Just One Tale

06/13/2023

This trolley tripper has been halted in touring for the time being.... But not in the telling! Please share any stories of interest from the tour here. Or add to our local lore by sharing and reaching out in the comments or DM. Merci 💥

06/11/2023

For those who have heard me mention this brilliant scholar en route passing our beautiful .of.kingston City Park, her article on changing the plaques can be found here: https://www.canadashistory.ca/explore/prime-ministers/honour-indigenous-history

Art credit:

05/18/2023

For anyone who is interested, this is the "virtual tip jar" link. Hopefully should be straightforward to access, but feel free to message if there are any issues. Thank you!

12/28/2019

“Everything you love is very likely to be lost, but in the end, love will return in a different way." - Franz Kafka

When he was 40, the renowned Bohemian novelist and short story writer FRANZ KAFKA (1883–1924), who never married and had no children, was strolling through Steglitz Park in Berlin, when he chanced upon a young girl crying her eyes out because she had lost her favorite doll. She and Kafka looked for the doll without success. Kafka told her to meet him there the next day and they would look again.

The next day, when they still had not found the doll, Kafka gave the girl a letter "written" by the doll that said, “Please do not cry. I have gone on a trip to see the world. I'm going to write to you about my adventures."

Thus began a story that continued to the end of Kafka’s life.

When they would meet, Kafka read aloud his carefully composed letters of adventures and conversations about the beloved doll, which the girl found enchanting. Finally, Kafka read her a letter of the story that brought the doll back to Berlin, and he then gave her a doll he had purchased. "This does not look at all my doll," she said. Kafka handed her another letter that explained, "My trips, they have changed me." The girl hugged the new doll and took it home with her. A year later, Kafka died.

Many years later, the now grown-up girl found a letter tucked into an unnoticed crevice in the doll. The tiny letter, signed by Kafka, said, “Everything you love is very likely to be lost, but in the end, love will return in a different way."

07/18/2019

Trevor Noah speaks a simple truth about representation in storytelling. . . an issue I have encountered since my early days as a theatre student in Montreal. What he says near the end, about the spectrum of identity, digs beautifully into the grey of this discussion. How can we as everyday storytellers uphold this ideal of diversity in representation? How do you tell your stories? More on this to come.

05/29/2019

Props +++ to Gillette for showcasing this artist's story in a succinct, natural way. That hashtag kills me within this context. I'm not crying, you're crying.

A new Gillette ad portrays a father teaching his transgender son, Toronto artist Samson Bonkeabantu Brown, how to shave.

04/08/2019

For those of you who have followed JOT's workshops focusing on international development, you will know how important the 's are to the stories we tell. McMaster is creating a wonderful story by committing to the right things. 😊

McMaster University has placed second in the world in a new international ranking, recognizing the impact that universities are making in their own countries and on a global scale.

03/01/2019

You never know who your next storytelling hero will be... This week we've said goodbye to a wonderful artist and storyteller - John O’Neal, 78, Champion of Theater in the Deep South

From his beloved character, Junebug Jabbo Jones:

“I am a Storyteller... Storyteller. I say ‘storyteller’ instead of ‘liar’ because there’s a heap of difference between a storyteller and a liar. A liar, that’s somebody who will take and cover things over, mainly for his own private benefit. But your storyteller, now, that’s somebody who’ll take and uncover things, so everybody can get some good out of it.”

A founder of the Free Southern Theater in 1963, he was as eager to hear his audiences’ stories as he was to perform.