Embassy Events
Documenting the Communist Past: American Storyteller Shares Techniques in Žilina Workshop
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| American storyteller Marc Levitt shares oral history techniques at Žilina workshop. Credit: Dušan Dobiáš. |
With assistance of the Embassy, Marc Joel Levitt, an American storyteller and educator, visited the Cultural Center Stanica in Žilina May 7-10 for the annual conference of the European network of independent cultural centers, Trans Europe Halle. The focus of the conference was on projects commemorating the fall of communism. One possible approach is through local citizens' oral history: collect personal stories of real people, memory of spaces, research in archives and the collaboration of artists with historians. Mr. Levitt, an award-winning writer, storyteller, educator, radio host, film maker, public humanist and Corwin Press author came to the conference as a keynote speaker. He conducted a workshop on storytelling, and his style evoked conversation and debate and encouraged use of imagination by his listeners. Living in Wakefield, Rhode Island, and New York City, he has won awards for his story recordings, his unique musical/narrative historical storytelling style, work in radio and in the arts and humanities. A 1971 graduate of Cornell University, Marc has also created the nationally recognized Charles Fortes Elementary School Museum-in-a-School Project and the educational philosophy called Site Specific Education.
