Modern Storytelling and the Singlehandedly! Storytelling Residency

In May 2011, I was invited to participate in Singlehandedly! a storytelling residency that coincides both with a unique narrative collaboration with other storytellers and also culminates in a series of showcase performances.

Sponsored by Portland Story Theater and founded by Lawrence Howard and Lynne Duddy in 2009, this program is the only storyteller residency and showcase program of it’s kind. As such, it exists as a vital resource for narrative artists and in my opinion is one of the nation’s most important resources for modern storytelling. 

Closing Night Performers: Lawrence Howard,
Penny Walter, Slash Coleman, Lynn Duddy.

Promoting and hosting one distinguished visiting storyteller per year, Portland Story Theater provides a 10 day-2 week studio residency. Every residency includes a comfortable, private bedroom, three excellent meals a day, opportunity for focused, independent work, access to a large and diverse creative community and opportunities to share work in various settings including: open studio evenings, workshops, readings, and performance.

As a result, I was able to complete some of my most important work to date. 

Located in the heart of North East Portland, OR, the residency takes place in a hip urban environment that is unsurpassed by any city in the world.  With accommodations a few blocks from mass transit as well as being located in the center of a walker's paradise, I found I was able to accomplish more in a matter of weeks during my residency than I could in a year at home. The residency offered a chance for me to work privately, but in proximity to other highly accomplished narrative artists with fresh insights, new ideas and stimulating conversation.

The Singlehandedly! process is so successful because at  it’s root there is also a very important mission. To develop personal creativity, nurture the creation of new work, provide support for oral tradition and connect tellers through community relationships and alliances. 

Are you a good match for the residency program? You are if you’re a storyteller who wants to:

• uncover, develop or stretch your creative spirit
• study with gifted teachers
• join a supportive community that encourages experimentation and growth
• create new work in the heart of Portland, Or
• participate in a hands-on learning environment enriched by lectures, workshops and critiques

For more about Portland Story Theater please visit: www.portlandstorytheater.com

For more about the work I produced during this time please visit: www.slashcoleman.com

Twitter 101 with Slash Coleman

Re-posted from my original article in Storytelling Magazine 2011.

Q:  What is Twitter?

A: Twitter is a room on the internet that is open 24 hours a day where you can speak and listen to conversations happening around the world. 

Q: Isn’t that what e-mail or a phone call is for?

A: Have you ever spent all day trying to get a Verizon representative on the phone or waited weeks for an answer to an important e-mail? Twitter conversations can happen instantaneously.

Q: Yeah, but I’m already overwhelmed with online stuff why should I worry about another one?

A: Twitter gives you the most bang for your buck, period! 

Q: What does that mean?

A: Whether you choose to speak, eavesdrop on global conversations, or contact others directly, you are limited to 140 characters. That’s roughly 18 words. It’s quick, to the point and for those who tend to ramble, it keeps things tightly focused. 

Q: Facebook consumes gobs of my time, won’t Twitter?

A: Nope. You don’t have to worry about photo albums, answering messages from old boyfriends, or losing hours of your life playing Mob Wars or Farmville. On Twitter you simply speak or listen.

Q: Isn’t Twitter just a stripped down version of Facebook?

A: No. Facebook is used to make personal connections. Twitter is used to make business connections. One is like a living room while the other is like an office space. Facebook will punish you if you use it strictly for business, Twitter won’t. 

Q: How do I sign up?

A: Go to www.twitter.com. Choose a user name and password. My user name is slashcoleman. I used my own name. Others use something clever like storyconnect. (Hint: Use your first and last name, no capital letters or spaces)

Q: Any advice for creating my bio?

A: Reveal your most unique aspects. Avoid dry and factual and lean toward unique and truthful. Rather than write, “Award winning storyteller from Lexington, VA,” write “Storyteller and bicycling enthusiast who loves fishing.”   

Q: What am I seeing on my screen now that I signed up?  

A:  A few self explanatory links at the top, space to write your tweets, followers, following and listed.

Q: What is it called when you speak on Twitter?

A: Tweeting. You simply write something in the empty space labeled, “What’s Happening?” and push the Tweet button.

Q: I signed up, what do I do now?

A: Click the Find People link. Type in someone’s name. If they come up, follow them. Now, when they send out a tweet, you’ll see it.

Q: What does “following” mean?  

A: It means you are following this persons tweets. 

Q: What does “followers” mean?  

A: These are people who are listing to your tweets.

