Latest / OK SO: Say More / Rachel Ann Dennis

Transcript

Rachel Ann Dennis · OK SO: Say More

• 0:10
  SPEAKER_02: If I tell you this story, you can never repeat it or you'll die.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to OKSo Say More.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_04: This podcast is a co-production of Public Radio Tulsa and the ongoing OKSo Tulsa live storytelling series.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: Each episode, we talk to storytellers from throughout our community about what they do and how and why they do it.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_04: We also share recordings of our storytellers as captured live on stage at our various OK So Tulsa events.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your co-host, Michelle Bias.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_04: And I'm your other co-host, Matthew Weatherby.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: Our guest today is Rachel Ann Dennis.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_04: Michelle, Halloween is in the air, and I think Rachel Ann's story would be perfect for this podcast.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_04: I do too.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's kind of spooky.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_04: Yes, ghost stories and slumber parties.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: Today we have Rachel Ann Dennis, and she is our Grand Slam winner from 2020.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: She won her title in the middle of COVID on top of the AHA building, or the building formerly known as AHA.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_04: I remember that.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: She's a youth librarian here at a public library in Tulsa.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: She's a storyteller, a phenomenal artist.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_04: Rachel Ann, thank you so much for being here.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_04: And my first question is tell me about the very first time you went to a story slam.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_02: So the very first time I went to a story slam was right before everything happened in March.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_02: That January, I went to a therapy appointment, and my therapist accused me of not being very vulnerable, and that if I wanted to have meaningful relationships, I would have to open up.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_02: And I looked on social media and saw that there was a storytelling event, and I had always wanted to do it.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_02: And I got in my car and went to the event, sat in my car, practiced the story, walked in, didn't tell anyone I was doing it, put my name in the hat, got up on the stage, and told a story and won.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: And won the very first time out.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: With a story on an American doll, right?
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: The orphan?
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_02: That was my winning story for on uh for the Grand Slam.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_02: This story was actually about um my coming out story.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_02: So when I was a a young teen, my mom found a bunch of uh pictures of girl with short blonde hair from the 1990s Delius catalog, and she took them off the wall and replaced them with pictures of Leonardo DiCaprio.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: Sorry.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: They had the same haircut.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_04: I want everybody to know that's listening, uh, we're gonna play uh one of Rachel Ann's stories today.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_04: So please stay tuned.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_04: That story is gonna be coming up pretty quick, and I'm gonna tell you a little bit about the background of that story, which is this was not your first time out.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_04: This story was told at what we called the Grand Grand Slam.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_04: So, Michelle, you want to explain what that was?
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: The Grand Grand is that we took 10 years of Grand Slam winners and we let all of you get on the Kane stage and tell your stories.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: Matthew, you were the crowd favorite that night.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_04: I don't know about that, but but I was there.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_04: This uh story of Rachel Ann's was definitely one of my favorites, and uh we'll play that here in a few minutes.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: So, Rachel, you had an article come out recently in Tulsa Kids.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: I did.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: Tell me, what is it like to work every day in the library that your dad used to take you to when you were a little girl?
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_02: It's really special.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_02: Um the way I got my job at the library is actually really connected to storytelling.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_02: So I started telling stories, and that kind of led to vulnerabilities.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_02: COVID happened, I got furloughed from a job, and then I knew I wanted to pivot into library work.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_02: And when I went to that interview, I showed up and I said exactly what I wanted, and I told the story of going to that library with my dad, and that I wanted to make magical experiences for kids like me, and that's what I get to do every day.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: Right, because I think about even the story we're gonna play for everyone today.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: And even as a little girl, you were telling stories.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: It was how you made friends or didn't make friends, and now your job is literally talking to kids about stories, teaching them to read.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: Your article is about helping babies, right?
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_02: Um I uh lead a book club for babies.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_02: Um if your baby hasn't joined a book club yet, there are some in town.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: So how old does one's baby have to be to be in a book club?
