This October, the International Storytelling Center will host its 52nd annual National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, Tennessee. The event will run from Friday, Oct. 3, through Sunday, Oct. 5, and will feature more than 20 storytellers, each with their own unique voice and stories to share.
The NSF first began in 1973. Jimmy Neil Smith, a teacher at Science Hill High School, came up with the idea while on a trip with his students when they heard Jimmy Crowder on the radio telling stories.
The first festival took place outside the courthouse in Jonesborough with around 60 local attendees sitting on hay bales and truck beds. In recent years, the festival’s audience has grown to include more than 10,000 people coming from all 50 states and a few other countries.
“Part of our mission at the International Storytelling Center is to preserve the art form of storytelling. Before there was written word, before there was music, before there was anything, there were stories,” said Angela White, communications associate at the International Storytelling Center. “Regardless of what culture you look at, there are stories, and they’re passed down from generation to generation. It’s vital to who we are as people and to our history, how we’ve grown and changed and developed.”
There will be five large tents located throughout downtown Jonesborough, each hosting various storytellers during the weekend. Stories will include folktales, fairy tales, myths, legends, historical accounts, personal stories and more from a multitude of different cultures.
The NSF also has a Legacy Series, which features guests who are not traditional storytellers but still have an important story to share.
This year, the series will feature Maj. Gen. John Borling, a Vietnam War veteran. Borling was held as a prisoner of war in isolation for more than six years. During that time, he wrote poetry that he tapped on the walls in a special code the POWs had created. After being released, he turned his poetry into a book.
“We do it to preserve their story, to make sure their voice is heard, to make sure that they have a platform to share their story,” said White. “It is for entertainment, but also there’s an educational or humanities aspect to it, that someone needs to hear this story. It’s important not only to acknowledge the past, but to make sure it doesn’t repeat itself and to make sure that their stories don’t get lost in history.”
In past years, the Legacy Series has featured other notable guests with important stories, including a Holocaust survivor, a Navajo Code Talker from World War II and three women who, like Ruby Bridges, were among the first children to help desegregate schools in the South.
In addition to the main storytelling tents, there are some events that require their own tickets, which can be purchased either with the day tickets or separately to attend only that event.
The biggest event outside of the main tents is Ghost Stories, which will take place on Friday and Saturday nights, helping to kick off the month of October with spooky vibes.
Tickets can be purchased online until Sunday, Oct. 28, or in person at either the International Storytelling Center or the Jonesborough Visitors Center after that date.
The Ghost Stories event offers the cheapest tickets available for $10, making it a good entry point for those interested in learning more about storytelling.
One of the storytelling tents will also have a free livestream hosted through Eventbrite that can be found on ISC’s website.
“Part of the joy of the festival is that in between performances, people just talk to each other. Everyone’s there for the same purpose, so they want to talk to each other. They want to tell their own story. They want to talk about how long they’ve been coming,” said White. “But overall, what we’re really trying to do is preserve the art form, follow the art form as it adapts and then find ways that we can practically use applied storytelling in our day-to-day lives and with our community.”
For more information, visit storytellingcenter.net.
