[act-ma] (Wed.) 4/9 Mary McGrath and Jo Radner Discuss the POwer of Narrative at Cambridge Forum

[Cambridge Forum]

Cambridge Forum
 3 Church Street ● Cambridge, MA 02138
617-495-2727
email: director at cambridgeforum.org
cambridgeforum.org
    
Release                                                                                                         March 25, 2014

PUTTING TOGETHER THE PIECES: The Power of Narrative at Cambridge Forum

Everyone loves a good story.  What is it about narrative that appeals to human beings?  On Wednesday, April 9, 2014 at 7 p.m. Cambridge Forum hosts radio producer Mary McGrath in conversation with award-winning storyteller Jo Radner, as they discuss the various materials–facts, memories, voices, oratorical pauses, music, sound effects– and the ways they are put together that create a narrative that inspires the imagination and moves the heart.  How is producing a radio story different from telling an oral tale?  How does story-telling change with changing technologies?  What is most satisfying about the process for the storyteller and the producer?

Mary McGrath is a media producer, writer and editor . She began her career in public television in New York in the 80’s, working for the MacNeil/Lehrer Newshour. She met Christopher Lydon in 1993, beginning  a 20 year long adventure and partnership.  She was the co-creator and award-winning producer of The Connection on WBUR radio in Boston, and currently she is the executive producer of Open Source, a weekly radio program and podcast about the arts, ideas and politics hosted by Christopher Lydon. 

Jo Radner has been studying, teaching, telling, and collecting stories most of her life. After receiving her Ph.D. from Harvard, she taught Celtic studies, folklore, literature, women's studies, American studies, and storytelling for 30 years at American University in Washington, DC.  After moving back to her family home in Maine, Jo began a second career as a freelance folklorist, oral historian, and storyteller. 
    
Radner is committed to strengthening communities by helping them find, shape, and present their stories. Her own stories favor characters whose lives defeat simple explanations and situations in which gravity and humor are bedfellows.  Her CD, Yankee Ingenuity: Stories of Headstrong and Resourceful People, received a 2013 Storytelling World Award.  In April 2013 she was given the Brother Blue and Ruth Hill Award by the League for the Advancement of New England Storytelling, “in recognition of extraordinary commitment, dedication and loving encouragement to the New England storytelling community.” She is past president of the National Storytelling Network and the American Folklore Society.   

This program is part of the series of Cambridge Forum discussions, “My Life Touched by Art”, supported by a grant from the Cambridge Arts Council and the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a public agency.  

The program is free and open to the public.  It takes place at the First Parish in Cambridge, 3 Church Street in Harvard Square.  Cambridge Forum is recorded and edited for public radio broadcast. Edited podcasts are available at www.cambridgeforum.org.  Select forums can also be viewed in their entirety on YouTube.

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Cambridge Forum
3 Church Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
Phone:  617-495-2727
email:  mailto:director at cambridgeforum.org
website:  http://www.cambridgeforum.org

The Adventure of Ideas.  The Power of Dialogue.