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_02: The baby has to be here.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: Just conceived.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_02: Just it has to be uh a baby that is on in this realm.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_02: Um so we have babies who are like literally are just newborn.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_02: Um yeah, so uh you you just have to be a sentient baby.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_04: What does one of those book club meetings what are they like?
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_02: So we read board books together.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_02: So they each get a copy of a couple board books, and we read them together with their caregivers, and then afterwards we talk about if we like them or not in Baby Speak.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: So what's a board book?
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_02: A board book is like a uh durable book that very small children can um read.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_02: So instead of paper pages, they're like these thick cardboard pages that they can't crunch up.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_02: And then afterwards we transition to play food charcuterie and socializing.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_04: We're gonna play Rachel's story a little early uh in the podcast.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_04: I think I'm gonna go ahead and introduce it now because there's a lot I want to talk about when it's over.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_04: So this story is about a slumber party that Rachel Ann hosted when she was 13 years old.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_04: And I don't want to give away too much in the introduction, but you're gonna learn some things.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_04: You're gonna learn how to play one of Rachel Ann's favorite childhood games called The Plague.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_04: Not to be confused with Victorian Orphan, okay?
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_04: Also, you're gonna learn what sex addiction smells like.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_04: So now that our listeners are curious and intrigued, let's listen to Rachel Ann's story recorded at the Grand Grand Slam in September of 2024 at the Keynes Ballroom, and we'll talk a little bit more about it when it's over.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_02: I'm 13 years old.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_02: It's the 90s, and I'm getting ready for my very first slumber party.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_02: It's a big deal because I had really struggled to make friends all the way through elementary school and middle school, and I know a lot of us did that, right?
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_02: Like it was we were weird and we didn't really fit in and we didn't really get along with people.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_02: But I was like really weird.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna give some examples.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_02: So, for example, I would play this game called Plague.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_02: And you might wonder what the game plague would be like.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_02: Well, first of all, you need at least three people.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_02: You need and a dark closet.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_02: So you need a closet.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_02: Imagine that's your that dead, and then you have the person with the plague, the person who's trying to take care of the person with the plague, and then the person who is walking outside the closet saying, Bring out your dead.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_02: Bring out your dead.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_01: Ideally, in a perfect scenario, there would be 10 other people outside the closet laying in a pile that then the person who's taking care of the person with the plague would drag them out, add them to the pile, and then we would have a body bonfire.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_01: The problem is that if that is the type of game you want to play with your friends when they go over to your house, they don't come back.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_01: And that was just kind of how I was.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_02: Which made it hard to keep and maintain friendships.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_02: And the thing is, this didn't happen in a vacuum.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_02: I had had something really awful happen to our family.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_02: I had a a sibling die at home.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_02: And so while other kids were using play to explore like what it would be like to be a policeman, or what would it be like to, you know, raise children, or all the things that grown-ups kind of do to like live action play being a grown-up, I was like, what would it be like to die?
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_01: And that is, you know, makes it hard to be friends.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_02: But then something incredible happened when I turned 13 years old.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_02: Everybody hit puberty and they all got weird too.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_02: And then suddenly I'm their queen.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_02: I'm I'm sitting at the cafeteria, and all these girls are sitting around me, and they're like, so when the people had tuberculosis and they were spitting in the blue bottles, and I'd be like, well, it it was called a sputum flask, and they were blue.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: And if you want to play a game, we can all use our blue clearly Canadian bottles, and we can pretend to have TV too.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_02: Um and then they would also, you know, they were they were my friends were starting to dip their toe into like existentialist poetry and like sort of like the dark macabre.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_02: And I was there for it because I had been practicing it for a while.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_02: So when one day when my friend Caroline comes up to me and she goes, Hey, can I come over here to your house to spend the night?
