Tellabration! celebrates storytelling

The Florida Public Library will hold its 20th Annual Tellabration! on Saturday, Nov. 23, at 2 p.m. in the library.

The afternoon performance will be produced by the members of the Black Dirt Storytelling Guild. The Guild has met monthly at FPL since its organization following the first successful Tellabration! in 2000 which attracted a group of Orange County residents interested in pursuing storytelling for fun, inspiration and profit.

This year’s Tellabration! is entitled Between Two Rivers and will include a wonderful variety of stories that spring from the history, people, mountains and valleys that nestle between the Hudson and Delaware Rivers.

Travel with us as we tell tales, legends, personal and family stories of the first people, the immigrants, the American Revolution and local history, famous folk and folkways, the beautiful terrain that we call home and how we came to be here.

Tellabration! is a worldwide celebration of the traditional art of storytelling and takes place in numerous venues. The event is sponsored by the National Storytelling Network (NSN) based in Kansas City, Missouri.

Guild founders Madelyn Folino, Eileen Stelljes and Maria Martinez will share stories once again in this year’s café style event.

In addition to veteran Guild members, Tellabration! will feature special guest storytellers from the community. Ken Karas, a board member of the NJ Storytelling Network and Sue Gardner, Local History librarian from the Albert Wisner Public Library, a first-time teller at Tellabration! will be sharing stories. Gardner will tell a story from her new book Pure Necessity: Revolution at Warwick which concerns Warwick in the late 18th century.

Tellabration! is an opportunity for any experienced or budding storytellers in the community to share their stories, old, new, borrowed, or true.

Anyone interested in performing is invited to sign up by calling Folino at (845) 651-7659 as soon as possible. Stories should be no longer than seven minutes.

Tellabration! is a family program for story lovers of all ages. Children who are school age and up and attentive listeners are invited to attend, accompanied by an adult. Admission is the donation of one canned or non-perishable item per person for the Florida Food Pantry. Listeners, storytellers and their families are invited to come for the stories and stay for apple pie and ice cream.

For more information on Tellabration’s history around the world, visit www.tellabration.org.

To sign up for this program, register online at www.floridapubliclibrary.org by clicking on Event Calendar.