Talk Stories

Click on the picture to view more images of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. Events are divided by each of the three cultures featured at this year’s festival—Giving Voice, Las Americas and Wales—and subdivided by the pavilion where the event takes place. Don’t forget to get your festival map so you can plan your day! Barbershop/Beauty Parlor 11:00 AM- 12:00 PM Wit and Wisdom of the Barbershop with Kenny Carroll and Tejumola Ologboni 12:00 PM- 1:00 PM O

CHICAGO – When carpenter Greg Douglas crashed his pickup truck, his toolbox hit him and smashed his ribs and collarbone. After a month in the hospital, the medical bills hit him even harder, totaling 165,000. Douglas is among thousands of people now telling their stories on videos, ads and Web sites on both sides of the health care debate. He said he was drawn into political advocacy after neighbors in Harpswell, Maine, raised 3,000 toward his hospital bills with a church dinner and collection c

VH1 orders two hip-hop reality series Frank ‘The Entertainer’ Moresco to star in his own show VH1 is giving two female hip-hop artists their own reality series — Sandra “Pepa” Denton of Salt n Pepa and Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas from TLC. Also, The Entertainer (from the “I Love NY” and “I Love Money” shows) will get his own series called “The Entertainer” and it will feature his parents and his basement bachelor pad. The as-yet-untitled “Pepa” and “Chilli” series as well as “The Entertainer” ar

It’s a crazy world, writing workshops. An industry of hope. Not without precedence - nobody thinks twice about music school. Dance school. Art studios. So why shouldn’t there be writing workshops? I’ve mentioned some of my workshop experiences in past entries - ranging from academic classes in college to evening adult-type classes at the New School to private workshops funded by members of a writing group. What brought all of this back to me was an article in the New Yorker discussi

My week (and brain) has been filled with fairies, orbs, healers, telepaths and more fairies. Last week, Spokesman-Review writer Kevin Graman and I headed to a scenic meadow nestled at the foothills of the North Cascades Mountains in Washington state. Here 250 people gathered for the 9th Annual Fairy and Human Relations Congress—a workshop driven event—dedicated connecting the human world to the fairy realm. OK, before you scoff, I was amazed at the dedication these people have towards their new