South Windsor Public Library

South Windsor Public Library Event Calendar

Date:

11/18/2023

Time:

7:00 PM - 8:30 PM

Title:

Tellabration! A Celebration of the Oral Tradition

Contact:

Kevin Sullivan, 860-648-2154

Location:

Friends Room

Description:

South Windsor Public Library Presents Tellabration! A Celebration of the Oral Tradition

Tellabration is a mammoth storytelling event - and thats no Tall Tale! It is a storytelling phenomenon, made up of dozens of storytelling happenings all over the world. Its purpose is to introduce adults, as well as children, to the pleasures of the oral art of storytelling. It is one of the programs offered by The Connecticut Storytelling Center, based in New London.
The South Windsor Public Library will host a Tellabration for adults and older children on Saturday, November 18th at 7:00 p.m. Carol Birch and Sara deBeer will be performing.

Carol Birch’s art is an absence of artifice. She can be exhilarating or confiding, but she's invariably warm and full of pluck. Her repertoire features biographies of people whose spirits
reveal their compassion, courage, and endurance that only enhances our experience of being alive! In her sure voice, stories by fine authors - Carl Sandburg, Ray Bradbury, John Steinbeck
- are as appropriately conversational and intimate as the stories of her family. Recipient of the National Storytelling Network’s Circle of Excellence Award, Birch’s books, videos, recordings, and teaching have been recognized with multiple awards. She’s performed across the nation, including nine appearances at the National Storytelling Festival in Tennessee. With appearances on CBS This Morning, Nightline, and NPR, she’s also received two grants from the NEH; invitational tours to Australia, Europe, and Singapore; and led five storytelling tours through Ireland, Scotland and England.

People really get INTO the stories Sara tells. A ninety-one-year-old observed, “As I listen to you, I imagine a lot of things and I can put myself into the situations and how would I react? Would I react the same way as the people in the story? It’s mind-building.” A fifth-grader confided, "Ever since the day I have heard one of your stories, it always feels like no one is around me and I am an actual character in the story." When I think of the value of storytelling, I remember running into some New Haven teenagers. They stared at me for a few moments and then smiles of recognition broke out on their faces. "You're the storyteller, aren't you? You came to our second grade class and told us that story about that magic tree.” These kids had heard me six years ago, and yet they still remembered me AND the story I'd told them; their smiles showed that the memories were good ones. It is encounters like this that remind me how much I love being a storyteller.

A full listing of Tellabration sites in Connecticut with dates and times can be found by logging onto http://www.connstorycenter.org. and clicking on “Tellabration” or by calling The Connecticut Storytelling Center at 860-934-8165.