| Loren Niemi has been storytelling for over a quarter century. He is well known as a creator, teacher, collector and performer of stories around the country. Storytelling has been an important part of his work as a community organizer with neighborhoods and non-profit groups. Moreover, he provides workshops and corporate and organizational consulting in the form of stories. His clients include AT&T, Walt Disney World, Medtronic, National Legal Aid, among many others. In 1998, Niemi was a recipient of a Bush Leadership Fellowship to research the role of storytelling in community development. In the past, Niemi worked with the Heart of the Beast & Mask Theatre’s Circle of Water Circus, and the Bad Jazz trio (with Kevin Kling and Michael Sommers), experimenting with theatrical and storytelling forms. Loren Niemi has a BA in Philosophy and Studio Arts from St. Mary’s College (Winona, MN) and a MA in Liberal Studies (American culture) from Hamline University (St. Paul, MN). He co-wrote, with Elizabeth Ellis, “Inviting the wolf in: thinking about difficult stories.” His second book, “The book of plots” is a manual for storytellers explaining how to construct engaging narratives. |
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