Slash Coleman is a professional storyteller best known for his award-winning PBS special "The Neon Man and Me." His twitter campaign helped him win over PBS stations nationwide and land a two year distribution deal with NETA His recent column in Storytelling Magazine concentrates on social media and marketing strategies for artists and he was most recently featured on the NPR series "How Artists Make Money." For more information about Slash Coleman - please visit www.slashcoleman.com

Day 10: The Neon Man (Slash Coleman & PBS): Personal Connection

This weekend I spent Sat and Sun in a storytelling workshop with Donald Davis. There were about 12 of us storytellers who holed up in a farmhouse in Ijamsville, MD and gave feedback to one another, told stories and learned sage advice from Donald. 

For the weekend, I put my viral marketing campaign on auto-pilot and just let it be for a few days. Often times I find when I surrender and allow myself to be in the moment and open to new experiences, then those new experiences bring me gifts I never could have imagined.

Jane Crouse, the storyteller/librian who I wrote you about the other day, sent me a newsletter from Mal Warwick. Warick & Associates gives advice regarding direct mail, telephone, and on-line fundraising campaigns. The newsletter on, "Building Donor Loyalty," is well worth a read. The most interesting thing I learned from this newsletter ties into something I learned from Donald Davis this weekend.


He said, "Facebook has totally destroyed the idea of the word friend." 

What "Friend," meant in the past has been replaced by a new idea. Warwick suggests that one of the keys to connection and commitment is engaging someone in conversation. In other words working with the old notion of a friend in a new way. As I begin to set my sites this week on asking not only all my Facebook friends, but also my extensive e-mail database of almost 10,000 contacts to help me reach out to PBS stations nationwide, these ideas have now sprouted with my new plan on how to go about all this to ensure maximum affect while reserving my time.


In a previous blog entry on "Courting the Media," I suggested that often times it's easier to ask advice from a media source than to ask a journalist to write a story about your press release. 

I've often called or sent an e-mail and asked, "Hey, I was wondering if you could give me some advice. I do a lot of events in the area  and I was wondering what's the best way to get something like this into your publication?" 

This creates an opening for a conversation to take place where both parties are on more equal ground. I'm not putting the journalist in a power position in which he/she must say,"No." In these instances, I'll usually get really good advice and the jounalist will end up reading my press release, offering feedback and in a lot of cases write an article.


On Monday, I plan to apply this principle to step one of my viral marketing campaign. Check back then to see how I do it.



For more info about "The Neon Man and Me" and other storytelling projects by me - Slash Coleman - please visit www.slashcoleman.com

Day 4: The Neon Man and Me (Slash & PBS)

Today I was consumed with gathering more PBS addresses. The list that Mr. Felton gave me was kind of dated, but I managed to go thru about half of the list of 300 stations. That means from 9:00 - 3:00 I was visiting every PBS station website, and finding the fax #, the phone # and the Production Managers name and e-mail address. By the end of the day, when I went to yoga class I was seeing double. 

My good friend Scary is also helping me with the list and a former storytelling bootcamp student of mine, Maddie Jay, is helping too.


It's funny, when I put a request out on Facebook a few weeks ago asking for help for the project all kinds of people came forward and said yes, but when I followed up with them I only heard crickets chirping. I think it's become too easy on Facebook and with other social media to say Yes to something and not feel like following through is important. To me though, it's a reflection of the person and their intergrity.



Now, the other things I have to start thinking about are:1) What I'll actually plan to send each station 2) How I'll pay for each little gift I create 3) How I can pay the postage on whatever I send 3) How I can get people all over the country to call each station and tell them that they want to see my show on their television.

Mr. Felton said I have three 15 second commercials that I can sell on my show. On PBS, these are called underwriting spots. For instance, after a PBS special there's usually a company graphic and a voice over that says, "The following program was underwritten by Dow Chemical Company." My goal is to sell each spot for $15,000 each and let whoever makes the sale keep 15% of the price. Not a bad days work for someone with some savvy. My friend Dr. Larry Volz (the infamous comedy hypnotist), reccomended I seek out drug companies that offer products around depression. 


The things I've got planned so far:
1) Tomorrow I have a meeting with Ellli Morris ( a photographer and author) who is interested in selling the ads.
2) Tomorrow night I have a phone meeting with Jane Crouse, a storyteller and librarian, who said she would help me brainstorm ways that she might help me do research for the project. (I think she can help me research possible funding sources).
3) Wenesday I'm having lunch with Tiffany Glass Ferreira, (artist and founder of The Real Small Art League) who is pretty dialed into the social networking scene who I'm hoping will give me some ideas .

Myth #4: Artists Have Demons

At the EG conference in December 2007, artist Jonathan Harris discusses his latest projects, which involve collecting stories: his own, strangers', and stories collected from the Internet, including his amazing "We Feel Fine."