Connie Regan-Blake

About:

This workshop invites and challenges deep listening and telling on many levels. It offers unique opportunities to call up the stories that shape our world in an encouraging, compassionate and playful atmosphere. Our memories – cultural and personal - often go unexplored and undeveloped. As we focus our attention on these experiences, they become a wellspring of stories that enrich our lives - personally, professionally, artistically, and spiritually.
Our time together will be a practice in nurturing spontaneity and creativity. Participants will also examine the dynamic relationship between the speaking voice and the written word - translating the immediacy and spontaneity of the oral word on to paper as well as hearing the voice of the written word.
Connie will guide workshop participants in using our senses, our imagination and our intuition for a fresh perspective in re-visiting and re-imagining our triumphs, losses, regrets and joy. During the sessions, we will create an encouraging and appreciative community, as we learn through oral exercises, movement activities, and story-partnering. By telling and listening to our personal stories, we will hopefully come to know the universal language that encompasses all of human experience.

Requirements:

Everyone is welcome: those curious about storytelling and those who love stories – writers and poets, teachers and librarians, storytellers and story listeners.

Biography:

Connie Regan-Blake is one of America's most celebrated storytellers. She has captivated the hearts and imaginations of people around the globe with her powerful performances and workshops. Entertaining audiences in 46 states and 14 countries, she brings the wisdom, humor and drama of stories to main stage concert halls, libraries and into the corporate world.

Both as a solo artist and a member of the acclaimed Folktellers duo, Connie has been featured on seven award-winning recordings - five audio and two videos produced by PBS. New Age Magazine, School Library Journal, and Southern Living have praised her work. She has been a guest on NPR's All Things Considered, ABC Good Morning America and CNN.

When Connie takes the stage she generates a brightness and warmth, drawing in listeners with her engaging humor and Southern charm. Her stories range from hilarious traditional Appalachian Mountain tales to poignant true-life drama. A consummate professional, Connie's rare talent can transform a convention hall into a wondrous landscape and turn a packed theater into an intimate circle of friends.

Connie has performed at the nation's top folk music and storytelling festivals in Chicago, Philadelphia, and San Francisco, as well as the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington, D.C. Her groundbreaking collaboration with the Kandinsky Trio - an innovative blend of storytelling and chamber music - has been hailed as a "new art form."

As a founding board member of the National Storytelling Association (formerly NAPPS), and a frequent host and featured performer at the National Festival in Jonesborough, Tennessee, Connie helped ignite and shape the American storytelling revival.

Connie resides with her husband, two dogs and a frisky cat in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Asheville, North Carolina.