In this week’s episode, Angie and Elizabeth chat with one of Elizabeth’s high school classmates, Daniel Jokelson, about being a maggid—a kind of wandering storyteller. Storytelling has worked its way into every aspect of Daniel’s life, from being a singer-songwriter to acting with a company in Ashland Oregon even to teaching stories with the local Jewish youth group. And while the modes of story are incredibly different, Daniel finds a common thread in seeing the big picture of each art form, and connecting that to the audience who is hearing it. His work is all about finding the curiosity, bringing authenticity to preconstructed story, and most importantly, finding the medicine each tale has to offer.
National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)
Twelve Angry Men (1997)
Good and Mad by Rebecca Traister
Music & storytelling: reverbnation.com/danieljokelson
Blogging about sustainable agriculture: dannyfarmboy.blogspot.com
Current production: roguetheatercompany.com
Daniel Jokelson
Daniel Jokelson is a singer-songwriter, musician, actor, storyteller and improviser with a freelance residential garden biz keeping the lights on in Ashland, Oregon. Daniel grew up in Berkeley, California in a Jewish family with an avid interest in the arts – his mother and brother are both visual artists, and the whole family were theater and movie fans. Daniel studied acting at UMass Amherst and spent summers teaching theater at a day camp in Berkeley, which is where he also discovered guitar and writing songs. A wanderer and perpetual seeker, Daniel spent almost 2 years abroad, traveling and working in agricultural settings. When he returned to the Bay Area, he continued working in agriculture and gardening while doing Soto Zen residential practice, absorbing the Buddhist approach and recording Ego Tofu, an album of original music. In 2008, he relocated to southern Oregon, where he lives happily with his partner Stephanie and has a life full of creative pursuits. He completed a two-year Maggid training program in Ashland, learning both the craft of storytelling and the art of Torah interpretation (midrash).
Story Makers is a podcast that features in-depth conversations with accomplished writers, filmmakers and industry experts about story craft, technique, habit and survival–everything you need to know to stay inspired, connect to your creativity, find others’ wonderful stories and your own success.
The hosts:
Elizabeth Stark is a published, agented novelist and distributed filmmaker who teaches and mentors writers at BookWritingWorld.com.
Angie Powers is a distributed filmmaker and published short story writer with an MFA in creative writing and a certificate in screenwriting from UCLA who teaches story structure at BookWritingWorld.com.