Tellabration participant Ina Buckner-Barnette a.k.a. The Sunshine Storyteller in a still from a performance video.
Storytelling: it’s what we do as humans. We share food. We share drinks. We tell stories. It’s one of the ways in which we have come to understand our world. It’s how we learn, share ideas and express who we are at our very core. Everybody has a family member or friend blessed with the gift of gab that can leave us intrigued, yearning for more, or doubled over in laughter. As we have evolved as a species, oral communication is the main way we have passed down information from our ancestors—which plants to eat, how to hunt, how to build homes and successful societies.
Storytelling is practically etched into our DNA.
Tellabration is a celebration of storytelling held annually the Saturday before Thanksgiving. Internationally acclaimed storyteller J.G. “Paw-Paw” Pinkerton had a dream of connecting communities through shared stories and created Tellabration in 1988. With a humble beginning of six concert-hall gatherings in Connecticut, it grew steadily due the overwhelming power of word of mouth. Now there are events throughout the U.S. and on every continent aside from Antarctica.
A Texas native, Pinkerton was in the Navy during World War II, afterwards he worked for a mining company for 40 years; both of which loaded him up with ammunition for stories of travel and extremely hard work. In his retirement he found a new calling performing stories of personal experiences, folktales and down-home humor. He passed away in 2008, but his legacy lives on.
Storytelling is alive and thriving here in Long Beach. This Saturday, November 17th is the twelfth year that Tellabration will be held at the El Dorado Nature Center. It will feature some of the city’s best storytelling talents: Laura Bosworth, Q the Storyteller, Drea Douglas, Ina Buckner-Barnette, Dorothy Spirus, David Whiting and Diana Spirithawk.
“There’s going to be eight different storytellers and they will tell stories that range from personal stories, to re-telling of folktales, to original stories,” said Bosworth, the coordinator and one of the performers. “It’s kind of like a potluck of stories.”
Bosworth became interested in storytelling about 15 years ago when she started going to meetings, started trying out telling stories and going to different events and workshops all over Southern California.
As a therapist, she has dedicated her life’s work to listening to stories. She says that studies have been done proving there is a connection with some of the neurotransmitters in the brain and the act of listening to stories that prove it is very beneficial to people. Also, the act of telling stories triggers some of those same neurotransmitters, she says, and makes people feel better.
“It goes back as far as people have been alive we’ve told each other stories, so I think it resonates very deeply to people,” says Bosworth. “In this day of digital connections, it is always wonderful to have time to put on an event like Tellabration where there are true human connections. I always say that storytelling is the first virtual reality.”
Bosworth is also an organizer of the Long Beach Storylovers that meet at 7PM the first Wednesday of every month in the library at Los Altos United Methodist Church. The group is organized through meetup.com and is open to all members of the community to join. “We usually have any where from six to ten different people; some tell, some listen, some come just to find out more about it,” she says.
There is no one website that lists all the storytelling events in our area but, Bosworth sends out a monthly newsletter to her fellow story-lovers. She admits that, “Storytellers are wonderful people but sometimes it’s like herding cats. They don’t exactly always do stuff together.”
So catch them while you can at this adult storytelling concert (suggested age limit is 10 and up). Step away from the computer, turn off the T.V. and join in on the worldwide Tellabration!
Tellabration is being held Saturday, November 17 from 7:30PM to 9:30PM at the El Dorado Nature Center (7550 E. Spring St.). Tickets are $5 with free parking and refreshments. RSVP to (562) 570-1745.
For more information about the Long Beach Storytellers meetup, click here.
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