“In the tale, in the telling, we are all one blood. Take the tale in your teeth, then, and bite till the blood runs, hoping it's not poison; and we will all come to the end together, and even to the beginning: living, as we do, in the middle. - Ursula K. Le Guin”
Storyteller, seer, oracle, dreamer, explorer, time traveler, memory bearer, word weaver :
Let’s move through space and time. Untangle puzzles from our sleep soil. Put words to our lineal memories. See our future told in falling leaves, porcelain teacups, coffee grounds, flickering fire. Allow our voices to mourn and moan, as we begin to read our souls stories.
In this four part working, we will experiment with co-creating a small and intimate virtual circle for us to come to, to practice, tend, and hone our storytelling craft. In our time together, we will investigate ancestral techniques of telling story through: day & night dreaming, divination, movement, language play, ritual and guiding exercises.
These individual deep dives will be brought back to the virtual circle as a way to shareback our interpretations, actualizations, and experiences; ultimately with each session culminating in our story work taking form, spoken, and heard. So basically, if you’ve been hungering/daydreaming for the live journal of oral storytelling, we're here and waiting for you.
What to expect
Each 3hr working will be dedicated to a different theme and style of storytelling. A prompt and reading will be sent prior to each session to inspire new strategies to build up our storytelling practices.
This study will be intensive, and our time together embodied. The only ask: if you choose to take part, you’re making an active commitment to being present in the work asked of you (outside/inside of circle.) That means being present for each working, as a way to show respect for each participant's process and stories told. In honoring the tradition of oral storytelling, our time together will not be recorded.
Dates/Time
This immersion will take place online and will NOT be recorded. Sessions will be 3 hours long + personal assignments to engage with throughout the week.
November 04th, 1:00-4:00 p.m. EST | Part 1 : Speaking // The Storyteller
November 11th, 1:00-4:00 p.m. EST | Part 2 : Divination // Storytelling the future
November 18th, 1:00-4:00 p.m. EST | Part 3 : Listening & Dreaming // Receiver of Stories
November 25th, 1:00-4:00 p.m. EST | Part 4 : Remembering // The Library of Soul and Memory
Exchange
Sliding Scale $333-555
Payment plans available. Please email herbancura@gmail.com with subject; Telling Story
Circle size : 15 participants
Facilitator
mandana boushee is an iranian-american plant hoe aka herbalist, storyteller, and co-educator with her soul binch, lauren giambrone at wild gather: hudson valley school of herbal studies.
her utopian future garden is seeded with night blooming flowers, joyous cackling goldenrod, consensual sense8 orgy lilies, all you can drink pomegranate juice ponds, and trees that grow fenty make-up fruit.
when she's not actively tending her utopian paradise garden she can be found freaking on a puzzle, laying it down at scrabble, reading 5 books at once and drinking tea from the samovar at her crib.