Registration is open for the Digital Storytelling program. Find our more about this program and its creative instructor, David Easton.
Register now for Digital Storytelling with David Easton. The program takes place over 6 weeks in Febr and March. Space is limited! Click the button below to register.
“When people think of the library, they think of a building…but we know it’s way more than that and it’s actually community…that’s at the forefront.”
David Easton
In November, I had the pleasure of sitting down with David Easton–film maker, storyteller, and friend of the Albany Public Library. We discussed his upcoming Digital Storytelling program at the library, the benefits and challenges of virtual programming in a pandemic, and the power that telling your own authentic story has.
David Easton is no stranger to the community that the Albany Public Library creates. He did a screenwriting workshop at the Howe Branch, and remembers being blown away by the group’s diversity and passion, and the community they were able to build as strangers meeting together on snowy Wednesday nights in February. He notes, “When people think of the library, they think of a building…but we know it’s way more than that and it’s actually community…that’s at the forefront.”
With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic earlier this year, maintaining that community amidst mandatory isolation became a challenge for many of us. However, as David notes, the APL “does a great job of being a library for 2020 and for the future,” creating programs and workshops that cater to the community in a way that speaks to where we’re at right now. The APL was able to adjust to this new normal and provide virtual programs that continue to keep us connected amidst all the uncertainty that this year has brought.
I first asked David how he has adjusted to the APL programs moving online. He calls himself a functional optimist – “This is the reality, so I’m gonna embrace it and really see what we can do. And that’s part of what my program is about – talking through the ways that people can really use this moment in time digitally to tell their story, whatever their story is, in the most effective way.” While he acknowledges the difficulties of Zoom exhaustion and facilitating collaboration through a computer screen, he also notes that there is a real possibility for the sort of collaborative exchange that happens in person to happen over Zoom, Google Hangout, etc. Since people are ‘forced,’ to interact online we’re getting better at it, more comfortable. Moreover, virtual interaction opens up the possibility to speak with others across the world in a way that feels real – that is real.
For David’s Digital Storytelling program specifically, Zoom and virtual programming are actually really useful. “It mimics the medium that people get that information from, T.V. or your phone…this medium mimics T.V. in a really positive way.” David’s six part, multimedia workshop is about what storyis, how it relates to how we think and how we interact with others. David’s workshop helps you get into the tools and ways to shape your story in the way that’s most effective. His program will be in a webinar format, with the possibility of circle-back group conversations as well.
Story is not just traditional narratives in literature or a movie – story is a through-line in art, business, communication, interpersonal relationships, anything. Storytelling is, David puts it, “a consecutive line of thought.” Whether it’s a job interview, joke, or a screenplay, the most powerful tool you have at your disposal is story. David goes a step further to include the digital in his storytelling program. “We are consumers of digital media in so many ways, every day.” In all of that is story, and to be effective in the world today you need to know how to tell a good one. This is especially true since, as David says, “we’re in a saturated environment.” In the digital age, people are bombarded with so much information every day, so it’s more important now than ever for your story to be relevant and engaging, for you to develop yourself as a storyteller so your story is punchy enough that it get the attention it deserves. “Everybody’s got stories…Albany especially has a depth of stories in so many different ways – one of my goals and passions is to help people tell their story.”
Programs like David’s at the library have become crucial in an unprecedentedly isolated time. David says, “By having accessible programs, in a lot of ways they can be a life line for people – to connect them to other people, other ideas….a chance to grow, to do that thing you’ve always wanted to do.” These programs also help facilitate the growth of the creativity and inspiration that many have found in this interruption to life as it was. “What people are making in this moment – it’s kind of amazing, it’s kind of incredible.” And for those of you who maybe haven’t been a part of an APL program and are nervous to join a community of new people, David puts it perfectly – “Introverts this is your moment!” The Zoom format is so supportive of people who are introverted or nervous; with a click of a button you can turn your camera off, turn your microphone off, and participate on your terms. But don’t be nervous to jump in and chat with the group – what’s important for David is not your level of ability, participation, or confidence – What he hopes to accomplish is “to give people that spark to dream and to have their imagination kind of roam, but in that way that feels that it has a focus, there’s something tangible about it.”
At the heart of David’s Digital Storytelling program is authenticity. “It’s all been told before. But what hasn’t happened is it hasn’t been told by you – and that’s the difference. You are unique and authentic and your story’s going to be different than anyone else – without that genuine authenticity it ends up just being noise, just like what everybody else is doing. The way that you’re telling your story and how you’re telling it – that’s at the core and foundational. That’s highlighting the way that you’re different.”
