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Tellabration!

November 6, 2003

CARROLLTON, GA - Folklore, legends, lies and a ghost story or two — journey back to Grandma’s front porch for an evening of storytelling at Tellabration! 2003 at the University of West Georgia on Thursday, Nov. 20.

Sponsored by the Department of Continuing Education, the storytelling event will take place during the worldwide Tellabration!, an annual program of storytelling evenings coordinated on every continent but Antarctica by the National Storytelling Network. From 7 to 9 p.m. in Kathy Cashen Recital Hall on the UWG campus, four regionally and nationally known tellers will weave yarns of Southern wisdom, wit, facts and fiction with a casual, lighthearted focus.

Tellabration! is a family event, but the stories are not childlike, according to Dora Hayes, coordinator of community programs for Continuing Education. Part of an international week of oral arts emphasis, Tellabration! offers a means for people to bond through stories of their common heritage.

“All over the world, they’ll be telling stories at events to try to keep alive the flavor of their cultures,” said Hayes. “Oral arts is a prime venue to encourage people to be proud of their roots. We all have a story to tell, and we all have those colorful people in our past and in our families that we talk about when we get together.”

First launched by the Connecticut Storytelling Center in 1988, Tellabration! expanded to several other states the following year and then went nationwide in 1990 under the umbrella of the organization now known as the National Storytelling Network. In 1995, a Japanese storyteller who had been involved in Connecticut’s event introduced Tellabration! to Japan, and by 1997 it had become a worldwide program of storytelling revival.

UWG’s Tellabration! 2003 event will showcase four tellers of stories with a small town flavor who are well known for their appearances at festivals, Tellabrations, conferences, art and history centers, churches, schools, retirement centers, coffee houses, retreats and workshops. In addition, Sally White, a teller and co-producer of the Roswell Tellabration! since its beginning, will serve as emcee for the evening.

Leslie Buie, a winner of the Toastmasters International annual Georgia Tall Tales Contest, will tell two tales that offer glimpses of his Southern heritage: “Pillars of the Church” and “A Bachelor, a Three-Year-Old and a Greyhound Bus Trip.”

Grace Hawthorne, managing editor of the national Storytelling Magazine, will perform her popular routine “Politics, Pot Likker and Proper Southern Ladies.” Hawthorne has had her stories featured on National Public Radio and WRFG Radio Free Georgia.

Ron Kemp, first runner-up in the 2001 Storyteller of the Year national competition, will tell “The Piano Lessons,” one of his humorous stories of small town America.

Martha Tate, a psychotherapist whose work has dealt with the therapeutic value of stories, will conclude the evening with “Harrington’s Mother – The Magnolia Matriarch.” Tate is the producer and performer of the children’s video The Story House.

Tate and Kemp will also perform at the Roswell Tellabration! in Roswell, Ga., on Saturday, Nov. 22.

Tickets for UWG’s Tellabration! 2003 are $5. To reserve your seat or for more information, contact the Department of Continuing Education at 770-836-6610.

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