Do Tell Story Swap - Sonoma County
Member of Storytelling Association of California (SAC)
The Inland Valley Storytellers in Southern California and the Do Tell Story Swap of Sonoma County produced a joint Zoom Tellabration! ™ on November 10 at 7:00 PM. There were 47 people connected to the Zoom event, despite the fact that the session was opened 45 minutes late and we probably lost some people who got tired of waiting.
Below is information about both storytelling groups involved in this joint Tellabration! ™ as well as bios for all of the tellers. There is a description of the history of Tellabration! ™ at the bottom of this page.
Do Tell Story Swap has been meeting for 10 years as a noncompetitive, supportive gathering for all teens and adults to share stories by telling and listening. We meet in Rohnert Park, California, on the second Tuesday of each month. See our web site www.dotellstoryswap.org for more information about our Swap. Do Tell Story Swap tellers present tales of all kinds: old and new, folklore from around the globe, true or tall tales, myths, and personal experiences. Our tellers come from all walks of life with stories to tell. Stories are told, generally 5 minutes or less, keeping stories lively and succinct and providing opportunity for all to tell. No judges, no pressure, no worries - just inclusive, entertaining fun!
There were 4 tellers and a Master of Ceremonies from Do Tell Story Swap. If you click on their name, you will get a short bio about each teller and the MC.
Elaine Stanley ............................. Katy Mangan
Robin Whealdon ............................. Sharon Elwell
Inland Valley Storytellers of Southern California
Affiliate Member of National Storytelling Network (NSN)
Member of Storytelling Association of California (SAC)
The Inland Valley Storytellers (IVS) was formed in 2003 in Claremont, California and has members that live in the east end of Los Angeles County and the west end of San Bernardino and Riverside Counties. We meet monthly in the Claremont Forum to share stories and welcome both storytellers and story listeners. Attendance is free and open to anyone. We produce 2 storytelling concerts per year, one at the Claremont Friends Meetinghouse in the spring and one at the Claremont Folk Music Center in November. Our first Tellabration! ™ concert was at the Claremont Forum in 2003. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic all meetings are online until further notice. To learn more about IVS, click on the links at the bottom of this page.
There were 4 tellers from the Inland Valley Storytellers. If you click on their name, you will get a short bio about each teller.
Adrien Lowery ..................................... Ron Evans
Tellabration! ™ originator J. G. Pinkerton envisioned this international event as a means of building community support for storytelling. In 1988 the event was launched by the Connecticut Storytelling Center in six locations across the state. A great success, Tellabration! ™ extended to several other states the following year, and then, in 1990, expanded nationwide under the umbrella of the National Association for the Preservation and Perpetuation of Storytelling, or NAPPS, which later became the National Storytelling Association, and is now called the National Storytelling Network.
In 1995, for the first time, there was a Tellabration! ™ in Japan, brought there by Japanese storyteller Masako Sueyoshi, who had been a part of Tellabration! ™ when she lived in Connecticut for several years. By 1997, there were Tellabration! ™ events on every continent but Antarctica. In 1999, 333 sites, 400 producers, and 6700 production staffers spun stories to a combined audience of over 34,000.
J.G. "Paw-Paw" Pinkerton passed away on November 4, 2008, just 3 weeks before the 21st year of Tellabration! ™ celebrations, on his way home to Connecticut from a family wedding in Texas.
Storytelling was J.G.'s second career, to which he devoted himself passionately after his retirement from Texasgulf in 1988. He served on the Board of Directors of NAPPS (the National Association for the Preservation and Perpetuation of Storytelling, parent of NSN) for six years, and he also served on the Board of the International Storytelling Center. He has been a generous friend and mentor to hundreds of storytellers.
In this season we remember J.G. particularly as the creator of the tradition of TELLABRATION! ™ - the night of storytelling on the weekend before Thanksgiving. As many of us produce and perform in our hundreds of Tellabrations! ™ across the country and the world every year, let us thank J.G. Pinkerton, with whose vision it all began.
