Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Martie McNabb. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Martie, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?
For over a decade, I’ve had the honor & pleasure of creating safe spaces for people of all ages, races, religions, sexual orientations, genders etc to share the stories of the Things that matter. People have brought photos & objects, to both in-person and virtual story-sharing gatherings, on a variety of themes from my collection of 24. Cards, Letters & Thank-you Notes; Tails, Paws, Beaks & Claws; Shoes, Boots, Bags & Hats and Scars, Tats & Piercings to name a few.
Let me pause for a moment to explain why I choose to call my events story-sharing not storytelling gatherings. As much as I love storytelling events like The Moth, those are clearly performances. A Show & Tales participant Zeno Lee says it best in a WSJ post: “I’ve been to the Moth and those things. They feel really practiced and professional and like people are practicing their one-man plays or their book deals, This feels less like a show, more like sharing.”
At these 200+ gatherings, people have shared stories that they had never shared before or since. These vulnerable & generous sharings are inspirational to the look & listeners and transformative for the show & talers. People have brought Things they hold onto after a loved one has passed away to remember them by & to keep them close. I’ve learned a lot about myself & others through the stories of the Things they/we keep aka Things that matter.
This project helps reduce isolation & loneliness (my own included), provides insight into our own lives, touch points into the lives of others and offers me a way to market myself that feels good while doing good.
Another participant Melea Seward said of S&T’s: “There is perhaps no better way to get to know someone more quickly than from hearing them tell a story. Show & Tales’ events allow people easy access to their own stories through everyday objects. What a terrific way to bring people together, to find common bonds. Everyone, it turns out, has a story about a favorite tool, or a cast iron skillet, or a tattoo or something their mother always wore. All of Martie’s projects help bring those disparate stories to life and bring people who may consider themselves ideologically far apart, closer together.” She echoes what my friends, Bill Shapiro & Matt Paxton, fellow lovers of the stories that get attached to Things say “If you have a chance to go, do it!”
What are museums & historical societies after all but BIG Show & Tales?
I’m on a mission to build deeper connections, community & legacy one story of stuff at a time.
Martie, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
The short version? I’m a legacy artist using other peoples “stuff” as my medium. AND I’m a lover of stories that get attached to these THINGS. I’m also a dancer, a wife, a daughter, a sister & a lover of people & travel. I live part-time in my campervan named Brooklyn and ASL is my second language.
Born to a military family in Okinawa, Japan, I moved nine times before turning sixteen. As a result, I did not collect familiar childhood objects like art projects and toys. The things that became dear to me were relationships, experiences, and the power of a story.
Haunted by the photos and memorabilia people discard, because these Things get separated from their stories, I began hosting object-inspired story-sharing events called Show & Tales to encourage participants to reveal a little piece of their personal history through the Things they keep aka Things that matter. Sharing out loud with others keeps the memories alive, passes on the history, and enables people from all walks of life to build connections and consider their own part in our collective human story.
Show & Tales has been written about in the Wall Street Journal & featured in two books: Time to Tell by Deborah Wilbrink & Passed and Present by Allison Gilbert.
From family reunions to business conferences to fundraisers, Show & Tales is a highly interactive connection building experience for everyone.
If you are looking to build deeper connections, community & legacy with your family, team, employees, volunteers, donors, board, associations and communities reach out to me via my website or email me directly at [email protected].
To participate or check out what these experiences are all about join me for my next virtual Show & Tales listed on my site.
When I’m not hosting my story-sharing gatherings, you’ll find me traveling the country in Brooklyn with Flatsy my flat cat as my roadtripping companion. At 64 I’m also navigating a long-distance marriage to the love of my life who I met 30+ years ago. We reconnected during the start of Covid & we’ve been managing caring for our aging Mom’s with 2200 miles between us. She & my mom-in-law, live in Albuquerque, NM and my Mom lives in Vermont. Brooklyn just hit 90,000 miles this week.
Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?
As a bit of a misfit my whole life, I’ve never really fit in in most places. I’m sure many of your readers can relate?
25+ years ago I joined the Association of Personal Historians. It was a professional organization for primarily; memoir writers, oral historians & video biographers. For all those years, I had to explain myself & my work to them. I finally found a title that resonated; Legacy Artist.
I’m grateful to have found these words below by textile artist and independent scholar Solveigh Goett, that remind me & reinforce my deep KNOWING that Things tell stories as surely as words do.
“Storytelling is not a matter of words. Indeed, words are only one particular – and arguably small – part of the story world. That images can tell stories is universally accepted, and we do not need to translate such stories into words in order to understand them. Objects are images, but much more than that, they are sensuous things touching us with their affective power, imbued with an aura of the unspeakable. They may provide hard forensic evidence or fleeting feelings that are difficult to grasp, but without things there can’t be any stories. We live in and are part of a material world which is also one of magic and metamorphosis, where everything moves and flows, where things and people, voices and silences, nature and culture, times and places, realities and imaginations cannot be separated but mingle in ever-changing ways. From this rich pool of being and becoming stories emerge: told in words or whispers, caught in a glimpse or touch, written on paper or carried on an object, overt or oracle, exposed in the limelight or hidden in the shadows. What matters is not so much the voice, but the listening, the ability to perceive, to sense, to tune in, to feel, to dream. Every thing and every body has a story to tell, if only we can hear it. Artists, seers and poets can be useful guides.”
The visual narratives I’ve created for my Memories Out of the Box clients over the past 30+ years, serve as touch points to remember, retell, recreate & reconcile stories. Without the written or recorded word, that freezes stories in time, my creations allow my clients to be the artists, seers & poets of their own lives. They gift them the opportunity to see their lives differently, from a new perspective.. And my live (in-person or virtual) highly interactive gatherings provide a space for people to do the same.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
I imagine by now you might get the sense that I’ve never been much of a conventional woman? Anyone else? I’ve always related to the saying “I tried to be normal once… worst two minutes of my life”.
So needless to say, I don’t have one particular goal or mission.
But I think I can summarize it into two areas:
1.) I’m passionate about helping small businesses, artist’s, creatives, including my colleagues in the personal history & photo management fields, market themselves in a way that feels good AND does good. Why? Because I believe in the important healing work that we all do in the world.
2.) I want to change the way we look at our Things. Things may not matter, but the stories that get attached to them can. Instead of focusing on what we need to get rid of, let’s focus on what we want to keep. The Things you surround yourself with tell a piece of your life story. Check out my playsheet: Your Life in 30 Things.
After YEARS of coaches telling me I needed to create a target market avatar & give this ideal client a name, I decided on WEIRDOS (Where Every Individual Remembers Doing Original Stuff). So, if you resemble that remark check out my online community of Show & Tales story-sharing hosts, where I teach you how to host your own story-sharing gatherings to build deeper connections, community & legacy for you & your important work.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.showandtales.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/showandtales/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/showandtales
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/show-tales-llc/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@showandtales
- Other: https://www.showandtales.com/30-things-story/
Image Credits
Denise Husted Steven Soblick