BIGFORK — A Stay Human storytelling event set for Friday, Aug. 16, at Bigfork's Edge Center for the Arts will feature five different storytellers. One of them is Loren Niemi, who has a long storytelling history.
When Niemi graduated college, he taught high school for a year and then worked with juvenile justice offenders. He used stories to help them learn. Then he got a job working for the city of Minneapolis.
"There will be an opportunity to hear some good stories, and just to meet and chat with your neighbors from around the area."Loren Niemi
One day someone asked him what exactly he does for a living.
“And without really thinking about it, I said I am a storyteller," he said. "I work with neighborhoods with groups with individuals to identify their story, to shape their story and to tell it in a way to produce tangible results.”
In 1981, he was a humanities scholar in residence for the Minnesota Humanities Commission. St. Louis County Arts and Heritage Center paid Niemi to spend the year sitting in cafes, church basements, bars and community events throughout northeastern Minnesota. What did he do? “Observe and document and comment on the culture of Northern Minnesota as it transitions from predominantly industrial to predominantly tourism.”
By the end of the year, he felt he was a storyteller. “I was drawing from both traditional stories, Minnesota history stories, interviews with specific people, also folk tales and fairy tales to use as metaphors for the experience.”
The Stay Human event will not have a theme, so it’s up to the storytellers what kind of story they will share. If no one else does it, Niemi plans to tell a ghost story because he feels every storytelling event needs a ghost story. The other story he will tell depends on the order of the storytellers.
“If I'm first or second, there's a need for humor to warm the audience up and to bring them into a kind of common space. If I'm in the middle, we can see if any themes have emerged and then we can either accelerate them or we can careen a different direction.”
The details of Niemi’s stories change from audience to audience. He finds there to be an unspoken relationship between the storyteller and audience. They’re giving him feedback on where the story should go.
For people interested in pursuing storytelling, Niemi has two pieces of advice. No. 1 is to just tell stories. Even if you start out just with your family or friends. No. 2 is read widely. Every community has communal stories, and he encourages people to seek them out.
Niemi expects a relaxed atmosphere at the upcoming event. All five of the speakers are experienced storytellers so audiences can expect to hear a variety of stories and that they will be taken on a journey.
“There will be an opportunity to hear some good stories, and just to meet and chat with your neighbors from around the area.”
Stay Human Storytelling will be 7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 16 at Edge Center for the Arts in Bigfork. The storytellers will be Loren Niemi, Terry O’ Brien, Sue Searing, Michael Laughing Fox and Laura Packer. Tickets are available on the Edge Center for the Arts website.
Tell us about upcoming arts events where you live in Northern Minnesota by emailing psa@kaxe.org.
Area Voices is made possible by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.
