You know when you hear a story and you can’t get it out of your head? That is the way it was for me in the story I’m going to tell in our Portland Storytellers’ Guild show October 7, Edge of Illusion: Magic, Mystery, and Moments of Surprise. It’s a true story about a wild animal that reaches across the divide the separates we humans from the natural world. The experiences challenges and changes people’s lives.
I discovered storytelling when I worked for the National Park Service. We were having trouble with a storytelling program the rangers did for kids on cruise ships, so I went to a storytelling festival in search of insights to help us fix the program. Well, life has never been the same. After that first festival, we fixed the ranger program and I started working on my Masters in Storytelling at East Tennessee State University. I started telling stories for audiences far and wide. Eventually, I left the NPS to become a professional teller. These days I tell at festivals around the country, including the National Storytelling Festival. I also tell stories on expeditions around the world – history stories, folktales; stories that help people connect to the places we are visiting. And I do tell stories in national parks from time to time, which is awesome …
— Ingrid Nixon
More about the teller:
Ingrid Nixon is a world-traveling storyteller who whisks listeners away on journeys of the imagination. Exploration nail-biters, tall tales, traditional and personal stories—she tells them all on international expeditions, and at venues around the country, including the National Storytelling Festival. Her creative approaches to story crafting help make ancient tales relevant to modern audiences. Ingrid’s first CD, Grimm’s with a Twist, is a Storytelling World award winner. It offers deliciously dark stories spiced liberally with humor and pathos. Her second recording, Operation Bouncy Chair, features personal stories about the important things in life: family, love, and coffee. She is a champion liar many times over, a claim that makes her mother both proud and worried. She holds a Masters in Storytelling from East Tennessee State University. After living in Alaska for many years working as a National Park Service ranger, she currently hails from Washington State. More at IngridNixon.com.
Get tickets for Edge of Illusion: Magic, Mystery, and Moments of Surprise here for Saturday, October 7 at 7:30 pm (doors open at 7:00 pm) in the Clinton Street Theater.
