Hi, I’m Jeremy Evans and I am a youth storyteller. I have been telling stories for about five years and although this is a relatively short time compared to many of you reading this article, I have come a long way in my telling ability in that same brief time. This has not been due to my interest in storytelling alone, although I have worked hard at it. No, I have also been lucky enough to have someone I consider a mentor helping me along the way. And I would like to see more mentors out there mentoring!
Mentoring has an important role in the continuation of storytelling as an art form. When you mentor someone in the art of storytelling you are helping to ensure that storytelling has a place in the minds and hearts of the next generation. Not just in storytellers but in everyone because the more storytellers there are the more people will hear storytelling. And if you are a mentor to someone, than your mentee will more than likely go out and be a mentor to someone else and so on and so on! Mentors are about bettering the storytelling community. 4-H has a slogan: “making the best better”. I think that fits the idea behind mentorship very well; mentors are going out and “making the best better“. And when storytellers teach others the tools they need to succeed they are not only demonstrating their personal generosity, but also showing the outside world that storytelling is a legitimate art form, not unlike painting or ballet. Storytelling is an art form particularly suited for mentoring because storytelling as a profession is such an intricate art and it does require skills like timing, facial expressions, microphone skills, voices and much more. Now you, the reader, know that everybody tells stories, but the stories that your Uncle Joe tells about his fishing trips don’t require a lot of skill. But there is a big difference between old Uncle Joe’s stories and David Holt’s stories! David Holt has put a lot more time, effort and thought into his stories than the average Joe! And then there are the business skills that are needed to be a successful storyteller. Storytelling as a performance art can’t be learned very well from a book. Storytelling skills should be handed person to person and that’s where mentors come in.Maybe you’ve coached someone in telling before, how is that different from mentoring you might ask. Well, Kevin Cordi, former executive director of the National Youth Storytelling Olympics says, “Coaches usually look more at the story, and mentors look at the storyteller. Coaches, like I said focus more on how well one story is told. A storyteller under a coach may tell one or two stories really well, but they would only have one or two stories. A mentor goes beyond just teaching stories. Mentors teach how to keep an audience interested, for example. And mentors don’t just tell their mentees how to do this stuff they show them!”
Where did the word “mentor” come from? Well, it all started when Homer wrote the Odyssey and named a wise and trusted counselor Mentor, whom Odysseus left in charge of his household during his travels. By definition a mentor is someone willing to share expertise, knowledge, organizational insight, professional advice, or other information with another, the mentee. And also, a mentor is ordinarily several years older; a person of greater experience and seniority in the world of storytelling. This person acts as teacher, sponsor, counselor, developer of skills and intellect, host, guide, exemplar and one who supports and facilitates the realization of the mentee’s dream. And here’s a good definition of a mentee: Someone, usually junior, who wishes to enhance his or her professional development using advice and counsel of a mentor.
Mentoring will help less experienced tellers excel more quickly and help them to gain confidence in their skills. Some ways a mentor can help a teller excel are: listen to any problems the mentee might have and help any way you can, invite him to join a local storytelling guild, tell her about different events and or contests where she can perform. Remember mentoring is an individual to individual process; be personal, your mentee is your apprentice. Other art forms have apprenticeships, why not storytelling?
Don Leonard has always been a big supporter of me and my storytelling. When I first joined the Ocali Storytelling Guild, I was one of two youth tellers to recently become members. The other adults were welcoming, but Don went beyond that for both of us. He actively encouraged both Cathy and me and pushed us to develop more stories and tell often. To help us he would find us places to tell, usually where he was telling also. He was also very generous in other ways. When I started telling for pay Don would sometimes invite me to come along with him to some of his gigs. He always gave me equal time even though he was the better and more experienced teller and it was his reputation on the line. He was the first person to hear Wide Mouth Frog, other than my captive audience (my mom, dad and darling little brother). It was before the 2001 Ocali Storytelling Festival, we were setting up chairs and he asked me what story I was going to tell for the Saturday concert. I told him that it was a new one, and he asked me to let him hear it. So I told it to him while standing in the back of his truck, and when I finished telling it he basically said, “I tell a version of that story but yours is better.” He is the one who thought I should try for the FSA Youthful Voices and he’s believed in me all along the way.
I asked Don about his thoughts on mentoring, and he had many good things to say. This one aspect of mentoring that Don mentioned hadn’t occurred to me before but it is a very good point. He says “I think in mentoring you have to earn the trust of the person being mentored that you will help them and are working to their benefit, and that you in fact have some skills to impart to the person being mentored. They have to look to you like a role model that they would like to emulate.” I think that trust must be felt both ways, by both the mentor and the mentee. Because the mentee must be committed, and if the mentor invites the mentee along to a gig, than it is the mentee’s responsibility to be as well prepared as he or she can be. Because if the mentee doesn’t do a good job, it not only makes them look unprepared and unprofessional, it also reflects on the mentor who brought them. So there must be trust felt between mentor and mentee.
Of course, Don has not been the only storyteller to help me. Lots of people have given me tips and advice and I really appreciate your help and support. Sharing stories, not just with an audience but with others joining the profession will help to grow stronger storytellers. Remember, storytellers are only human and they need advice, and that’s what mentors are there for.
How can a person start mentoring a storyteller? Kevin Cordi says, “Forget about what you don’t know and remember what you do know, and remember that there is someone out there that you can teach.” Let people know that you would like to be a mentor. Also a good way to get started mentoring is to find out more about a mentoring program that Kevin Cordi is putting together. It’s a national mentoring program that you can join. It’s called Passing the Torch.
Why should you mentor less experienced tellers? Storytelling will continue in a large part through the efforts of mentors. The inexperienced tellers of today are the storytelling greats of tomorrow, and mentors help that happen by promoting storytelling anyway they can. And by teaching the art of storytelling to all who are interested in becoming a storyteller, they are not only helping the local and national storytelling communities grow, but they are ensuring storytelling a place in the future. If there are no mentors than the art of storytelling will not spread.
Think of storytelling as peanut butter. Peanut butter doesn’t spread by itself, it needs to be spread by a knife. Mentors are the knife spreading storytelling all over the country, and after it as been spread it will stick. Just like peanut butter. SO GET OUT THERE AND SPREAD!
What youth want from a mentor.
Feedback both positive and negative. A lot of time mentors seem to give mostly positive feedback. But I like to know what I did wrong and too much praise sometimes makes me feel like it’s not true or they haven‘t taken the time to think about what I‘ve been doing..
Respect. Respect is always needed. Remember that we are not just youth, we are storytellers! Treat us like all other storytellers!
A place to tell. One of the things that helped me immensely is that Don Leonard used to take me along to some of his gigs. I wasn’t a great teller and I didn’t have anywhere near the experience that Don had. But Don had the confidence in me to share his time and money because he knew that I would not get the experience that I needed if I never got to tell anywhere but at home.
References. Another thing that Don does for me is that if someone calls him about a gig and he can’t make it than he will tell them about me. And I have gotten numerous gigs that way.
Remember that each person is different with different needs and desires. Each youth teller is different you must find out what will work best for each individual.
