National Storytelling Festival

Back Home

We’re home from our annual pilgrimmage to Jonesborough, TN for the National Storytelling Festival.
Bold Whisper’s Jennifer Einolf, DTM and I will be offering The Tell It Well Intensive on Oct. 10 at Meadpwbrook Country Club in Chesterfield.

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Remember: You Matter. Your Stories Matter. Tell Them Well!
Gayle Turner
The Storytellers Channel

Back Home

What an amazing weekend!

My wife, Marie, and I just returned from the 47th Annual National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, TN. I am both enervated and energized. As usual we wound up grabbing a hotel room on the way back extending the trip by a day. I just didn’t have the energy to keep driving after having listened to close to 20 hours of stories over three days.

On top of listening to great stories told by great tellers, we chatted with audience members from all over the world including some folks from our hometown, who introduced themselves after noticing Richmond, VA on our name tags.

We ran into Hettie Farley, and Sarah Snyder, members of the Virginia Storytelling Alliance; two others, Sheila Arnold and Lynn Ruehlmann, were telling. We saw Cheryl Mason from Nashville, who we hadn’t seen since attending Donald Davis’ week-long storytelling retreat on Ocracoke in 2016.

We had lunch with National Storytelling Network Board Chair, Bill Wight, and caught up on the exciting developments out in Kansas City.

Steven Saltzberg, a Storytellers Channel teller, told his story of questionable childhood memories that he developed in our Stories Matter! Workshop at the SWAP in the Old Schoolhouse. So, now, he can proudly wear his I Told at The National Storytelling Festival button.

As we drove home, Marie’s and my conversation turned to who were our favorites. It’s always tough, our perennial favorites Bil Lepp, Donald Davis, Andy Offutt Irwin, Minton Sparks, and our own Sheila Arnold were delightful. We would have expected nothing less. Sheila’s Freedom Stories was a presentation, we’ll be privileged to hear multiple times.

Antonio Rocha’s physicality coupled with his energy and enthusiasm stands out as a highlight. Antonio, a native of Brazil, lived in Maine now. If you get a chance to catch him take advantage of the op. His Virtual Reality story is hysterical.

On a more somber note, Laura Simms, Artistic Director of the Hans Christian Anderson Storytelling Series in New York’s Central Park, condensed version of her Unlocking Nine Locks was deeply moving. Dealing with surviving rape, this presentation was obviously not for children. It left her audience with an elevated sense of the courage survivors need to face their trauma.

On a totally different note, Jeff Doyle was one of the new voices showcased during Exchange Place. For a long time to come thinking of his saga of travelling cross country with his grandparents in the Cadillac Starship Enterprise will bring a smile to my face and maybe even an involuntary chuckle.

Music played a vital part in this years festival. Whether it was John Jackson augmenting Minton’s poetic narratives, Rev. Robert B. Jones, Jr.’s Three Chords, Five Notes: The Story of American Music, or Josh Goforth’s Gospel and Folk Songs we tapped our toes, clapped our hands and were transported to places far away inside the vast expanse of our memories and imagination.

But for me the greatest performances of the festival were Donna Washington’s. Suffice it say Ms. Washington was awe inspiring. An army brat, she was raised on military bases around the world, she now lives in North Carolina. She has a passion for folk tales and weaves them into her personal narratives and vice-versa. Her style resonates with me. I grew up with personal stories interwoven with bible stories, folk tales and the occasional down right lie skillfully inserted to shine the light of truth where it may have been obscured.

Let me encourage you to attend next year’s festival. It’s the first full weekend in October in the lovely little town of Jonesborough, TN just about 30 miles south of Bristol off I-26.

Either way, look for ops to hear storytellers wherever you are and most importantly, encourage your family and friends to tell you stories that matter to them and who knows they may even be willing to listen to the stories that matter to you.

As I reread this it sounds exhausting. Ironically, even though I was too tired to drive straight home, I am jazzed, I am pumped up, I am raring to go. Because once again, I’ve seen how story can transport people. How it can melt boundaries. How it can unite!

Don’t forget. You Matter. Your Stories Matter. Tell Them Well and Tell Them Often.
And Remember to Listen.
It’s one of the nicest things we can do for one another.

DOWNLOAD
Tales of Deadly Matrimony
by
Edgar Allan Poe
Audio Book E-Book

I Want to Hear from You

Just 51 weeks until next year’s festival. I need to make our hotel reservation now.
Write me and tell me a story that matters to you.
Til next time,
Gayle Turner
Executive Producer.

Headed Home

It’s the time of the year when story lovers, both tellers and listeners come “home” to Jonesborough, TN for the National Storytelling Festival.
Bold Whisper’s Jennifer Einolf, DTM and I will be offering The Tell It Well Intensive on Oct. 10 at Meadpwbrook Country Club in Chesterfield.

