About

Photo:  Ferron Dooley Fairchild
Bio: After two years as a full time teacher,
( elementary and middle school) Norah Dooley, storyteller and children’s author returned to the free lance world.

Norah Dooley is an “…entrancing storyteller”,  ( Scott Alarik, Boston Globe) author, and a versatile presenter in schools and has been a keynote speaker at teacher’s conferences and  a featured storyteller  at festivals and other venues. Norah is also a picture book author. Her first CD, Music of Angels … and other things I've heard, includes Italian folk tales, original stories and other Christmas stories was self-produced in 1999. It was followed by  Stories Nobody Told Me "Italian" Folk tales for all seasons and Stories from the Neighbors: World Folk Tales,  produced by Seat of Her Pants Productions, 2002. Her latest storytelling CDs are  My Bad, Bad Dog, Rabbitails, 2006 and Irish Folktales: Live at Passim 2008. Her critically acclaimed published picture books, Everybody Cooks Rice, Everybody Bakes Bread, Everybody Serves Soup and Everybody Brings Noodles, (Lerner Books) are four titles in a series about her neighbors in Cambridge, MA. For over 15 years, Norah has been presenting workshops throughout the US and Japan for people of all ages -- from early elementary grade students through high school and community college and adult learners.  Norah is in demand as a performer  on the Young Audiences of MA roster even during the time she interrupted the association for a year to teach performing arts in an inner-city middle school. Norah has been a featured storyteller in the Christmas and Spring Revels, the Newport Folk Festival, Albany NY River Festival, the Clearwater Festival and at 3 Apples Storytelling Festival, Harvard, MA. She has told 1000s stories to tens of 1000s of children throughout the City of Boston for ten summers through the city-wide Read Boston, literacy program.  Norah is the co-founder of massmouth.com and the Greater Boston Story Slam series. She has an MEd in Creative Arts in Learning from Lesley University and is the creator of the StoriesLive® curriculum. In the past two years she has taught 1000s of high school students to tell their stories. Norah lives in Brookline, MA with her husband and a revolving subset of their 4 lovely daughters.  www.norahdooley.com


http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/NorahDooley

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Self definition, at last! Seems "gadfly" is a term used to describe an irritating person who persistently challenges people in positions of power, the status quo or a popular position. During his defense when on trial for his life, Socrates, according to Plato's writings, pointed out that dissent, like the tiny (relative to the size of a horse) gadfly, was easy to swat, but the cost to society of silencing individuals who were irritating could be very high. "If you kill a man like me, you will injure yourselves more than you will injure me," because his role was that of a gadfly, "to sting people and whip them into a fury, all in the service of truth."  I am an an irritating person who persistently challenges people in positions of power, the status quo or a popular position.