Richard Rousseau will be celebrating 20 years of storytelling by offering a four-part presentation of his work at the Anodyne Coffee House in Minneapolis. The stories he’s selected will be grouped into the following topics:

January 5: Rivertown Trading Co. Stories (includes Xmas Fireworks)
February 2: Fargo Stories (cab driving)
March 1: New Britain Stories (my early years)
April 5: Two Funerals and a Birth (my middle years) (Appropriate for ages 12 and up.)

No charge, donations accepted

www.thecoffeegrounds.net

Northstar’s own Children’s Storytelling guild will present: A Story, A Story. Members will share tales from the world over. Come take a trip around the world with us. We will travel to Japan, China, Eastern Europe, Ireland and the United States.

P.J Stories is a story time just like a peanut butter sandwich–a story on both sides and lots of fun squished in-between. Each first Thursday of the month a different storyteller is featured. P.J.’s has been presenting stories for school aged students for over 5 years. For directions call the Coffee Grounds at 651-644-9959 or visit www.thecoffeegrounds.net. Sponsored by Northstar Storytelling League and the Coffee Grounds Coffee Shop. Free. Donations gratefully accepted.

http://bryantlakebowl.com/calendar/shows/obsessed-joseph-scrimshaw

Join critically acclaimed comedian Joseph Scrimshaw (“the Cirque Du Soleil of Minneapolis Comedy” – The Onion) for the live recording of his new podcast, OBSESSED. Thrill to tales of Scrimshaw’s bizarre obsessions—squirrels, Star Wars, watching his wife knit—as well as dive into the obsessions of two special guests plus one lucky audience volunteer! $12/$10 with 2011 Minnesota Fringe Festival Button

www.iowaee.org

A weekend conference sponsored by Iowa Conservation Education Coalition where Thea Nicholas is serving as a Keynote speaker/storyteller as well as conducting a workshop on using storytelling in science classes.

Price: $175, plus room and meals

http://www.mrac.org/grants/nextstepGrant.asp

The Next Step Fund for individual artists, through generous support from The McKnight Foundation, provides project grants up to $5,000 to professional artists in any discipline for the purpose of career development and artistic achievement. Applicants can be at any stage of their career, but must demonstrate achievement in their artistic field and have a history of public presentation or community contribution. The deadline for 2012 Next Step Fund applications is March 5, 2012. The guidelines are currently posted on the Next Step Fund program page and you may start the online application at any time. Applicants must have resided in Anoka, Carver, Dakota, Hennepin, Ramsey, Scott or Washington County during the entire year prior to the deadline (March 5, 2011 – March 5, 2012). Applicants who were awarded Next Step Grant funding in FY 2011 are NOT eligible to apply in FY 2012.

MRAC offers workshops to help individual artists prepare Next Step Fund grant applications. Participants will become familiar with the program and online application. For more info and to register:
http://www.mrac.org/grants/nextstepGrant.asp

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Richard Rousseau is hosting an hour-long show at the Science Museum of Minnesota called “Community Acts,” and he is looking for tellers.

Here are the details:

• Community Acts is the last Thursday of every month and starts at 7:30pm
• Material should be about 5 to 7 minutes in length
• Material should (ideally) relate to science in some way
• Material must be G-Rated / Family-Friendly

Performers receive free parking in the Science Museum lot (one voucher per performer) and free Science Museum admission for the performer and one guest.

He is looking for performers for the February 23 show and all later shows. Performers should contact Richard at 651-649-1757 prior to the second Thursday of the month they want to perform.

www.slammn.org

A monumental night at Story SlamMN! is happening on February 7th! We are welcoming our first out-of-state feature storyteller Les Kurkendaal. Les comes to us all the way from Los Angeles, CA. He’s a MN Fringe favorite and a solo performer who travels the country telling us stories. Come see how he’s surviving the MN winter and what stories he spins at SlamMN!

The story slam is open to 12 competitors who throw their name in our hat. They have five minutes to tell whatever story they want that fits the theme the Ex-Files (and hey, who hasn’t dealt with brokenhearted scorned lovers, or been one themselves). Come watch the pain, hilarity, and healing that will ensue. You could even be one of the five randomly selected judges that will help us pick the winner for the evening! The top 3 winners get medals of awesomeness, meager cash prizes, and qualify to compete in our Grand Slam this summer.

Drinks/Doors/Dinner/Sign-Up 7:00 pm; show 8:00 pm. $5.00 Cover.

