Range of ‘ tellers’ on tap
Stories always have been a part of our lives. Our parents read us books before bedtime. Our clergy give us sermons in our places of worship. Heck, even conversations around the family dining nook often include stories. So it’s safe to say stories are all around us. And this weekend, they will be front and center at the Bay Area Storytelling Festival in Orinda.
The event, which runs Friday through Sunday, April 24- 26, at the Orinda Community Center, is a project of the Storytelling Association of California. It will include concerts, storytelling sessions that will appeal to teenagers and some sessions on Sunday designed for younger children. There also is an invitational spoken- word slam for local high school students.
According to co- founder Michael Baefsky, the storytelling festival celebrates a form of expression that is quite literally thousands of years old.
“Oral storytelling is an art for everyone, from the cutest kids and the hippest adults through the wisest grandparents,” he says. “A good live story is different every time, depends on the audience, and creates a scenario in which the authors are drawing pictures, but with their words.”
This year’s festival — the 29th overall — features a noteworthy lineup of “tellers,” as they’re known. Among them: Tim Tingle, an Oklahoma Choctaw; Kate Campbell, a singer- songwriter; and Clare Murphy, who uses the platform of story to create shows that are full of observational humor, social commentary and epic journeys.
Also, the special guest this year is Hawaii’s first poet laureate, Kealoha.
Throughout the weekend, these tellers will engage in impromptu storytelling of various kinds. Without question, the most family- friendly portion of the program takes place on Sunday. The day begins with fiddle music by Irish fiddler Peter Kasin. In the late morning, there’s a kids’ concert. After lunch, there’s a kids’ workshop that marries stories and story- specific arts and crafts.
Story- crazed fans also can participate in sessions of “story swaps,” during which people have five or 10 minutes to tell stories of their own. Baefsky says to think of these sessions as “open mike” time.
“I am hoping that story will make its way into kids’ ears and brains and bodies and they will be excited about listening to stories,” he says. “If we do this right, hopefully something about the festival will spark something in these kids and encourage them to also tell their own stories.”
Baefsky estimates the festival will draw about 500 people. Our advice: Bring the kids Sunday, listen to the concert, stick around for the arts and crafts, and then grab lunch up the street in downtown Orinda. When you get home, challenge the kiddos to recount the experience to friends. As Baefsky likes to say, there’s no better way to support storytelling than by practicing it yourself.