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_02: I go, sure, you totally can.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_02: And by the end of the day, four more people have enter have invited themselves, which means now I'm having a proper slumber party.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_02: When I come home, my dad is excited but also surprised and maybe also relieved because I think that he was like, Well, there's a large group of girls who wants to come over here and spend the night with you.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_02: That's good.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_02: It also means that maybe you're getting a little less weird.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_02: And that's also good.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_02: He didn't say any of that to me.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_02: He was just really supportive.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_02: So we start getting ready for the slumber party.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_02: He lets me get like the really good cookies at the grocery store, you know, the ones with the plastic clamshell.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_02: And then we go to the gas station and he lets me pick out some snacks and drinks, and he lets me pick out two three-foot-long incense sticks, the ones that are like the diameter of cigarettes.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_02: And I pick out two scents blueberry, and the other one was called sex addiction.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm really excited to find out what that smells like, and I'm also very excited to share it with my friends, but my dad tells me I'm not allowed to tell them what it's called.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_02: That's okay, compromises were made.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_02: We set up the sun room so that that's where the slumber party is going to happen.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_02: It has a big glass sliding door that overlooks the backyard, and then there is like a walkway from the kitchen.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_02: There's like brown carpet, and that's where we're gonna hang out.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_02: So we all are there.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_02: The girls come and I'm like, here's my chance.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_02: We're going to convert school friends into out-of-school friends, and I'm feeling pretty confident because they've been egging me on and letting me talk about all kinds of weird um at school.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_02: So we're at the slumber party, we're all hanging out, we're sitting, and it starts to get dark.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_02: And the only light is the porch light, and so the trees are kind of green, and then there's a light in the kitchen, and it sort of is lightly illuminating it, but we're pretty much sitting in the dark and we're all telling really scary stories to each other.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_02: And finally, Caroline goes up to me and she goes, Rachel Ann, I bet you have the scariest story.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, Oh, my moment to shine.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_02: So I look at all of them and I go, if I tell you this story, you can never repeat it or you'll die.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_02: I look each of them in the eye and I make them promise that they will never repeat the story.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_02: Voices are trembling, but they're all so excited.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_01: And then I get my voice low and I look at them and I go, my dad murdered a girl and buried her right out there.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_01: The minute it exits my mouth, I know I've overshot.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_01: I've gone too far.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_01: Too scary.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_01: You see, to me, the idea that at any moment we could die was the scariest thing I could think of.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_02: I had I had been facing mortality, thinking about mortality, unpacking it, and as someone who had a sibling die at home is that I was grappling with this reality that we die.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_02: We die.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_02: We're all gonna die.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_02: It's the one thing we all have in common.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_02: The slumber party wasn't the time to unpack that.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_02: And it was made much worse when in about 10 minutes, my dad comes in the doorway and meaning to be supportive, says, I hope you all aren't having too much fun.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_01: But my dad can be a little monotone and he's got a big mustache, and he was backlit by the kitchen light.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_01: And it comes out, I hope you all aren't having too much fun.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_01: At this point, girls are crying.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_01: A couple phone calls are made, two girls go home.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_01: The rest stick it out, but there's tension.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_01: On Monday, I go back to school and I'm alone at the cafeteria table.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_01: People are inviting themselves to my house, but not in that I want to be friends with you kind of way, but in that your house is haunted, you're spooky kind of way.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_01: But I'm not too sad about it.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_01: I'm actually relieved.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_01: It was too much pressure to try to entertain all these people.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_01: I really needed to kind of like do my own dark alone.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_01: I did not, I couldn't, I couldn't support all of their conversion to this macabre lifestyle.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_01: Could not do it.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_02: And it was a relief.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I actually ended up making some friends that I'm still friends with to this day.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_02: So there's ever a testament to be yourself.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, here it is.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_02: There are people out there for everyone, surprisingly.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_02: I had completely forgotten this story until recently when I was at the grocery store, and this girl ran into me and she goes, Hey, I was at that slumber party at your house.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_01: And she goes, That was the scariest night of my life.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_01: And here's the thing she was not confident that my dad was not a murderer.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_01: Soul used this as an opportunity to confirm that he did not murder a girl and bury her in the backyard of my childhood home.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_01: I also should mention that we did burn the incense at the party.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_02: And sex addiction smells like motor oil and suntan lotion.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_02: Which is important to know.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_02: I also have to say that my dad is here tonight.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_01: And he didn't know that I told that story.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_04: I absolutely love that story.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_04: And Michelle, you know this about me.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_04: Every time we listen to a story, I have to tell you what my favorite line is.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_04: My favorite line, the minute those words exited my mouth, I knew I had overshot.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_02: I did overshoot.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: The whole idea of playing plague.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: I don't even have any words for it.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: I can just imagine being at your house and being the one who like drags the body out or tell us your favorite part of playing plague.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I loved playing anything where people were sick and dying.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_02: So I was really wanting to like kind of reenact this part of like when you die and then what happens afterwards.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_02: When my sister died, I had a relative accidentally take me to the funeral and I wasn't supposed to be there, but for me, it was like this really, really important experience.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_02: And so for me, I just kept wanting to try it out over and over again.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_02: And it could be, you know, the plague, scarlet fever.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, pick uh ailment and I had a a role play for it.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_04: And you were reading about those events.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, I read all about it.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_02: So I really just loved reading about anything about death times.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_04: Very Wednesday Adams, right?
