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11/22/2024
You don't have to spend a lot of time or money to become an advocate for the arts. Here's a simple and direct way to show your love: purchase a specialized license plate.
The process is easy:
- Visit your local County Clerk's Office.
- Ask for a Tennessee Arts Commission License Plate.
- Exchange your old plate for a shiny new one. (Don’t forget your screwdriver!)
- Show off your love for the arts as you drive around town.
This Friday, we are hosting a screening of 'Incredible Appalachians' by director Frederick Murphy. It is a powerful and poignant documentary that illuminates the rich and often overlooked experiences of Black Appalachians. We hope you can join us!
We are excited to invite you to a special screening of the groundbreaking documentary "Indelible Appalachians" on November 15, 2024, at 6:30 PM . This powerful film sheds light on the often overlooked contributions, history, and experiences of Black people in Appalachia.
Through personal stories, historical insights, and captivating visuals, Indelible Appalachians reveals the deep and enduring legacy of African American communities in a region rich with culture and resilience. It is a narrative of strength, survival, and the indelible mark Black Appalachians have made on American history.
International Storytelling Center
Date: November 15, 2024
Time: 6:30 PM
100 W Main St, Jonesborough, TN 37659
Following the screening, there will be a panel discussion with the filmmakers and local historians, providing an opportunity to engage in meaningful dialogue about the film’s themes and the rich history of Black Appalachia.
We would be honored to have you join us for this inspiring event!
Looking forward to seeing you there!
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10/18/2024
Thank you to our wonderful friends at the Athens Storytelling Festival for supporting us. Check out their lineup!
10/09/2024
Thank you to our friends at Timpanogos for supporting us. We are beyond fortunate to be involved in such a loving, supportive community. Learn more about TimpFest online here https://conta.cc/4dGxfRZ
10/04/2024
Reflections on the Aftermath of Hurricane Helene on Northeast Tennessee from ISC President Michael Carson
We in Jonesborough and other Northeast Tennessee towns and counties are still in a state of shock and pain one week after Hurricane Helene ravaged our region with floods, fallen trees, broken bridges, and closed hospitals. Hundreds of people are still missing, many families do not have running water or electricity in their homes, and inaccessible roads have prevented people from traveling to purchase groceries and essential medicines. At least three county hospitals have closed due to flooding (including the hospital in Greeneville, where my father was born), and patients at the Unicoi County Hospital had to be airlifted to safety.
In the short time since the disaster, I have been inspired by community members, churches, the Town of Jonesborough and other local governments, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s collective spirit and effort to provide much-needed relief. Together, we will rebuild our homes, schools, roads, water towers, and houses that have been damaged by the flooding of the Nolichucky River and other streams and creeks in the countryside.
I have been, and continue to be, deeply motivated by the compassion and power of the storytellers that I have had the opportunity to meet since relocating to Jonesborough last April. Within moments of announcing that we were cancelling our 2024 National Storytelling Festival, we received messages of encouragement and support from our community. Storytellers from Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio, North Carolina, Kentucky, Georgia, and more have organized fundraisers and collected supplies to bring to community groups in Jonesborough. This weekend, five storytellers who were scheduled to perform at our National Storytelling Festival have organized a benefit performance for Northeast Tennessee at Jonesborough’s newly renovated Jackson Theatre. Not only will the proceeds help with recovery, but also the stories themselves will help heal and comfort our community during this desperate time.
This week, storyteller Donald Davis has performed eight shows at our theater, moving audiences with memories about his beloved hometown of Waynesville, North Carolina (also impacted by Hurricane Helene). Despite the Festival’s cancellation, our Storytelling Live performances will continue through the end of the month as planned. We at the International Storytelling Center are in deep solidarity with communities that are suffering from the devastation of Hurricane Helene and will strive to be a beacon of a respite, solace, and even joy during our region’s recovery.
Michael Carson
President, International Storytelling Center
10/03/2024
ISC is proud to support Storytellers GIving Back!
Storytellers Giving Back: A Benefit for the Jonesborough Community
With the catastrophic damage caused by Hurricane Helene in the area, our hearts are with Jonesborough and the surrounding communities. Even though the National Storytelling Festival has been canceled, a small group of storytellers will present a free benefit concert this Saturday, October 5 at the Jackson Theater in Jonesborough, live-streamed and in-person. All monetary donations will go to the United Way of East Tennessee Highlands. Please use the QR code or link below to donate.
100% of these donations will directly benefit the affected communities in Washington and Unicoi Counties. Please give generously from your heart.
Saturday, October 5
7:00-9:00 PM EDT
Jackson Theater
125 W. Main
Jonesborough, TN
With storytellers: Sheila Arnold, Donald Davis, Andy Offutt Irwin, Bil Lepp, Paul Strickland, and Jonesborough’s own Barbara McBride-Smith, serving as emcee.
Donations to the United Way of East Tennessee Highlands can be made here: https://conta.cc/47QWMq4
10/02/2024
We are deeply saddened by the devastation that has impacted our region from Hurricane Helene. ISC is committed to supporting our community during these challenging times.
One way ISC is contributing is by donating fifty percent of this week’s Storytelling Live ticket sales to United Way of East TN Highlands and the Neighbor to Neighbor Disaster Relief Fund of the East Tennessee Foundation. These funds go to East Tennessee non-profits exclusively focused on disaster relief and recovery.
We’re deeply sorry to announce the cancellation of the 2024 National Storytelling Festival.
