TRANSITION TALES 2010 QUEST
By Mike Grenville 7th April 2010
Would you like to co-create some Transition Tales? WynnAlice aka Transition Network’s Steph Bradley, invites you to join her this spring and summer on a journey around the UK.
A Transition Tale
Once, upon our times, in a town that was not too big and not too small, where Rob of Great Renown has settled to share his vision of a transition future, there lived a storyteller who decided she wanted to create a collection of Transition Tales.
To co-create these tales she would walk out of the town that was not too big and not too small, at around the time of the Spring Equinox, to visit 13 other places, use her storytelling to work with the inhabitants to create the tale of their town, village or city, neighbourhood, school, university, or estate, and return home to harvest a book of tales at the time of the Autumn Equinox.
So the wise networker of all networkers Ben White Raven caused it to happen that folk far and wide knew of the journey she would make. And Rob of the Great Renown caused her to be presented with a mysterious non edible blackberry, saying it would come in handy one day.
And she planned to meet the good folk of Scotland for a transition gathering at the Appleby fair at the Summer Solstice and to skirt the border of Wales to share a Lammas feast with Welsh transitioners.
Now to complete this task she had to ask for some help. What she needed were kindly transition hosts around the land to provide a place to rest her head each night, a quiet corner with a table at which she could work, and a storytelling place of local renown in which she could share her craft and co-create a tale of the place. She also caused it to be known that she would eat only that which was local, seasonal, and caused no harm to any.
And as news of the journey spread the thirteen kindly hosts gathered folk to greet the storyteller as she entered their region, to help co–create their tale. They gathered those folk along the way who had a story to tell too, And then news got out from whence she would come, on foot, accompanied by those companions who shared her love of feet on the ground and a good story. And soon there was a merry band enjoying the peace and quiet of the green lanes that once had linked all our settlements together before the coming of the large heavy noisy metal boxes that now carried goods and people far and wide, and who, in exchange, guzzled oil and spewed out noxious breath.
And as Transition Tales arrived at each of the 13 places, some local people made a donation to help pay for the hire of the venue. And as Transition Tales left, they took with them a gift of the town made by a local craftsperson to present to the winner of the donations raffle of the next place that hosted them.
And so it was that the storyteller set out not only to gather the tales of 13 transition places, but also to hear the tales of the herbalists, crafts folk, storytellers young and old that she met along the way. And in doing so, she helped re-open more of the ways that once connected us to our neighbours and our lands
Wynn Alice hoped that in the collecting of the tales more people would become storytellers, more tales would be created, and Transition Tales would be told in all the places of the land.
And what happened next would be another tale for another time.
If you would like to get involved in the Transition Tales 2010 Quest see “How to get Involved” below.
Or Contact transitiontales@googlemail.com
Steph’s blog of her travels is here:
http://www.transitionnetwork.org/blogs/steph-bradley
WynnAlice would like to follow the following (still provisional) route and will collaborate in a local storytelling event in 13 places. She is also very happy to tell and co-create stories with any schools and community centres along the way.
| Stage | Start date | Storytelling Venue | Approximate arrival |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Totnes to Southampton | 29 March | Southampton | 17-20 April |
| 2 Southampton to Forest Row | 21 Apr | Forest Row | 29thApr-2nd May |
| 3 Forest Row to Cambridge | 3 May | Cambridge | 17-20 May |
| 4 Cambridge to Nottingham | 21 May | Nottingham | 28-31 May |
| 5 Nottingham to York | 1 June | York | 8-11 June |
| 6 York to Appleby | 12 June | Appleby (meet Scotland walkers) | 20-23 June |
| 7 Appleby to Kendal | 24 June | Kendal | 27-30 June |
| 8 Kendal to Wigan | 1 July | Wigan | 9-12 July |
| 9 Wigan to Wolverhampton | 13 July | Wolverhampton | 21-24 July |
| 10 Wolverhampton to Hay on Wye | 25 July | Hay on Wye (meet Wales walkers) | 2-5 August |
| 11 Hay on Wye to Bradford on Avon | 6 Aug | Bradford on Avon | 16-19 August |
| 12 Bradford on Avon to Embercombe | 20 Aug | Embercombe Storytelling Festival | 27-30 August |
| 13 Embercombe to Lostwithiel | 31 Aug | Lostwithiel | 7-10 September |
| Leave Lostwithiel | 11 Sept | Return to Totnes | 23 Sept |
How To Get Involved
- Join me on the walk for anything from 5 minutes, to the whole 6 month walk
- Arrange to share your tale of transition. Help create our record of Transition Tales by being interviewed or doing an interview as you walk.
- Join the walk at any time and sing and play music with us as you walk
- Host the storyteller for the night and share transition tales (sponsor/provide B&B and an evening meal)
- Organise group camping for any that walk an extended stretch
- Sponsor/provide a healthy local lunch for the walkers
- Sponsor/provide a good walker’s rucksack and water bottle
- Help plan a stretch of the journey (anyone who lives in the regions we’re passing through who has good local knowledge of green lanes, local craftspeople, local writers and storytellers)
- Liaise between transition tales and your local media (local radio, TV station, newspaper)
- Organise the storytelling event in one of the 13 locations.
- Sponsor/provide a venue for the storytelling event
- Suggest a local storyteller to greet the walkers at one of the 13 locations, collaborate at the event, and become the guardian of the story for your town
- Advertise the event in your region (walk and local event)
- Organise/host a storytelling workshop in your school, university, community centre
- Help record the transition tale created at your local event (film, record, scribe)
- Sponsor/organise/provide internet connection in your locality to enable the walkers’ progress to be publicized
- Record (film, record, scribe, photograph, draw, paint) your experience of the transition tales walk so we can share it on the website.
- help create a piece of traditional typical craftsmanship of your town to gift to a neighbouring place
- Organise someone/a group to greet and accompany Transition Tales as they arrive on the outskirt of your neighbourhood
- Spread the word
- Get in touch with your ideas!
Steph’s blog of her travels is here:
http://www.transitionnetwork.org/blogs/steph-bradley
Contact Wynn Alice here – Steph Bradley transitiontales@googlemail.com