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_02: After my sister died, my my parents were advised to try to help normalize death for me.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_02: And so they got me a bunch of books, but it was like The Secret Garden, Little Princess, Anne of Green Gables, and all those books feature dead people, but also features orphans.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_02: And it's so so I sort of like became this sort of like what would it be like to be an orphan?
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_02: What would it be like to see people die and play things out?
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: How old were you when your sister passed?
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_02: I was six years old.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_02: Oh wow.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: And then did that leave you just as being the only sibling in the home?
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_02: Um, no, I have a sister and brother.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_02: So it was my my brother's twin, and then I also have a a younger sister.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_02: So um in practice, she's the older sister in uh maturity.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_04: I've said this before, but I especially love stories from and about adolescence because that's a time in my life that not only was it awkward, but it's burned into my memory in vivid detail.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_04: I remember things in adolescence where I don't so much remember grade school and high school, but that early teen period, I I just um I love stories from that age.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_02: I think that that's very true.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_02: I work with a lot of kids and then tweens and teens, and there's this thing that's happening where you're really figuring out who you are, how you relate to other people, and also the types of relationships you want to have, but also the type of person you want to be.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_02: It's a really formative time.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that those experiences stick with you because it's where some of the biggest mistakes make.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_02: Because you're figuring out how to navigate these social norms.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_02: And so you overshot or you tell that story that's too scary at a slumber party, or you um share that special interest a little too deeply with the wrong audience.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_02: And hopefully, by making those mistakes, eventually you find your community, you find the people who see you, know you, get you, and so that you can move into an adulthood and feel like a supported person who has people in your corner.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: You're looking for your belonging.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: And we first find it, I mean, in our family of origin, but then again with our friend groups.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_02: And now why it involves like eyeliner and like cutting up your clothes and all those things is maybe a mystery for um, you know, some type of other type of scientist, but from just like a uh youth librarian observer, it's just a very true thing where everyone's really wanting to figure out how to be seen, but also how to see.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_02: And um it's tricky sometimes, but also fun.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_04: And your body's trying to become an adult w whether you want it to or not.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: Your dad was in the audience that night you told that story as we heard it was his birthday.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: How was it once he he knew that you had told you?
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, and he didn't know you were telling that story, right?
