Why Stories?

Stories are the most basic form of human communication. We do it all the time. We tell ourselves and each other what it means to live in this world. It is oral – spoken words – and so deeply engrained in our lives that we do not often think about what is the story we are telling and to whom?

Kurt Vonnegut once said, “We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.” which for our purposes means that we are the sum of the stories we tell about who we are, what we do, why we do it – always influenced by the various family, cultural, religious, historical and political stories we are told.

The American School of Storytelling is founded on the belief that oral storytelling is worth celebrating and that all of us can be better storytellers. We offer learning opportunities for every kind of story – traditional, personal, business/organizational, poetic, literary and historical – to as we say, “Craft the authentic voice to artfully and truthfully tell our stories.”

Founded in the midst of the pandemic, we offer on-line classes, in-person classes, workshops and performances.