The Vashon Heritage Museum will welcome renowned storyteller, author, and scholar Michael Meade to present a talk, “The Spirit of Place,” at 7 p.m. Thursday, May 12.
In the talk, Meade will highlight the significance of storytelling in understanding history, and how collecting and preserving the stories of the island community is central to the Museum’s mission.
It will be the first of the museum’s ongoing series of talks to have an in-person audience. A limited number of tickets are available for the presentation, to be held at the Vashon-Maury Land Trust Building. The talk will be simultaneously broadcast on Zoom, as usual.
“The Heritage Museum is excited to move to a hybrid of in-person and live-stream Zoom presentations for our monthly Museum Talks,” said Vashon Heritage Museum Executive Director Elsa Croonquist.
Meade combines storytelling, street-savvy insights and interpretations of ancient myths with a deep knowledge of cross-cultural rituals. During the evening, he will tell a creation myth about earth, healing and community.
Like many others, Meade’s public presentations have been relegated to online formats throughout the COVID pandemic. Although the crowd will be small in size, he is looking forward to the energy that exists between storyteller and listener in an in-person format.
“One of the old ideas is that a story is made between the teller and the listeners,” said Meade. “I’ve been missing those listeners. I’ve done events on Zoom, but I just put it out there and it is gone. It lacks that community moment that I am looking for in telling stories.”
Both in-person ticketing, as well as registration for the Zoom broadcast, can be accomplished by visiting vashonheritagemuseum.org.