National Storytelling Festival

The National Storytelling Festival is held the first full weekend of October in Jonesborough, Tennessee at the International Storytelling Center. The National Storytelling Festival was founded by Jimmy Neil Smith, a high school journalism teacher in 1973. It has grown over the years to become a major festival both in the United States and internationally.

History

In 1973, Jimmy Neil Smith, a high school journalism teacher, and a carload of students heard Grand Ole Opry regular Jerry Clower spin a tale over the radio about coon hunting in Mississippi. Smith was inspired by that event to create a story telling festival in Northeast Tennessee.

In October 1973, the first National Storytelling Festival was held in Jonesborough, Tennessee. Hay bales and wagons were the stages, and audience and tellers together didn't number more than 60.

Two years after the first festival, Smith founded the National Storytelling Association (NSA), an organization that led America's storytelling renaissance. For almost a quarter of a century, NSA served as the connecting point for this storytelling revival — the momentum behind this ever-widening movement. Today, NSA (now known as the International Storytelling Center) promotes the power of storytelling and the creative applications of this ancient tradition to enrich the human experience in the home, at the workplace, and throughout the world.

The Festival

Produced by the International Storytelling Center, the three-day outdoor festival features performances by internationally-known artists and has been hailed “the leading event of its kind in America”^{[cite this quote]} by USA Today. In existence for nearly 40 years, the Festival attracts more than 10,000 audience members to Jonesborough---Tennessee's oldest town---from across the United States and world annually, including school groups whose students attend as an educational experience.

The festival builds on the Appalachian cultural tradition of storytelling. Held under circus tents scattered throughout Jonesborough, storytellers sit on stages or at the head of the tent to perform. There are usually five or six tents in close proximity so that festival goers can easily walk from tent to tent and from performance to performance.

Past storytellers include Carmen Agra Deedy, Jay O'Callahan, Donald Davis, Syd Lieberman, Andy Offutt Irwin, and Kathryn Tucker Windham. The festival has expanded to include the growing ranks of Youth Storytellers, including showcasing participants and winners of the National Youth Storytelling Showcase. The festival influenced the development of a storytelling graduate degree program^[1] at the nearby East Tennessee State University. This is the only Master's degree program of its kind.^{[citation needed]}

References

1. ^ "Storytelling". East Tennessee State University. http://www.etsu.edu/stories/. 

External links

• Festival Index
• National Storytelling Festival begins Friday in Jonesborough by James Brooks for the Times News, September 30, 2007.
• Interview with Connie Regan-Blake on The Art of Storytelling with Brother Wolf Show - "A History of the National Storytelling Festival"