Sunday night kicked off a great week with a night of "Wardrobe Malfunctions" at Community Christian Church. Highlights were Laura Rutherford, and Sally Borg's unabashed hikes "sans shirt"! The next evening of stories is March 24th, The Holy Fool. (Check the calendar)

Monday started a week of workshops and concerts with Connie Regan-Blake. A Master teller, Connie told great stories and led us in some eye-opening exercises (see Tips below). Connie's personal journey to Uganda and her connection to Bead for Life was a powerful presentation. Her workshop on, Taking Your Story to the Stage gave us more opportunities for impromptu story sharing. Connie's telling of the story of her mother's passing was very moving and closed out her week with grace and elegance.

Tuesday night's Arizona Republic Live Storytelling turned out to be Ladies Night, with a plethora of tales of love gone wrong. Congratulations to Meghan Krein for winning first place, and Kindra Hall (the consummate professional), for a very close second. All the stories were great, and it was quite edifying for the men in the audience to hear about a woman's point of view on relationships. Kudos to Megan Finnerty for the evening's fare. Check out the next event at the Diamondback's Spring Training on February 26th. (Check the calendar)

Friday's "Return to the African Village" was the third annual celebration of the African oral tradition. Producer/Director Marilyn Omifunke Torres and Co-Producer Sule Greg Wilson pulled out all the stops with this outing. Dozens of tellers, dancers and drummers wowed a full-house of listeners who rejoiced in the costumes, rhythms and tales of the African tradition. Kudos to Marilyn, Sule, SMCC Storytelling Institute, Institute director Liz Warren, all the tellers and participants for an evening immersed in joy and reverie.