About

Story. Its power is great, its presence in our lives ubiquitous.

Join Okey Ndibe for a weekend of stories, film, audio, and hard work – you will come away inspired and filled with hope!

Come bask in the influence of a story master while discovering how your own memories – real and fictitious – shape you; how we can emerge into being through words.

In this weekend workshop, participants will examine the arc and art of story – from its origins as performance to its applications in good writing – with the help of the rich traditions of African folktales and short fiction.

You will look at the stories that hold sway in your own lives, learn to tell them, write them, and alter them to experience the transformative power and freedom of the lessons and elasticity they offer. Writers in the group will also have the opportunity to deepen their knowledge of mechanics and techniques in fiction.

Ndibe comes from a profound tradition of storytelling. It is a culture where he says, for example, no one could successfully set up shop as a “professional comedian” – namely because there are 100 other people in his village effortlessly and consistently funnier than anyone standing on stage.

But, says Ndibe, “Those gifts are available to everyone.”

Our lives are constantly in transformation. There is no story that is fixed; each can have infinite endings and even more applications. It is a lesson that serves well in life and fiction – if you are passionate about either, this workshop is for you.

“Okey is a brilliant writer, a knowledgeable scholar, a skilled instructor, but his greatest asset is the unbridled enthusiasm that he brings to everything that he does. You cannot help but become infected with his desire to seek wisdom and strive for greatness.

Spending the day with Okey is like spending the day with the sun. You will come away with vigor, insight, and a wealth of new ideas.”  Matthew Dicks, author as well as curator of Speak Up Storytelling in Hartford, CT