Membership

The Cleveland Storytelling Guild is an organization open to anyone wishing to share in the oral tradition of storytelling. Storytellers were our first historians. As each generation passed down their stories, so our history was chronicled. In today’s fast-paced world, storytellers still play an important part in our culture.

Whether sharing traditional tales with the young, narrating stories to demonstrate character in a business setting, or entertaining a crowd, a storyteller transports us to another place and time.

Guild members come from all walks of life: construction, education, public relations, medicine, and the arts, the sciences, or the farm. It doesn't matter because Everybody has a Story . Join us and tell yours, hear ours, and be an ongoing part of humankind's oldest form of entertainment.

Perks of Membership

• Getting to work your tail off helping the Guild bring world-class tellers to Cleveland. And then you get to listen!
• Getting to hang with a bunch of people who are NEVER bored. Guild members are never at a loss for entertainment. We just take turns being the audience.
• If you are an aspiring storyteller, you get the benefit of professional, constructive coaching. You have the opportunity to tell your stories to an audience of people who have, each and every one, been a beginning teller at some point. Some of us have gotten beyond that point. Some haven't. It doesn't matter.
• If you have no desire to get up in front of an audience and tell, you still get to listen. And without listeners, there would be no oral tradition. If no one listens, then we're just talking to ourselves and the stories never find new ears. Without new ears the stories die, and with them goes a part of our history, our culture, and our humanity. A portion of each regular monthly meeting is devoted to telling (and listening).

How do you join? You show up at one of the meetings. If you like what you hear, you come back again. If you keep coming back and pay your dues (currently $10/year) you're a member.