Before there were blogs…Before there were Zoom meetings…
Before there were email chains and Facebook messengers and TikTok influencers…
There were storytellers.
As a child I remember sitting around the living room with extended family and friends and telling stories. You got to hear the neighborhood gossip, the successes of others, the births and deaths, the dreams and imaginations. We were sharing the Stories from the Tribe. All in person.
Your Great Uncle would tell you stories about his days in the service, with particular details about interesting shore leaves. Your cousin would regale you in excruciating detail about all the things her new baby was doing. And your Bubbe would recite recipes every time her food received a compliment.
In the 80s, social norms had faded into evening television togetherness time. This is before fast-forwarding, so we would still share snippets of conversation during commercials. You’d still hear about the price increase at the grocery or how so-and-so’s husband got a promotion, and which colleges the neighbor’s kid is looking at.
And as families moved away, some people took to writing letters. My Aunt would regularly send me unsolicited handwritten missives. They were often just trains of thought, brought on by some mundanity of life. I remember one such letter that cautioned me to avoid wearing pantyhose, as they were a gateway to static cling and self-hatred.
And there were the really important stories. The ones that need to be told and retold by those who heard them. Particularly the Holocaust stories. I’m of a generation that heard those stories from the survivors themselves. I consider it my job as a member of the Jewish community to keep repeating them. These too are the Stories from the Tribe.
As years went on, we all got busier. And we got computers. Then smartphones. And we let email and texting replace old communication styles. And for the most part, that’s good news. Sometimes I just want the text from my kid to read, “I’m home safe,” and that’s enough.
Jordana Green hugs Rachel Orzoff at the 2024 “Stories From The Tribe” show. (Ethan Roberts Photography)
But sometimes I want to follow the path and share the rest of the story.
Maybe they were “home safe” after a fantastic date that had them traipsing up and down the city streets, singing and laughing all night, ending with an impromptu breakfast by the lake. Maybe they were “home safe” after a nightmare of an evening and the story is filled with red flags and surprise endings.
No matter what the timbre, I love the stories. I love to feel the details. Make the connection. Enrich the communication. Solidify the community.
Storytellers Stacey Dinner Levin and Robin Gale looking through the “Stories from the Tribe” show program. (Ethan Roberts Photography)
And I’ll bet you do, too.
If you love being a part of that energy. If you happily harken back to Sunday visits or weekly phone calls (when long distance was a thing that mattered). If you want to return to that connection of yesteryear, then please come to hear the next edition of Stories from the Tribe.
Spurred on by the wonderful Galit Breen at TC Jewfolk, a group of your friends and neighbors are harkening back to the old ways. We are telling our stories about motherhood, about Judaism, about everyday living. This season’s Stories from the Tribe presents a series of fascinating tales about the good and bad, hard and soft, and both mundane and exceptional about being ourselves. We each share a true story in our individual styles.
It is a beautiful and emotion filled show. And yes, I’m in it, so I am biased. But I’m also right.
Please purchase your ticket and join us for some old fashioned storytelling.
The crowd at the 2024 “Stories From The Tribe” show. (Ethan Roberts Photography)
Get your tickets today
Tickets are available right now! Get your tickets today by clicking right here.
About the show
An event by TC Jewfolk produced by Galit Breen, the original Minnesota Mammaleh and co-producer of Listen to Your Mother Twin Cities for the last decade+.
Stories from the Tribe features 12 women on the bima telling their true Jewish stories that have a thread to being a Mammaleh – whether that’s about their own Mammaleh or about being a Mammaleh – and includes all of the ups and downs, highs and lows, laughs and tears that come with the real-life experience of mammalehs in the Twin Cities.
During this time it’s even more important for us Jews to gather + tell our stories, loud and proud!
So this, is that!
The second annual show will once again be emceed by the incredible Jordana Green, co-host of The Adam & Jordana Show on WCCO Radio and promises to be a stunning night of storytelling!
This show will be at Beth El Synagogue in St. Louis Park, and the show date is Monday, June 23, at 7 p.m., seating is General Admission, and the doors will open at 6 p.m.
Thank you to our show sponsors
We are so grateful to our show sponsors for investing in women + storytelling in the Jewish Twin Cities community. We’d love for you to support these local businesses the way that they support this show. With so much gratitude, thank you to:
Adam Garen, Bluestem Remodeling, Emissary App, Heilicher Jewish Day School, Hodroff-Epstein Memorial Chapels, Jersey Girl Bagels, Kickernick Gallery, Mint Orthodontics, Rosebud Consulting HR, Sheri Fine Realty, Shira Tabbouche Photography, Suburban Landscape Service & SLS Design, The Legal Mama
