Time To TELLABRATE!

Who among us has not at some point been an oral storyteller?  It may have happened sitting at the dinner table relating an incident or an encounter of the day.  It may be grandma telling her grandchildren about her five mile walk through the snow to school.  Or perhaps, it is making up a bedtime story on the spot to get your child to sleep.  The point is we have all engaged in this art form – perhaps without even realizing it.

Well, once upon a time before radio, tv, facebook, and twitter and even before ‘writing and the printing press, telling stories was the only way cultures had to pass down their history, educate their people, teach the rules.  It is perhaps the most enduring method of communications we have ever known.’ (John Tedstrom)  This ancient tradition of oral storytelling is perhaps the most personal and intimate form of storytelling.  Both the teller and the listener are actively engaged in the process, which is constantly evolving.  According to the National Storytelling Network storytelling is described as the interactive art of using words and actions to reveal the elements and images of a story while encouraging the listener’s imagination.  It is interactive involving a two-way relationship between the teller and the listener.  It encourages the active imagination of the listener.  As a listener you create vivid, multi-sensory images, actions, characters and events.  The flexibility of oral storytelling extends to the teller.  “Each teller will bring their own personality and character to the story.  Some tellers consider anything outside the simple telling as extraneous while other storytellers choose to enhance their telling of the tale with the addition of visual and audio tools, specific actions and creative strategies and devices.” (Wikipedia)

Every November, thousands of tellers and listeners gather on every continent (except Antarctica) to celebrate the joys of storytelling in an event trade-marked as TELLABRATION!  TELLABRATION! originator J. G. Pinkerton envisioned this international event as a means of building community support for storytelling. In 1988 the event was launched by the Connecticut Storytelling Center in six locations across the state. A great success, TELLABRATION! extended to several other states the following year, and then, in 1990, expanded nationwide under the umbrella of the National Storytelling Network and then spread into the international arena.

Connecticut’s Tellabration! 2013 will be happening in conjunction with the world-wide event.  Connecticut Storytellers have a month-long list of activities and events to bring this ancient art to all of us.  Connecitcut’s Tellabration! will bring together the area’s most celebrated storytellers to delight, captivate, and mesmerize audiences with their tales.  For a listing of events or to find one happening in your area visit their calendar.  An interesting side note is that one of Connecticut’s Storytellers was the first storyteller ever to audition for America’s Got Talent.  Most of the November events are designed for children and families.  There are some that are for adults only.  So join in the tellabration and hear some wonderful stories by some of Connecticut’s most accomplished tellers!
The Connecticut Storytelling Center was founded in 1984, to build upon the success of the annual Storytelling Festival.  The organization is based at Connecticut College in New London and it strives to provide the means for people of all ages to experience stories as a means of expression and communication, as a tool for thinking, reflecting, teaching and learning, and as a catalyst for change.  To learn more about them and the many ways that they outreach to the citizenry of CT visit their website.