Karen Gummo

2408-34 Avenue N.W.
Calgary AB T2L 0V2

Home/Résidence : 403 284-0747
Work/Travail :403-777-8370
Email address: Karen Gummo

I fell in love with story when I set off to see the world on my tricycle and came back alive to tell of my journey.  Coming from a large extended family, I have been the lucky recipient of countless fascinating family tales.

As I reach back to reclaim my Danish and Icelandic ancestry, I am swept up in compelling sagas, myths and poetry.  I have that same deep yearning for narrative as my predecessors had. 

For more than 10 years I have carried out a wide variety of residencies in Calgary schools (2 years ago at the Creative Kids Museum) as storyteller and visual artist - nurturing the creative spirit in folks of all ages. 

I give adult workshops through TALES (The Alberta League Encouraging Storytelling), the Epcor Centre for the Performing Arts in Calgary, and through a program called Storytree where I facilitate young students to uncover, recreate and perform their stories in a theatre setting.

TALES has been an important community through which I have been mentored as a storyteller and I am now serving as President of that organization.  Through TALES and SC-CC, I have taken and given workshops, performed at festivals, concerts and cafes, and cast out my net to the wider world to entice all that I encounter to enter into the magical world of storytelling.

Visit : TALES : http://www.ecn.ab.ca/~tales/
Visit Epcor Centre for the Performing Arts: www.epcorcentre.org   
Natureground: www.natureground.org,
Professional Storyteller : http://professionalstoryteller.ning.com/
Young Alberta Book Society(YABS) www.yabs.ab.ca

Publications:
- Dr. E.W. Coffin School; Stories of Community (editor)
- Natureground community sign project (contributed paintings, drawings and stories
- Under the Wide Blue Sky; Alberta Stories to Read and Tell (Where is the Gold?)
- A Collection of TALES – CD, TALES on the Wind – (CD yet to be released).

Wise words:  Hail to the speaker and the one who listens!  May whoever learns these words prosper because of them.  Hail to those who listen!
            Excerpt from Havamal; a poem from the Codex Regius of the Elder Edda Nov 2008