Open to all ages, but we do not censor our performers in any way.

www.slammn.org

What: Poetry SlamMN’s 17th Annual Erotica Slam
When: Saturday, February 11th and Tuesday February 14th 8:00 pm
Where: Kieran’s Irish Pub – 601 1st Ave N (Block E) Minneapolis, MN 55403
Cost: $7.00
Make Reservations: 612-339-4499

The Twin Cities sexiest spoken word event is back for it’s 17th year. Named 2010 City Pages Best Of Spoken Word event, SlamMN’s Erotica Slam is one not to miss. Due to popular demand, and the day of love being a Tuesday, we’ve added a second night of sass. Join us on either Saturday, February 11th for a hot weekend night on the town, or on Tuesday, February 14th, to celebrate Valentine’s Day proper. Make sure to make reservations by calling Kieran’s Irish Pub at 612-339-4499 because the show always sells out. Come early for dinner, stay for drinks, sexy time raffles, and poetry that will make your squirm, squish, and simmer. Bring your own 3 minute long poems if you’d like to compete. Open sign-up starts at 7:00, so you never know who will take the stage. You could be one of the judges that helps crown the most erotic poet in the Cities, or you could cuddle up in a corner and sit back and enjoy. www.slammn.org for more details.

SlamMN! is turning the hot up to 10 with the featured poet of the evening, Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz. Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz is the author of five books of poetry (including Dear Future Boyfriend and Hot Teen Slut – written about her time as an “adult” editor for websites) as well as the author of the nonfiction book, Words In Your Face: A Guided Tour Through Twenty Years of the New York City Poetry Slam, which Billy Collins wrote “leaves no doubt that the slam poetry scene has achieved legitimacy and taken its rightful place on the map of contemporary literature.” At age 19, she founded the three-time National Poetry Slam championship poetry series NYC-Urbana, which is still held weekly at the NYC’s famed Bowery Poetry Club. Aptowicz just finished serving as the 2010-2011 ArtsEdge Writer-In-Residence at the University of Pennsylvania and was recently awarded a 2011 National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship in Poetry.

(private home; exact address will be provided upon registration)

$30 for Northstar Members, $40 for others

You have something to say in a story, but how do you say it without sounding too pushy, opinionated or downright boring? This workshop shows how to combine education and entertainment into stories that respect, enlighten and emotionally move your audience members to take action. You’ll leave better understanding your motives for telling socially relevant stories and be given practical ways to overcome the fears all of us have around taking stands. You’ll learn how to structure stories for deeper meaning and how those structures differ from other fables and personal stories.

Susan O’Halloran is one of America’s top Diversity Speakers and Storytellers. Susan is an author and a producer of Black, White and Brown: Tribes & Bridges at the Steppenwolf Theatre and More Alike Than Not: Stories of Three Americans – Catholic, Jewish and Muslim and the long-running JustStories Festival. In high school, she became part of an interracial youth group and studied with adults who were working with Dr. King. She has been building bridges between cultures ever since.

The Chicago Reader says O’Halloran “has mastered the Irish art of telling stories that are funny and heart-wrenching at the same time.” Her audiences say: “In an entertaining way, Sue opened our minds to how society still excludes and what we can do to create a more welcoming world!” Susan was a National Storytelling Network keynote speaker and has several times been a featured teller at the National Storytelling Festival. Sue lives in Evanston, Illinois and can be found at: www.susanohalloran.com and 1-866-997-8726.

Select

General – $40 Northstar Members – $30

Buy a 4-Workshop Punchcard!

Northstar Members – $80 Non-members – $130

To learn about other upcoming workshops in our series, go to our Workshop Series page.

www.bryantlakebowl.com

Featuring Nancy Donoval and Susan O’Halloran. Tickets: $8-12 (pay what you can). Reservations: 612-825-8949 or www.bryantlakebowl.com.

Smart, funny women are a joy to hear, and the Valentines Day edition of Two Chairs Telling at Bryant Lake Bowl serves up a big hearted pairing of powerhouse storytelling with Nancy Donoval and Susan O’Halloran.

Nancy Donoval is the 2010 National Story Slam Champion. A professional storyteller and story coach for close to 25 years, her work has been heard on Minnesota and Chicago Public Radio. She’s been featured at venues ranging from the National Storytelling Festival to the New York Society for Ethical Culture. Her one-woman shows Dancing Rats & Vampire Moms and Monster Movies with My Undead Dad played to sold-out houses at the Minnesota Fringe Festival. Nancy currently tours The Road to Shameless: A Survivor’s True Story of Rape and Recovery to college and universities along with other sexual violence education programs. www.Stories2StopRape.com or NancyDonoval.com/

Susan O’Halloran is a story artist, writer, TV personality and keynote speaker. Her stories focus on family, a sense of place and have been seen on such media programs as PBS and ABC Nightline, The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune. The Chicago Reader’s Critic Choice said about her storytelling, “O’Halloran has mastered the Irish art of telling stories that are funny and heart-wrenching at the same time.” She is author of several books and diversity curricula plus a producer of multicultural performances and films including Black, White and Brown: Tribes & Bridges at the Steppenwolf Theatre and More Alike Than Not: Stories of Three Americans – Catholic, Jewish and Muslim. Sue lives in Evanston, IL and can be found at: www.susanohalloran.com