Tell me a story | Feature | wavemag.com.np

Laura Simms lives in the world of stories. For this internationally renowned American storyteller, stories aren't just a medium of entertainment but a tool to heal and to open up door to places in the human mind otherwise overlooked. "I use stories to connect to people and to reach out to that resting place in their mind which makes it easier for them to accept and negotiate problems," says Laura.

Her stories, some humorous, some heart touching, some philosophical and some fairytales, are always interpreted differently by her listeners. "The problem with us is we don't listen and when we uses stories, of a third person and are able to relate to them in our lives, its easier to come to a common meeting ground, thus helping in peace building," explains Laura who started off being an actor but discovered her talent in storytelling while working with young kids to survive in New York as an actor.

With an experience of storytelling for over 40 years, Laura's mind is a collection of stories, like the thick storybook we all owned as kids and turned to each time life threw us questions we couldn't answer. It was through her stories that she met Ishmeal Beah the author of A Long Way Home: Memoirs of a Boy Solider, who is now her adoptive son. While working as a facilitator on a project for UNICEF and Norwegian People's Aid in 1996 she met this young boy from Sierra Leone. "This boy had the most amazing voice and had written a rap song about peace," remembers Laura, "there was something about him and his voice touched me and after he went back to his country I sent a keyboard through a UNICEF worker for him." It was two months later that she got a cassette from the boy with eleven songs and a note that said she could sell the songs and make money out of it. The confidence of the boy played on Laura's mind for the longest time but she knew her hands were tied and could do nothing for the boy.

But it all changed when she got a call from the Red Cross early in the morning to deliver a message from her son. "I was taken by surprise because I had no son and almost slammed the phone down but instead I chose to accept the message which said, 'dear mom, you'd want to know I am alive.' It was from Ishmeal," she says with tears glistening in her eyes, "it was then that I knew I had to do everything I could to get him out of the life he was living." It took Laura two years and the first night that Ishmeal got to America, nervous Laura wished him goodnight and was about to close the door to the room he slept in when he asked her to tell her a story, something that he had had an image of for two years. "I normally remember tons of stories but at that moment I couldn't remember any other than one about an African king so I told him that story," reminisces Laura. It was the same story Ishmeal's grandfather used to tell him when he was little.

"It's the small things we do in life that makes a huge difference," she says, "and very often we don't realise that it can open up huge doors."

Apart from being an award-winning storyteller she is a recording artist, teacher, writer and humanitarian who collaborates with organisations around the world to explore social issues, peacemaking, creativity and community dialogues.

Laura was in Nepal in mid May to work with child journalists and help them use the art of storytelling in their field of work.