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_04: He was at the Canes.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, he came to the Canes that night, and he didn't know that that story existed.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_02: So he afterwards we talked about it, and he had remembered the slumber party, and I had told him the story was gonna be about him, and I've told enough stories now that I I think that they are pretty used to it, and uh so I I had enough consent to feel comfortable telling the story, which is always an important part of telling stories that involve other people.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_02: But I didn't get into details and he didn't really want to know.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_02: I I wanted it to be a surprise, and he really thought it was very funny.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_02: But he also was he was like, Oh my goodness.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_02: So there there are these like people walking around the world who are like, I wonder if he really did murder and bury a girl in the backyard.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_04: I want to talk a little bit about your writing process.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_04: And I'm going to tell you some things that are said about you behind your back.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_04: One is that you are the best uh storyteller off the cuff.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_04: You can stand up, be given a subject at random, compose the story perfectly in the time limit, great opening, great closing, great arc, and you just did it right off the top of your head.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_00: I've watched you do it.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: I watched you do it at a Tulsa Center for Creativity event.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_02: It's something I enjoy doing.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_02: I think that storytelling's a craft.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_02: And so if you start to kind of learn that sort of rhythm of what a good story sounds like, and if you can kind of show that to people who are hoping to tell stories, um, it kind of you can kind of explain that process.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_02: For me, I'm dyslexic, so I don't do a lot of writing things down.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_02: My relationship with the written word is different than other people.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_02: And so a lot of how I like really deeply understand language is verbally.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_02: In fact, my partner and I send exclusively voice memos and video.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_02: We almost never text a text message, it's for an emergency, it's for a car accident, and it's not for just like, hey, an update during the day.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_02: We're just sending voice memos.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_02: And many of my friends do that for me too.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_02: And so my storytelling process is very much like that.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_02: It's me saying the words out loud and finding the truth in that language.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that's why when I went to that first storytelling event and started practicing this art, that I was like, oh, this is I'm writing with my voice first.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_02: And then I've gone back later and written it actually physically down and been like, oh, well, I should probably record how, you know, in writing how I wrote those stories.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_02: But I think for anyone who tells a story, it's different for everybody.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone has a different has a different process.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_04: So you do actually write it out in longhand and edit and revise, or are you that's generous.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_02: I am I think back to myself and I'm like, oh, I need to write down my blocks so I can remember it.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_02: So if someday I need it for something, I can kind of revisit that story for something else.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_02: And I a lot of it's just inside me.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, okay, this is kind of how it's gonna open up.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_02: This is sort of the middle and how we're going to get there, and then here's the end.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_04: I'm the opposite.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_04: I have to write every single handle every single word, and then I have to revise it to death.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_00: Same.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_00: And then I and then I say it out loud, or I record it, or I say it in the mirror.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: I have to feel and hear the rhythm of it before it makes sense.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_02: My mom's a really dynamic storyteller, and she's very much out loud.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_02: And so I think I've gathered a lot of that from sort of that.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_02: And she's from um a big Italian family where everybody's just like right now, I'm sitting here and I'm waving my hands around.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_02: Every it's a full-body story, and so she really feels life in that way.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_02: But my my dad, on the other hand, is much like both of you, where he is more reflective.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_02: He would write it down and think about it, and then and then sort of the words would come out later.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_00: Do you have a story that you want to tell that you haven't yet?
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_02: I do have a story I want to tell.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_00: Can you tell us what it's about?
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I can tease it.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_02: So I am in a book club with babies.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_02: No, I I have many book clubs.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_02: This is the book club I attend, and I attend it with seven other people, and we did a silly goose spell during a book club retreat.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_02: And during the silly goose spell, we all started pulling the same tarot cards.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_02: And it was this moment where we felt like magically connected, but then in reality, we actually, you know, were already that way.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_02: We were already friends.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_02: There wasn't like magic necessarily.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_02: Um there might have been.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_02: But there's more to there's more to say, but it's about like friendship, finding friendship in your 40s, you know, being vulnerable, connecting with people.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so explain to me what silly goose, what did you say?
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_02: We did a silly goose spell.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I need to know what that I need to know.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_02: Because you'll have to hear the story, but but for now, um, you know, every, you know, spells can have names, and this one was named after, you know, being a silly goose.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_02: You know, joy is an act of re revolution, you know.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_02: Like if you want to um make change in the world or have good experiences, part of it's like embodying joy and uh and some of that's about being silly.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_02: And I had just gotten back from um a little retreat where um it was a uh a children's book author and um youth librarian retreat, and I had gotten a rock with a little golden goose painted on it, and so I was like, oh, it would be fun for us to do a little spell with that.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I can't wait to hear the story.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I'll be waiting for that.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_04: Rachel Ann, I think you have participated in workshops where you help coach beginners.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_04: What uh what's some advice or what what's some mistakes or pitfalls that you see first-time storytellers commit that you might want to give a little bit of advice on?
