Workshop: Queering Your Story: telling 2SLGBTQIA+ stories, with Queers in Your Ears
Workshop: Queering Your Story: telling 2SLGBTQIA+ stories, with Queers in Your Ears
April 12 @ 2:00 pm – 5:00 pm EDT
Learning how to craft and shape a story can be a transformative experience. For people who feel marginalized or oppressed, sharing stories is a way to be heard and listened to, feeling valued for who we are or who we have become. Queers in Your Ears knows from our work over almost three decades as storytellers that as members of the LGBTQ2S+ community, we need to find ways to share how we see our lives and place in the world.
This workshop will offer participants simple strategies to help build confidence in telling an oral story, and work together to develop a story of their own. We will also give guidance in developing a 2SLGBTQ+ story for 2SLGBTQ+ people and our allies. We’ll share some of the tools we use in developing our own stories including photographs and personal memories that will show you how to shape and enhance your story and give it the power it deserves. As well, part of the art of storytelling is not only sharing stories but also listening to other people’s stories. Learning how to be empathetic and respectful in providing feedback and creating a space that feels safe is something that makes us all better storytellers.
* Please note this workshop will take place at a separate venue.
Clare Nobbs has been telling stories for her entire life, getting herself both in and out of trouble more times than she’s had hot dinners. Clare loves to share traditional tales, including folktales from her beloved Yorkshire, but she’s happiest telling personal stories and tales with a queer twist with the Queers In Your Ears crew – her storytelling family since 1997.
For more than three decades, Jeffrey Canton has shared folk and fairytales as well as original stories that dig deep into the strata of Toronto’s history as well as, with a little soft-shoe and a gay show tune or two, his own queer past. A long-time member of Queers in Your Ears, Canada’s only 2SLGBTQIA+ storytelling collective, he’s appeared at the Toronto International Storytelling Festival, Replay Story Fest and Nuit Blanche. He’s currently collaborating on an exciting project with Big Pond Small Fish, Mammalian Diving Reflex and the Archives of Ontario. Jeffrey also teaches storytelling courses about telling personal stories through Storytelling Toronto including “Voices Seldom Heard”, the first 2SLGBTQIA+ storytelling course that focuses on the lives and experiences of queer tellers which he originally developed for Storytelling Toronto.
Rico Rodriguez is a storyteller, story writer, drag performer, percussionist, teacher and Union Representative. He delivers highly energetic and participatory storytelling shows. He tells personal stories and folktales, fables and legends from the rich and diverse LatinX cultures. His stories are infused with equity and social justice themes. He tells in Spanish, English, and in Spanglish. He is one of the founders of Queers in Your Ears.
$60