Story Arts of Minnesota (SAM), which promotes the art of storytelling, and develops and supports storytellers throughout the state, is excited to announce that we will be partnering with the Bloomington Center for the Arts for our annual StoryFest 2023: Shared Stories, Shared World Festival. The Festival will bring storytelling opportunities to a wide spectrum of enthusiasts, from adults to children and from novice to professionals. Full of workshops, a variety of stories to listen to, and storytelling opportunities, the programs will focus on community and the role of storytelling in creating connections between people and to our shared planet.

The event will be at the Bloomington Center for the Arts, 1800 W. Old Shakopee Rd. Bloomington, MN, on April 29th from 9:30am-9pm. Activities will begin with paid workshops from 9:30am-11am. From 11am-9pm all workshops, showcases, story swaps, and story concerts are open and free to the public. Opportunities to support the event with pay-as-you-can donations will be available throughout the day. Local food trucks will be available for snacks and lunch.

Scheduled workshops cover a variety of practical topics, from storytelling basics to environmental storytelling, to making storytelling more accessible to communities with disabilities. There is a special track designed for families and youth to explore the art of storytelling together with intergenerational workshops and a story concert aimed at youth. For story listeners, there are a number of curated concerts featuring local and national storytellers. For those wanting to try out a story, there will be a story swap area for the casual sharing of stories. The day will culminate in an adult storytelling concert featuring the most accomplished storytellers in the area. ASL interpretation will be available for those with need.

Highlighting storytelling across communities has been a focus for the past several years, and once again Story Arts of Minnesota invited community groups to showcase their use of storytelling within their organization. For this year’s showcases, SAM welcomes the Veteran Resilience Project; Mill City Museum with “Hear Her Stories”; COMPAS with artist Kyle Tran “Guante” Myhre spoken word artist; and Abdurrahman Mahmud with a film titled, “Unscripted Stories of Black Immigrant Business Owners in Minneapolis’s Lake Street.”

“We are all traumatized by the events of the past two years. Stories are a bridge to help us connect and move together to build a world in which we can live,” said Pam Schweitzer, StoryFest 2023 chair and SAM president. “By hearing the narratives of lived experiences as well as fictional tales, we understand each other better, broaden our perspectives, and escape into and out of the worlds we inhabit. StoryFest is excited to bring you opportunities to listen, to learn, and to share,” added Chelley Brekke McLear, SAM board member.

For a full schedule of events and for more information visit https://www.storyartsmn.org/storyfest2023