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_02: So I've taught a lot of different workshops with OKSo, and I think the thing that happens a lot is that people just don't think they have a story.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_02: They don't think they have like this thing to say, they don't have an experience, they feel like they need to have a big loss or a big win.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_02: And I think stories actually all are so valid, and even these really little experiences can be incredibly rich.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_02: And I also think that a lot of our smaller experiences are connected to some of these bigger experiences.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_02: And my advice would be is to try to connect those things.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_02: Like our some of our experiences inform every story that we have.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_02: And if you're interested in telling a live story that's true, that's about you, it's kind of about thinking about like, why did I make that choice?
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_02: And why did that funny thing happen?
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_02: And it might be connected to a big life experience, and you might find those connections, and at least for me in my process, those connections are really where the fun lies, where where those stories really do come out.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_02: And so my big thing is I don't think anyone should feel like they don't have a story.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_00: And those threads run through all of our stories and through our entire lifetime.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_04: There are some stories that a person that I won't name right now revealed that she was a bank robber, and it was a great story.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_04: There was also stories about a dad taking his daughter on a little bike ride.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_04: And it was a wonderful story that it does not have to be sensational to be a wonderful story.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_00: It can have impact in different ways.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_04: Yes.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_02: So there's a story I told um recently, and it was all about me watching the federal duck stamp competition for the first time, and it was a transformative experience and continues my deep interest in waterfowl.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_02: In fact, I went to a uh Swan wedding recently for Annie and Gus.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_02: Um they're at Swan Lake, it's their one-year anniversary.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: The swans at Swan Lake.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_02: And so I'm very into, you know, like uh even the smaller stories really connect to these bigger things.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_02: So the waterfowl story like wasn't really about a big thing.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_02: It wasn't about having a dead sister or like these other big things that are happened.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_02: It was really just about like having the stomach a stomach bug and being like, wow.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, that's my memory.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_04: You were homesick and you just came across it on television or YouTube.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, the federal duck stamp competition is really incredible, and I will resist myself from going too far into it.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_02: But what I will say is that there is one place in America, the United States of America, where you will have hunters, nature conservators, and hyper-realistic artists all together fighting for the same thing, which is to win the crowning duck stamp.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_02: And the judging is so intense.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_02: And one of the runner-ups was actually from Oklahoma.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_02: Afterwards, I messaged him like he's an incredible artist.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_02: And my point is that you can tell a story about ducks.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_02: Like you could tell a story about anything.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_02: It's really about that connection with yourself, vulnerability, and also that vulnerability is something that other people resonate with.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_02: We we really want to be connected to people's real human experiences.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_00: And when you're on the stage, is there anything that you ever think about that you want the audience to leave with after hearing one of your stories?
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_02: I think that for me, my biggest hope is is that every story for me is just this practice and sort of like cracking open and just being myself.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_02: And I feel like so much of my life changed when I stopped trying to be what I thought people wanted me to be and started just being who I am.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_02: And the root of every story I tell is that I just hope that there's somebody sitting out there who's like not really feeling like in their skin, and that maybe they hear a funny story and they might feel okay to to finally, you know, really be there.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_02: As sentient as a baby.
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_00: With a board book.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_00: So since you won in 2020, you are past the five-year mark.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_00: Are you considering getting back in the competition?
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_02: I think it would have to be for the right story.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_02: I think that first of all, I just love going to the slams here in town.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_02: One of the ways to really connect with our community is to hear these true stories from other people.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_02: And so for me, it's almost like transcended competition.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_02: Also, like I have this killer streak where I've just won every time.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_02: So, like, what happened to you?