*****************************

Remember: You Matter. Your Stories Matter. Tell Them Well!
Gayle Turner
The Storytellers Channel

Headed Home

Every year, the first full weekend in October, all eyes in the storytelling world turn to Jonesborough, TN; where this little sleepy town in the Appalachian foothills plays host to the National Storytelling Festival. Jonesborough is the home of the International Storytelling Center, the producers of the event.

You may be thinking, ‘What is the National Storytelling Festival?’ It’s where thousands of the closest friends you never knew you had come together to listen to world-class storytelling. Five tents seating anywhere from 750 to 1,000+ feature back-to-back storytelling from 10:00 in the morning til way past bedtime. Your new found friends sit cheek to jowl listening so attentively that you can hear a pin drop. Occasionally, the shows pause while a train runs by and on Sunday morning applause is replaced by finger snapping, so we don’t disturb the worship services going on in the nearby churches. Otherwise the small town ambiance is punctuated with uproarious laughter, crescendos of applause and the quiet roar of chatter between shows while attendees talk about who they’ve heard tell, who they want to hear tell and comparing this year’s crop to prior years.
Some of the attendees have been coming since the festival started in 1972.

When you’ve paid your admission you’re given a fabric swatch. They change from year to year and from day to day. You will see folks with long strings of patches safety pinned together proudly proclaiming their history of attending this cultural Mecca. As people come and go from the tents you will hear the tent hosts thanking people for “prominently displaying their swatches.” That’s their polite way of reminding people the tent hosts need to see their swatches to admit them.

The whole community pitches in particularly a meal times. Many of the churches open their doors offering affordable breakfast, lunch and dinner. Hearty soups, comfort foods like mac and cheese and fresh bread vie for attention alongside home baked cookies, cakes and pies. For those of us with fond childhood memories of church pot luck suppers its nostalgic delight. Plus you share tables with folks from far and wide. People come not just from across the U.S., but across the globe, both onstage and in the audience.

The tellers tell offer a wide variety. Personal stories, tall tales, fairy tales, stories from literature and history, and current events. Olios let you taste several tellers in one show. Those are offset by hour long stories by a single teller. The content is always family friendly, but not all shows will keep small children’s attention. This is storytelling for grown-ups.

This year the Festival’s website features rotating pics of Bil Lepp and Sheila Arnold. Both of whom have been featured headliners at Storytellers Channel’s Heart Afire Storytelling Festival here in Richmond. I’m so proud to see Sheila sharing the honor with Bil this year as the Faces of the Festival. Sheila was the first person to welcome me to the Virginia Storytelling Alliance (VASA), She’s the past Vice President of the Board and encouraged me to serve as President. She’s an amazing teller as are all of the tellers featured at the festival.

Another VASA member, Lynn Ruehlmann, will be featured at the Exchange Place this year. Bil Lepp, and Andy Offutt Irwin, both of whom have performed in RVA for Storytellers Channel, will also be telling and and Tim Lowry will be Emceeing.

Marie and I will be tent hosts at the Creekside Tent for the 4th time this year, so if you make it, look us up.

I’d love to meet you face-to-face.

DOWNLOAD
Tales of Deadly Matrimony
by
Edgar Allan Poe
Audio Book E-Book

I Want to Hear from You

Check out the festival website, I think they’ll be streaming some of the storytellers on Friday.
Til next time,
Gayle Turner
Executive Producer.

2018 National Storytelling Festival

This edition of the Storytellers Channel’s newsletter I’m going to regale you with highlights from the most recent National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, TN and the first Stories at the Center of the Universe.
Enjoy,
Gayle Turner
The Storytellers Channel

Every year for the last 46 the first full weekend in October sees thousands descend upon the sleepy little town of Jonesborough, TN. Why? It’s the National Storytelling Festival. This is the storytelling world’s Mecca. This year folks from as far away as Egypt, and England, and New Zealand came to hear their favorites and to discover new talent.

There are several events, workshops and concerts, leading up to the festival the week before Friday morning’s opening. Commencing at 10:00 am on that first Friday in five tents, spread out within a two-block walk of each other, thousands of folks settle in to listen to tellers from all over the globe transport them to other times and places. Whether they’re sharing folk tales or fairy tales, personal stories or stories from literature or history you can hear a pin drop until the audiences gasp or laugh or sigh. These are a sample of the best tellers in the English-speaking world. No patron leaves without having their heart moved.

My wife, Marie McGranahan-Turner, and I only heard 22 different tellers this year. We were also entertained by five others as MCs, plus we ran into numerous tellers in the streets we knew from other festivals. Every year the festival feels like a cross between an old-time tent revival and a southern family reunion where all the prodigal sons and daughters come home with stories of adventures in foreign lands.

