Whether we know it or not, we live by stories, but we often don't acknowledge the importance of stories. Stories help us make sense of the world, our culture, and ourselves. I write and perform personal stories, created from events in my life.
Since the Spring of 1996 when I attended the Sharing the Fire storytelling conference, sponsored by the League for the Advancement of New England Storytelling (LANES), I have been actively writing and performing my stories. I specialize in telling personal tales from my Philadelphia childhood of the 60's, my 70's adolescence, 80's adulthood, and 90's parenthood. In the new millennium I'm just trying to keep on keeping on. I've been a featured performer at A Day for Sam Storytelling Festival, Club Passim's spoken word series, Brother Blue's Weekly Storytelling series, Tellabration, and Three Apples Storytelling Festival, Sharing the Fire storytelling conference, and along with my Tongue-in-Cheek partners in crime, First Night Boston. Here are my UPCOMING GIGS.
While I do not offer the text of my stories, below is a summary of each story and if anyone has any questions about one or more of them, or even better if someone wants to HIRE ME to perform, just contact me at brooks@media.mit.edu .
Amazing Grace - a story about God's grace as taught to me by my grandmother, Grace.
[12-14 minutes]Summertime Bridge - a story about the lullaby rhythm of the freight trains as they passed my house as a kid.
[7 minutes]Tokyo - about taking a business trip, stepping off the plane and suddenly realizing that I was taller than an entire nation... among other things.
[9 minutes]Roller Coaster - After growing up loving roller coasters, what's fun is getting an adult friend who is scared to death of them to go on with you .
[10 minutes]What Do Fathers Do? - a story about how my black & white 60's TV role models didn't help much when it was my turn to become a father.
[20 minutes]Romeo, Juliet and Me - a modern day story about forbidden love between cultures, disagreeable parents, and me as the third wheel.
[17 minutes]Angel - Sometimes we meet real angels when we least expect to and when we most need to.
[10 minutes]Circus - From early in life we are often given certain goals and trained to head in certain directions. But what happens when a door suddenly opens in a whole new unexpected direction?
[12 minutes]The War - A collection of three of my mother's stories about being black in America during WWII and dealing with old war souvenirs in the 80's.
[25 minutes]The Fabric of War - As someone too young to fight in a war myself, I had to figure out what war really meant for me as a new father of a baby boy.
[15 minutes]Bread - a story about the gift I give myself and others at Christmas, my most favorite holiday, even when so much of the rest of life is on shaky ground.
[9 minutes]Running - I loved to run as a kid, but I had to learn the hard way that my mother was right: when you are young, black and male, don't run downtown... or else.
[12 minutes]Summer Kiss - a story about the summer sun, summer camp, and my first summer kiss.
[12 minutes]City Rain Player - a tandum tale told with storyteller Joey Talbert, adapted from the book Rain Player, written by David Wisniewski. This story is two intertwined stories about one boy's challenge of Chac the rain god, in the ancient Aztec game of Pok - a tok, and another boy's defiance of Nature on the city streets of Philly playing hoops.
[17 minutes]Choices - a story about some choices I made to stay alive in high school when people around me were fighting and dying.
[30 minutes]Love Blind - there are so many things I like about summer, among which are a few simple sensual pleasures enjoyed on the commute home.
[3 minutes]Scent - out of all the human senses, one in particular can stop you dead in your tracks and take you on a magical journey when you least expect it.
[4 minutes]