Northstar Storytelling League promotes storytelling and develops and supports storytellers. Northstar has been offering solid storytelling programs to its members and the general public for over a decade. Our website promotes storytelling events in the Twin Cities and beyond. When "storytelling" and "Minnesota" are typed into a search engine, we come up first.

Northstar brings storytelling to you, and brings you to storytelling. Programs we sponsor include PJ Stories, at six years our longest-running monthly program, offering family friendly performances. Folktales Rising and the Children’s Storytelling Guild meet monthly to work on and share stories. Other events members are involved in include StorySlamMN! and StoryCity. These events – as well as opportunities to perform - are listed on our website and in our monthly newsletter.

Northstar is also the fiscal agent for Two Chairs Telling, curated by Loren Niemi, which pairs two spoken word artists ( and the occasional musician) with complementary styles or subject matter for a one-of-a-kind evening. Often this pairing involves a local and a regional or nationally known talent. Many of our workshops are taught by these travelling artists.

This year Northstar’s annual event was a 200 Years of the Brothers Grimm anniversary celebration and fundraiser featuring newly discovered stories translated by Jack Zipes and performed by Maria Asp, Kevin Kling, Leif Jorgensen, and Megan Wells. The event sold out to a wide audience, from twenty-somethings on up.

In 2013 Northstar will change its name to Story Arts of Minnesota, reflecting a broader understanding of our mission to promote the oral tradition of storytelling and encourage dialogue with other narrative arts. We are excited about this change, as well as all the good work this organization can continue to do with your support. For example:

• We would like to put on more awesome events like 200 Years of the Brothers Grimm – performances that confirm our belief that traditional stories, told with their ambiguity and darker elements intact, remain compelling and relevant to adult audiences.
• We would like to strengthen our year-round educational programming. But story clubs and workshop series have costs - costs that are hard to recoup entirely from fees, especially in this economy. Our monthly events need to be affordable.
• We are working on another anchor event in the first half of the year – Minnesota StoryFest. We have received a National Storytelling Network Regional Spotlight grant for this event which will cover about 25% of the budget. Ticket sales will cover an additional 40%. Your gift can help with the rest!
• We would like to continue supporting storytelling in Minnesota with a robust, well-maintained website – we are in the process of an intensive redesign that will roll out in January with the name change – but this takes time, energy, and, even with dedicated volunteers, a little $$.
• Most importantly, perhaps, we would like to build our infrastructure to allow us to have consistent, year-round communications and marketing support. What good is it to have great programming if no one knows it is there?

This is where you come in.

Membership fees alone cannot help this organization grow. Grant funding is not always reliable. We are looking to increase support from individual donors like you, as well as to grow our earned income, so that we can continue to offer events and services for many years to come.

Stories have the power to change and inspire not only the audience that hears them, but the artist who creates and is created by them. Northstar – soon to be Story Arts of Minnesota - values creative expression on all levels and provides opportunities for all individuals to grow and develop as artists.

If you value this work as well, and want to see it grow, please support us in 2012!