY OPEN TELLING events at Sonora Joes Coffee Shoppe in downtown Sonora, right on Washington Street. Thanks to Joe and his staff for welcoming us every month. Sonora Joes makes great coffee, tea, smoothies, etc. and also tasty bagel sandwiches, salads, and other food. Also we want to give huge thanks and shout-outs to our community radio station, KAAD-LP (103.5 FM local radio or http://kaad-lp.org/ streaming online). Dave comes and records us every month to play our live storytelling on the radio and it is a blast! We've had jokes, camp songs, true stories, fairy tales, and more. How fun! 

Monthly Open Telling is every 3rd Saturday from 4-6 pm at Sonora Joes from January-September. That means this next telling on September 21 is our last one until 2020! Hope to see you!

Some of the Storytelling Guild members recently took a field trip (!!!) to the Bay Area, because the National Storytelling Network had its annual summit right here in Fremont, CA. https://storynet.org/nsnevents/conference/, It was a wonderful experience and we experienced every emotion you could think of. Kathy volunteered with the summit. BZ  and Dominick worked together to accept our community's own Bill "Billy Button" Roberson's award from the National Storytelling Network. We were honored to tell history of magic, imagination & loving humor to an audience of storytellers from across the U.S. & Canada. Bill passed away this month and we will continue to honor his memory. What a lucky bunch we have been to sit in his story circle. He was a deep river of compassion & dedication to the healthy development of families.

The Storytelling Guild board has been hard at work preparing for our annual event, the 6th annual Mother Lode STORY SLAM contest. Ever did something that turned out to be not-quite-right? Ever made a decision you wish you could un-do? The theme this year is "Mistakes Were Made" http://www.sierranevadastorytelling.org/story-slam-contest.html  . 
Teller sign-up is at 6:30 pm / Story Slam begins at 7 pm at the Murphys Old School House (60 Jones Street). Admission is free (donations appreciated), we will again have a bake-sale by Waldorf School students, a raffle with awesome baskets prepared by Kathy, and live local judges. Cash Prizes are awarded for 1st, 2nd, 3rd place and People's Choice Award.  We are very very excited that professional and beloved storyteller Tim Ereneta, from Berkeley, will be the featured emcee and make our evening extra-fun!! 

So there's a lot of things going on as we move from Summer to Fall. Gotta run... Yoga in the park starts in 30 minutes and I need to find my mat!