As you likely know, the Southeast region has been devastated by Hurricane Helene. Critical infrastructure has been compromised, local resources are strained, and hotels are filled with displaced and hurting people. Many roads and bridges in Tennessee and the surrounding states are damaged or closed.
Our top priority is the health and safety of our neighbors, who graciously help us host this event every year — as well as our audience, staff, volunteers, and tellers. While this has been an emotionally difficult decision to make, we’re confident that it’s the right choice for everyone.
This week, we will be handling the logistical challenges of dismantling the event (for which the tents have already been raised). We will be in touch with all registered ticket holders in the coming days. If you can, please wait for that communication for further action. Anyone who needs an immediate refund can contact customer service at [email protected].
In the meantime, we appreciate your patience and your well wishes. Please keep Jonesborough and the many other communities that are suffering from this storm in your thoughts.
Sincerely,
Michael Carson
ISC President
09/27/2024
Our Storytelling Live performance with Laura Simms has been cancelled. We unfortunately do not have power! More information to come.
09/27/2024
ISCs power is out! Please be patient as you try to connect with us.
09/20/2024
Today is the day you’ve all been waiting for! Drumroll please...the schedule is here! Check out the schedule for the National Storytelling Festival and let us know who you are most excited to see! https://conta.cc/3Sn90yo
09/19/2024
You still have time to see Dovie! She will have shows through Saturday but you can always catch his virtual performance. One ticket is good for your household and you can enjoy the show anytime over the weekend! https://conta.cc/4cGk5Uk
09/18/2024
Want a taste of the National Storytelling Festival? Sign up for our livestream! We will stream all he performances from the Library tent on Friday, October 4. Still need convincing? Here is last years livestream Festival https://conta.cc/47j2otb
Not only will the amazing Dovie Thomason be here for the National Storytelling Festival but she is here this week for Storytelling Live! She will have shows Tuesday through Saturday at 2 pm with a virtual option over the weekend. Get a taste of her enchanting tales before she joins us under the tents. https://conta.cc/4cGk5Uk
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Throughout the world, in every culture, people have told stories–at home and at work, when the harvest was taken in, the wood was cut and carted, and the wool was woven. And while the folk were telling their stories, so too were the bards and the minstrels, the griots and troubadours, who were the poets, singers and guardians of a people’s history.
Today, we still enjoy stories–listening to them, telling them–as deeply as did our ancestors, for our lives are bound together with stories; the tales, perhaps ever so ordinary, that seem to catch us up and in some obscure, almost magical way, help us make sense of our world. And since our lives are still intertwined with stories, it would seem that the art of storytelling should have a forever-unchanging place of honor in our history and culture. Yet this is not so. Despite its ageless power and importance, this ancient folk art has, until recently, been forgotten–lost in a sea of print, film and videotape that is testimony to the media’s skill at filling us up with images and ideas that were once the province of the oral tradition.
But during the late 1960s and early 1970s, there emerged throughout America a realization that we were losing our connection to the genuine one-on-one communication of the told tale. The seeds for a re-awakening of interest in the oral tradition were being sown. And in 1973, in a tiny Tennessee town, something happened that rekindled our national appreciation of the told story and became the spark plug for a major cultural movement–the rebirth of the art of storytelling.
It began serendipitously in Jonesborough, Tennessee, a 200-year-old town in the heart of the Southern Appalachian Mountains. On the second Saturday night in October 1973, Jerry Clower, a Mississippi c**n hunter and storyteller, leapt to the stage in a hot, jammed high school gymnasium and told tales to more than a thousand East Tennesseans. They had come for some side-splitting humor in the tales that had made Clower a household name throughout the Deep South. The crowd stomped and cheered and didn’t leave disappointed. The next afternoon, under a warm October sun, an old farm wagon in Courthouse Square served as a stage. And the storytellers were there—a former Arkansas congressman, a Tennessee banker, a college professor, a western North Carolina farmer. They told their tales and breathed life into the first National Storytelling Festival.
Something had happened, and even as people sat listening, they knew they would return the next year and the next. It was as if an ancient memory had been jogged–of people throughout time sitting together, hearing stories. They were taken back to a time when the story, transmitted orally, was all there was.
Every October since 1973, thousands of travelers have visited Tennessee’s oldest town. They come for one purpose–to hear stories and to tell them at the National Storytelling Festival. This celebration of America’s rich and varied storytelling tradition, the oldest and most respected gathering anywhere in America devoted to storytelling, has in turn spawned a national revival of this venerable art.
But of course, there have always been storytellers–solitary tellers–telling stories, keeping them alive. They were inspired not by a groundswell for storytelling, but simply because there was within them a need to tell. They are the storytellers who have been at the vanguard of the cultural movement that is sweeping through America. They are the storytellers who were among the architects of America’s storytelling revival. Single voices at first, they soon were joined by others who were also attracted to the power and humanity of the storytelling art. Today, there are hundreds of professional storytellers traveling throughout the United States, sharing their timeless tales. And yes, thousands more who are teachers, librarians, ministers, lawyers, salesmen, therapists, and others who use storytelling as an integral part of their lives and work.
Since its beginning in 1973, the National Storytelling Festival has become America’s foremost storytelling showcase and it has nurtured and nourished a national rebirth of storytelling. And as more of us discover and tell the stories in our own lives, the connection–the genuine one-on-one communication of the told story–will allow us to give back to our world something as precious and treasured as life itself.
The National Storytelling Festival is produced by the International Storytelling Center.