The days are broken up into hour long performances and half-hour breaks allowing time to respond to nature’s call, hustle over to another tent or grab a snack, after all listening works up a powerful appetite. The printed schedule lets you see who’s performing what time and in what tent. The tents each seat anywhere from 750 to upwards of 1,500 folks. The sound systems are masterfully staffed by engineers who sit out among the audience. I’ve never had a hard time hearing in the last five years. Plus the front three rows are reserved for the hearing and visually impaired. Also there’s an area right next to the stage for wheel chair parking.

As a teller myself, I vacillate between being sucked right into the stories and marveling at the tellers’ mastery. Listening to Diane Ferlatte’s explanation of Bugs Bunny as the forebear of Brer Rabbit and then watching her amazingly animated performance punctuated by Erik Pearson’s guitar resurrected the 10-year-old in the heart of everyone within range of her voice. Tim Lowry, Ambassador of The House Wine of the South aka Sweet Tea, told of his love for Clara Barton and blew his audience away recounting how she, rightly so, became known as the Angel of the Battlefield. John McCutcheon, who is as accomplished a musician as he is a storyteller, if not more so, had his audience on their feet gustily singing along with We Shall Overcome as he sent us off to bed Saturday night.

Andy Hedges recited a narrative poem of the cow that got away. And Anne Rutherford regaled us with the exploits of Clementine and One-Eyed Bob.

Nationally recognized storytelling stars Andy Offutt Irwin and Geraldine Buckley and Elizabeth Ellis all of whom have performed here in Virginia served as MCs this year and charmed us with their wit and brevity as they kept the shows moving along.

Something came up and Antonio Rocha was unable to join us this year, but Bobby Norfolk jumped in and kept us entranced. Bobby’s coming to Richmond soon, we just have to work out the date.

The Virginia Storytelling Alliance (VASA), Virginia’s Storytellers’ state trade association, was well represented on and off the stage at the festival. Past Presidents Kim Weitkamp and Megan Hicks along with former Vice-President Sheila Arnold were all featured tellers. Jessica Piscitelli Robinson, founder of Better Said Than Done, was honored as an Exchange Place Teller.

Denise Bennett won 2nd Place in Story Slam. Sighted on the grounds were current Vice-President Norris Spencer and Current Treasurer, Helen Cubain, as well as, members Linda Goodman, David Joe Miller, Victoria Phelps, Lynn Ruehlmann and Darci Tucker. MyLinda Butterworth, Marie and I volunteered as tent hosts and so VASA was Loudly and Proudly represented at the festival.

Bill Wight, Board Chair, National Storytelling Network (NSN), his wife, Pat, storyteller Jim Gregory and Kiran Singh Sirah, President, International Storytelling Center (ISC) all dropped by the ISC courtyard and chewed the fat for awhile on Saturday morning before things started hoppin’. Bill has a vision for how NSN can better serve its members, the art form and the nation. Reach out to him and find out how you can help this true servant leader strengthen NSN and American Storytelling.

In the passage leading to the Jonesborough Repertory Theatre’s Stage Door right on Main Street the actors had set up a bake sale raising money for the theatre and offering one of the best deals of the festival: A bottomless cup of coffee refillable all three days. Marie and I were happy to support the theatre company and even happier to have a ready caffeine fix all weekend long.

A special shout out to the Jonesborough Police, especially Officer Tammy, for their low-key, comforting presence. And thanks to Stephen Callahan of Tennessee Hills Distillery for driving folks around in his golf cart, those hills are steep.

The last thing I’ll share in this missive about the 2018 festival was Bil Lepp’s telling of his story, The King of Little Things. It’s one of the most enchanting and endearing storytelling experiences I’ve had since I was a child. I cannot recommend it enough.

Want to Volunteer Next Year at The National Storytelling Festival?
If you’d like to volunteer at the festival, drop me an email at gayle@storytellerschannel.com with NSF Volunteer Info Request in the Subject Line and I’ll be happy to explain the process for applying to serve.

Stories at The Center of the Universe
The Center of the Universe, that’s how the folks in Ashland, VA refer to their little town. Situated right on the railroad tracks that run through the center of town where VA state Rt 54 intersects the tracks sits Ashland Coffee & Tea. This past Friday, October 12 from 6:30-7:30 saw the inaugural Second Fridays Storytellers Channel hosts Stories at The Center of the Universe.
Dr. Jim Lavender, Danita Rountree Green, Gayle Turner and Denise Bennet entertained the audience and set the tone for Getting Weir’d, a Grateful Dead cover band. Future Second Fridays will start at 7:00 pm and go til 9:00. There will be an Open Mic opportunity for those folks who wish to try their hand at telling a tale. We expect to stream the show.

Until next time, remember
You Matter. Your Stories Matter. So Tell Them Well.