Mythsinger Legacy Project

ABOUT THE MYTHSINGER LEGACY PROJECT

Founded in January 2020, the Mythsinger Legacy Project (MLP) operates as an independent charitable organization in WA state. For national and international projects, MLP is a fiscal sponsee of Songwriting Works Educational Foundation, a 501c3 non-profit arts organization. 

Sprung from the fertile ground of bereavement and devotion following Daniel Duane “3D” Deardorff’s passing, the Mythsinger Legacy Project carries forward his legacy of music, mythtelling, teaching, writing, visual art, and scholarship and represents his acclaimed book, The Other Within: The Genius of Deformity in Myth, Culture, and Psyche, published in a posthumous, expanded, 3rd edition (Inner Traditions, 2022, distributed internationally by Simon and Schuster).  

In early 2022, we began hosting Mythsinger Community StoryNight events online, welcoming an international community of all ages and cultures to gather with us around the virtual storyfire hearth to hear one of the 10,000 year old stories from one of the finest mythtellers of the 21st century.
These events:
• fulfill Daniel’s vision and mission—to restore the wisdom of myth to culture and community—by creating experiential programs and contexts that bring together a growing international community of artists and misfits of all ages, cultures, and abilities. 
• share a common purpose or conundrum: to acknowledge, honor, and ultimately welcome the Other in society and in ourselves. 
• give people access to hearing “old stories” (ancient myths) which Deardorff carried, in formats that catalyze healing and connection and affirm the deepest truths of humanity. 

Mythsinger community StoryNight events take place quarterly. Each event features Deardorff’s myth-telling and music via re-mastered archival recordings, live hosting and performances by Judith-Kate Friedman (his life partner and Mythsinger Legacy Project steward), guest artists, and conversation amongst participants as we "feed the story that has so generously fed us." This dynamic series has brought together myth-tellers and story-lovers ranging in age from teens to 80’s, hailing from across the US and Canada, the UK, Northern and Central Europe, Thailand, Australia, and New Zealand. 

The success of our efforts, and requests from the recent international online cohort studying The Other Within have led to book study groups ("short course deep dives"). Depth of interest in Daniel's as yet unpublished writings, songs, stories and interviews, and his archive full of early recording career demos, rareities and memorabelia, have led to a proposed project to preserve these historic recordings: The Mythsinger Legacy Collection: from Polio Blues to the Medicine of Myth and an online interactive platform which will be created to house it.  CONTRIBUTIONS to the MYTHSINGER LEGACY PROJECT can be earmarked for support of the Collection - for which the GRAMMY® Museum has invited a proposal (funding pending).  The Collection includes more than three albums worth of recorded and yet-to-be-released music, many live hearthside recordings of his mythtelling and other teachings, 40 interviews and writings including several manuscripts of essays toward future books which Daniel "3D" Deardorff left us when he “flew out of this story and into the next,” in September 2019.

ABOUT THE BOOK: The Other Within

Daniel Deardorff’s The Other Within: The Genius of Deformity in Myth, Culture and Psyche is an initiatory journey through ancient myths, wisdom literature, and personal revelation. Having survived disabling polio as an infant, Deardorff knew well the oppressions of exclusion, outsiderhood, and the betrayals endured by all who are “othered.” His book guides us to discover our own true identity and honor the “other” that lives within each of us and within society, the exiled part that carries wisdom so desperately needed for ourselves and the culture at large. Originally published in 2004, the new 3rd edition (Inner Traditions, 2022) includes commentaries by Robert Bly, with a new afterword by Martin Shaw, a new forward by Robert Simmons, an expanded glossary, and words from Daniel's life partner and Mythsinger Legacy Project steward, Judith-Kate Friedman. https://www.innertraditions.com/books/the-other-within