magic made real

World Storytelling Day which occurs annually on March 20 is a day that celebrates the global art of storytelling. Whether the story has words, pictures, signs, rhythm, or expression - all forms of storytelling are appreciated by wonder | wander | women and many others. 

The day acknowledges the art form of storytelling and encourages diversity among different cultures and races. Join us to celebrate one of the oldest forms of communication - enjoying each letter, sound, word as they form phrase, sentence, picture. 

ancient cave art, American Museum of Natural History, NYC

The history of storytelling dates back to the stone age. Over the years cave paintings, drawings, and messages have become a source of information.

These remnants of ancient knowledge still contain uncovered secrets that continue to educate us about the past and reveal how humans lived and interacted.

what ancient Egyptian sounds like

The stories found on rocks and cave walls are reiterated every time we gaze upon them. Each time a story is retold, the art form of storytelling deepens and expands.

Storytelling is considered a communication method like no other. It can travel through space and time and still have relevance today - no matter how much time has passed.

World Storytelling Day logo by Mats Rehnman

Storytelling is presented in any language and form - remaining relatable, understandable, and informative. It has influenced thoughts, emotions, and behavior as it stimulates our creativity.

As populations grew and people became more mobile they carried their experiences with them. Sharing their stories and passing them on. Generations of descendants keeping them alive through the years and countless migrations.

par dated 1938 A.D. depicts oral epic tale of folk hero Pabuji

Stories multiplied as they were retold through the years. Every generation had their own set of experiences to add to their tales.

True stories that containing experiences and information were more easily expanded, enhances, dramatized and fictionalized - making them more compelling and popular.

This world of belief and imagination, dreams and progress was ripe for the telling. Each genre of storytelling sought to represent a specific part or facet of life.

It has developed into an art form that has existed for many decades and will continue to be recorded for many more. Whether to entertain, inform, excite, or record - each story is treasured and remembered.

We should all experience being lots of other kinds of people and we should all also bask in stories about characters much like ourselves, though that story may be about someone who shares your suffering or your love and hope who may be a child in a fairytale in a magic kingdom or a unicorn who lives all alone in a lilac wood or the mute Muslim boy from Morocco in one of my favorite childhood books, King of the Wind by Marguerite Henry.

Also read stories like A Hundred Years of Solitude in which there is no one character to identify with (which I think is an overstated need) and a great unfolding family tree to be enraptured by. I was profoundly influenced by the non-Eurocentric fantasy world of LeGuin's Earthsea - in which only the barbarians in the north are blonde and blue-eyed and Taoism is a big influence - and love seeing Marlon James and others take fantasy and speculative fiction further away from Eurocentrism. ~ Rebecca Solnit

Indeed, the world should give each of us mirrors and windows.