The Story Spine for Qasim Sabti

If you haven't been reading my blog, then you probably don't know that I am currently a Docent for the Seattle Art Museum.  Docent is a fancy fru-fru word for tour guide.  The only difference is that Docents do a ton of studying and upkeep for that fru-fru title.  I do mean a ton.  I've been doing it for a long time and it's honestly one of my favorite things to do.

So today, I headed down to SAM for a Communication Workshop with Matt Smith.  In the workshop, Matt talked about a Story Spine.  I was mesmerized.  What a great way to break down a story!  Although I've been storytelling for years, and am getting ready to write a children's book myself, I'd never done a story spine before.  While Matt moved on to his closing remarks for the workshop, I couldn't stop writing up a Story Spine for one of my favorite pieces at SAM.  So with no further ado, here is my Story Spine for Qasim Sabti.

Once upon a time...there was a little boy in Baghdad who loved to draw

And every day...he drew for his friends since his polio would not allow him to run with them

 

Until one day...he became a well respected art teacher at the National Academy of Art.

And because of that...he was walking to work one day and realized that books were raining down on him in red tears of ambers

And because of that...he took as many as he could home since they were farmland where his thoughts could be planted

 

Until finally...he created beautiful collages from the pages and spines of those lucky enough to be saved

 

And since that day...his plantings of artwork hang at SAM to remind us that cultural civilizations can rise from ashes.