PORT TOWNSEND — Storyteller and author Loren Niemi of Minnesota will bring his national tour to Port Townsend during First Friday StoryNight at 7 tonight.
His story, “Bad Brothers: Religion and Politics,” offers an opportunity to consider the parallels between the late 1960s and the current socio-political conundrum, organizers said in a press release.
First Friday StoryNight is held monthly from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Port Townsend Friends’ Meetinghouse at 1841 Sheridan St.
Admission is a suggested donation of $10.
“Bad Brothers: Religion and Politics” is Niemi’s most autobiographical storytelling program. It tells how he went into a religious order as a Catholic and came out a Buddhist with an FBI file, organizers said.
The evening of storytelling hosted by Quimper Storytelling Guild also will include a set of short stories by local tellers and attendees who sign up on a first-come, first-served basis.
“I began as a child fibber but soon realized that I was less interested in telling lies than I was in improving the truth,” Niemi said.
“I told my first formal story in First Grade to the disapproval of Sister Mary Margaret and have been at it more or less nonstop since then.”
Niemi has a 40-year history of creating, coaching/directing, performing and teaching stories about what matters to audiences of all ages in urban and rural settings.
He has been a circus ringmaster, a humanities scholar in residence and appeared on the stages of Fringe Festivals across the country. In 2016, he received the Lifetime Achievement Oracle Award from the National Storytellers Network.
He wrote “The New Book of Plots”and co-authored with Elizabeth Ellis “Inviting the Wolf In: Thinking About Difficult Stories.” He is also a published poet.
More information about the guild, its 2020 featured teller lineup, and storytelling workshops are available at facebook.com/QuimperStoryGuild, QuimperStoryGuild@gmail.com or 360-316-9600.
