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The National Storytelling Festival Revisited

© Chris King

Everyone loves listening to a good story. If you want to hear the best of the best stories and storytellers, sign up for the National Storytelling Festival held annually the first weekend of October in Jonesborough, Tennessee. I just returned from the 29th Festival — my 11th in a row — and I don’t know of a more delightful and exhilarating trip and event. The National Storytelling Festival was created in 1973 by Jimmy Neil Smith, a former journalism teacher and mayor of Jonesborough. His inspiration, quite simply, was a well-told tale heard over a car radio — a story told by Grand Ole Opry star Jerry Clower about hunting in Mississippi. Why not a storytelling festival? Smith wondered. For the first event, about 60 people gathered behind a wagon that served as a stage to listen to stories. Today, more than 10,000 people gather in gigantic tents for three days of practically non-stop storytelling. Every year I attend the Festival, I return home as a listener refreshed and inspired, and as a storyteller filled with ideas — not to copy the featured tellers, but to consider what worked for them and why. In this article I am going to share this year’s impressions and some of the ideas that are rumbling around in my storyteller’s head.

Who attends this Festival and what kind of stories will you experience? Story lovers, listeners, tellers, librarians, teachers, youngsters, and oldsters listen to worldwide folklore, hilarious tales, myths, personal stories, cowboy poetry, stories from many cultures, stories set to music, and more, from Friday morning through Sunday afternoon. The tellers come to Jonesborough from all over the world and each has his or her own unique approach to storytelling. If you want humor, you will find humor. If you want seriousness, you will find the serious. If you want music and rhythm, you will be singing, clapping, and tapping your feet. If you want scary, ghost stories, you’ll hear them in the dark of night, and if you’re looking for late night adult fun, you will find it at the Midnight Cabarets.

The variety and uniqueness of the tellers, their stories, and their approaches to storytelling make the Festival more exciting than riding the biggest roller coaster in the world. I went from laughing so hard I nearly fell out of chair, to crying so hard I was glad to have a plethora of tissues.

Laughter and poignancy walk hand-in-hand throughout Festival mainstay Donald Davis’ stories of growing up in Appalachia. Downright belly-aching laughter accompanied Willy Claflin’s sessions. Willy was new to me, but certainly not to storytelling. I know that I have mentioned in previous articles caution about using props. Willy not only uses his voice and guitar, along with other instruments, but also introduces “Maynard Moose” a large hand puppet who tells moose versions of well-known folk and fairy tales. Peter Cook is a deaf performing artist, who shared his rollicking, original stories through American Sign Language (ASL) coupled with lots of movement and a partner who voices some of the words.

The Storycrafters, Jeri Burns and Barry Marshall, regaled us with their indigenous musical instruments and songs, along with stories set to rap. Chuna McIntyre uses the traditional Yup’ik Eskimo stories learned from his grandmother to create contemporary stories, sounds and images. Kathryn Windham, another Festival mainstay brought us her hilarious southern stories from Selma, Alabama while Ed Stivendar, another no-holds-barred regular at the Festival had us shaking with laughter about his Philadelphia Mummer Parade experiences.

We can always depend upon Barbara McBride-Smith to lighten our day with her modern day interpretations of Greek myths, post-modern folktales and unforgettable Bible stories — this year we heard the true version of the ark by Mrs. Noah. The use of music enhanced the impact of the performances of Heather Forest’s unique minstrel style that blends original music, folk guitar, poetry, and prose with the sung and spoken word. The Healing Force, the dynamic quartet founded by husband and wife team of Joseph and Gail Anderson and joined by daughter Sonji and son Karim moved all of us with their incredible voices — both sung and spoken.

Francis Firebrace, a member of the Yorta Yorta Aboriginal tribal clan and new to the Festival, shared stories of Aboriginal culture and history. Elizabeth Ellis, an all time favorite at the Festival, moved me to tears as she told a quilt story about her mother, and then in another session had me crying with laughter about her son’s wedding.

We were all taken with Sheila Kay Adams’ strong presence, Brenda Wong Aoki’s dynamism, Derek Burrows’ warmth, Antonio Sacre’s range of characterization, Beth Horner’s vivacity, and Jim May’s strength and sincerity.

And, I will never forget the unbelievable silence in one of the biggest tents as we were mesmerized by one of my all-time favorite tellers, Syd Lieberman, as he performed One Righteous Man: The Story of Raoul Wallenberg. I could write as much as I have already written just to describe the impact this presentation make upon me.