The ten year anniversary for Children at the Well! How could it have been ten years??

Feeling blessed...all that we have accomplished as a team, all the fantastic students who have been part of us and have gone on to do amazing things in the world. All of the stories!!!!

This summer, we are in the middle of using this momentum to create a "Children at the Well Guide"- a comprehensive assembly manual that people in other parts of the country (and the world!) can use to create their own programs similar to Children at the Well.

We call this effort Propagation- new growth, not an exact copy but taking into consideration the local conditions.

Ben Russell (Ben was an original C@W student from 2006 and he's now one of our story coaches!) and I are going to the National Storytelling Conference in Kansas City July 30-Aug 2 to make a presentation about Children at the Well Propagation. http://www.storynet.org/conference/index.html

Stay Tuned!!

January 2014 C@W doings

Children at the Well 2014 is underway!

Our second meeting of the year was Sunday January 12th, and the group of 17 youth tellers, 3 story coaches (Mary Murphy, Nancy M. Payne, and Micki Groper) and 2 apprentice coaches (Ben Russell and Khalafalla Osman) will be meeting each Sunday (excepting Easter Sunday) until May 4th, when we'll be holding our final performance. Stay tuned for news about that!

Saturday, January 11th, 3 tellers- Macaela, Michal, and Shadeh- joined Paula in meeting with FLEX exchange students from Ukraine, Moldova, Russia, Armenia, etc., who are living with host families in this area for the school year. The meeting took place at the Albany Unitarian Universalists. There was a screening of Stepping Toward the Lion, and the C@W students talked about why they chose certain stories to learn to tell. We all came up with stories we felt could describe who we are, and what we believe in. It was a very friendly, thoughtful group and we had a great time. 

Sunday January 19th is the Winter Lights performance of the Interfaith Story Circle. Three of our C@W youth tellers (Shadeh, Anam, and Macaela) will be featured, and one (Kalyan) will serve as  MC for part of the event.
There will also be a 6th grade chorus from the AnNur Islamic School, and the Schenectady High School Chamber Chorus!
All Welcome! 2 PM, at the Islamic Center of the Capital District (see flier on Home Page of our website).

Do you have a comment on the Stepping Toward the Lion film, or on using the discussion guide for it??

We're happy to announce that John Lyden's film, Stepping Toward the Lion, is now complete!! the DVD has been duplicated and packaged, and there have been a couple of local screenings- more to follow.
If you have seen the film, and would like to leave a comment for us, please do so below. We'd love to hear what you think...and comments may even turn into conversations among contributors...and us, too!
Gert Johnson has developed a discussion guide that can be used when the film is shown in a class or other type of educational setting. I don't see a way to attach it here, but if you'd like a copy, please email me at paulabweiss AT gmail.com (substituting "@" for the "AT", of course) and I'll send one to you.
Comments about this discussion guide most welcome, as well.

Looking forward to hearing from you,
Paula

Sharing the Fire Saturday workshop

The Sharing the Fire Saturday workshop about C@W was held in a hotel room- no beds, thankfully, so we had SOME room, not much! This was because of the last minute change of venue for the entire conference. We all had to make do to some extent! C@W tellers Mahrukh, Ilyssa and Rishi rose to the occasion, as usual, and each told their stories beautifully. They joined their moms and Marni and me in answering questions from the audience.
Gert Johnson has been corresponding with some attendees who indicated they'd like to think about starting a youth interfaith storytelling program in their own areas of the world~ this was our intent with the workshop, and we're thrilled to get this started!!

Sharing the Fire Showcase 3/17/12

Ben, Adtiya and Emily wowed the filled ballroom at the Sharing the Fire Northeast Storytelling Conference Sunday morning showcase. Afterwards, they were caught in a mad crush of fans! it was fun for all- we were so proud of them and all they've accomplished. The audiences at Sharing the Fire couldn't have been better.
On Saturday, Mahrukh, Ilyssa and Rishi and their stories were a wonderful addition to a CAW workshop that Marni and I did on the history and future of CAW. Pictures to follow in the next post!
Paula

Sunday, April 3, 2011!

Our 2011 session is underway!

The kids have been meeting each Sunday with storyteller-coaches Mary Murphy, Marni Gillard and Nancy Payne...and storyteller-coaches-in-training Micki Groper and Aviva Rossman...(5! count 'em!! 5! coaches) working on stories to tell at our event, scheduled for April 3, 2 PM, at the beautifuul and historic Christ Church United Methodist in Troy.

Mark your calendars for April 3! This year we'll bring back the ever popular international vegetarian potluck supper after the storytelling- our last one was 2 years ago. Hope to see you there!

What People Are Saying About Children at the Well

Click here to read what students, parents and listeners are saying about Children at the Well.