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_04: I've never lost she was actually she was actually disappointed that you opened it back up.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_04: By the way, I I feel that way too.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_04: I wanted my jersey to be retired forever.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_00: It can be.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_00: It can be.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I actually thought that Rachel Ann was someone who wanted us to open it back up because she's competitive.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_00: Josh Baker's competitive, you know, Sloane Davis is competitive.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_02: There's that part too.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_02: It would I think that we'll see how it shakes out.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_02: I think the biggest part is there have been times I've contacted OKSo and done like a closing story because I hear the theme and I'm like, I have a story for that.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_02: And since I can't compete anymore because or I couldn't compete anymore, I would tell the closing story.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_02: And so now if I hear that theme and I have that story, I might.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_00: Just you never know.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_00: Well we'll see.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_04: I hope and pray that she does.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you know, who was it?
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_00: It was Sloan that said he wanted to get back up on the stage, but now that he's been attending more of the monthlies, he realizes how good the stories have gotten.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_00: And that he's what if he walks up there and doesn't even place?
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_02: We've been teaching all the workshops.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_02: We've shown everyone all of our tricks.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_02: How can you not win?
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_02: And so I was I'm like, you know, I think we're really building this community up and supporting people.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_02: And so, but also like the storytelling community in Tulsa is very, very good.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_00: It is so good.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_04: I've been to events in other bigger cities, and you're right, Tulsa's better.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_00: We really are I I can say that, right?
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_02: And if you're wanting and if somebody's wanting to tell a story, because we have those workshops before the events, like people are able to test out the waters and basically really kind of not necessarily practice, but they are live true stories being told on a stage, but it doesn't mean that you just show up and don't think about it first.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_02: Like, and I think that having the workshops and doing that really helps.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_02: You can do it fully off the cuff, but sometimes it's also good to like at least say it one or two times in your car, like I did my first time.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_02: You could win.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, even our bank robber, right?
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_00: She decided like midway through the second half to throw her name in the hat.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_00: Now, granted, she does do talks in other organizations, but she just threw her name in and she won, like you, and then turned around and won the Grand Slam.
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_00: So I know that people can win, but I think the fact that we've been having these workshops has upped the bar a little bit.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_02: It's also supported the community because it's really important to be able to hear everybody's voice and okay, so really wants the whole community to be represented.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_02: And through these workshops, if there's somebody out there who's like, I don't really know if this is for me, there are just so many resources available for you to find your voice and really share what it's like for you here in Oklahoma, here in Telsa, and share your story.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_04: Agreed.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_04: That might be a good place to close, although we're not finishing.
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_04: We have a fun little thing we do.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_04: By the way, Rachel Ann, thank you so much for being here.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_04: You've been a wonderful, wonderful guest.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_00: So happy to have you.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_00: It was an absolute like I said, I've just been sitting here waiting on you this whole time.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_02: It's been such a treat, and I'm so honored.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, we're gonna do this little thing we call point blank, and you're just gonna give us your first answer.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_00: So if you could be anything in the world other than what you are right now, what would that be?
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_02: A giant squid because nobody knows anything about them, and if I was one, I would know everything.
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_00: What's your favorite word?
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_00: Hippopotamus.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_00: What's your least favorite word?
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_04: Grief.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_04: Thank you, Rachel Ann.
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_04: Thank you.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_00: See you soon on stage, whether you're competing or not.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_00: We shall see.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_00: It might be about more ducks and birds of all kinds.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you.com.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_03: This OKSTO Stay More podcast is co-hosted by Michelle Baez and Matthew Weatherby, and it's recorded and edited by Matthew Weatherby with editorial and production help from me, Scott Gregory, at PublicRadio Tulsa.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_03: You can contact this podcast by visiting OKSotulsa.com and then clicking on Connect with Us, and you can learn more about the station and find more episodes of this free on-demand podcast at publicradulsa.org.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_03: We hope listening to this podcast has inspired you to attend an OKSO Tulsa event and maybe even tell a story yourself.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_03: Again, to learn more about how to do that, it's OKSoTulsa.com.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you for listening to OKSo Say More, Be Well, Be Heard, and Be Receptive.