Village Raw - ISSUE 2

VILLAGE RAW
ART & CULTURE
I, STORY
Even if we don’t realise it, story is an essential part of our daily
lives. To explore this interaction, we met with a storyteller,
a creative writer, and a counsellor.
Words by Charlotte Nash. Photo by Kate Kuzminova.
Story is a huge part of our lives. We communicate with one another
by swapping stories about things that have happened
to us in the past, or things we’ve heard. We find out about the
wider world in the form of news stories, either read or watched.
And we discover more about our past from the stories that have
been handed down through the generations to become histories
and traditions.
The way we use, consume, and tell stories is constantly
evolving, but there are still pockets of people who share stories
in a traditional way. Nell Phoenix is one of those people. Nell is a
professional storyteller based in Muswell Hill who tells long-established
tales of folklore, fairy tales, myth and legend. She
spends her days performing these stories, often in a theatrical
space, to audiences made up of both adults and children.
The enjoyment of hearing a story remains the same whether
the audience knows the ending or not, Nell has found. “Listening
to a story told, not read, is a cinematic experience for our imagination,”
she says. “Each listener sees their own film reel played
out in the mind’s eye - the storyteller directs the close-ups and
the wide shots but the listener creates the image of the hero’s
face or the detail of the forest or the glint in the wolf’s eye.”
Nell also tells me that she receives lots of interest from people
who would like to tell stories themselves. Many are mental
health professionals, parents, teachers, priests, and so on, who
are eager to learn how story can be used to enhance their work
and the lives they touch.
This is no surprise, as immersing yourself in and telling stories
can be incredibly cathartic. I learnt this for myself when I
participated in Words and Wine, a social writing workshop run
by Nichola Charalambou at The Green Shed in Muswell Hill. All of
Nichola’s workshops run with a strict no-feedback rule, allowing
participants to write freely and without self-censorship.
During the course of the evening, Nichola reminds us that
our own stories will always find their way into our writing. “The
more we spend time writing, based on random prompts, the
more we will notice a few consistent themes coming up,” she
says. This unconscious sharing proves that as humans, we have
an innate desire to share our own stories.
Joel Korn, one of the other participants at Words & Wine, is
a counsellor who agrees that interacting with one’s own story
is crucial, and watches this interaction play out for his clients.
Joel tells me that often his clients unconsciously develop a sto-
ry about themselves and the events they have gone through.
In some cases, these stories are holding the person back from
getting over a trauma and living their life fully.
Through the work that Joel does with his clients, whether it’s
encouraging creative writing or creating a safe group space in
which they can explore their own ideas, he is able to watch as
their perceptions of their own stories change. “They are often
able to see more clearly the patterns of the story they are creating
about themselves,” he tells me.
Joel also mentions the work of a 1950s psychoanalyst called
DW Winnicott, who believed play is an essential part of life -
even for adults. Somehow, in our daily lives, we have lost the
childlike desire for make-believe that can help us discover more
about ourselves.
The work of people like Nell, Nichola, and Joel can open us
up to rediscoving this incredibly important aspect of our lives
and reintroduce us to the wonder that is story. After all, as Nell
says, “We are storytelling creatures - if we don’t tell stories, we
somehow wither; if we share stories we have an increased capacity
to thrive.”•
Opposite page: Nell Phoenix. This page: Nichola
Charalambou with her Words and Wine workshop.
You can find out more about Nell at: www.nellphoenix.co.uk
For more details about Nichola’s workshops visit: www.creativewrites.co.uk
You can read more about Joel and his services at: www.joelkorncounselling.co.uk
PHOTO: DAVID REEVE (WORDS AND WIINE WORKSHOP).
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