Corn Island Storytelling Festival,
Sept. 8-10, 2005
It is a time when leaves crunch when we walk, when a chill is in the air
that draws us closer together, when we light fires and gather around with
family and friends. It is the season of stories at the Corn Island
Storytelling Festival!
The festival, which was founded in 1976 by Lee and Joy Pennington,
is steeped in local history. It takes its name from the tiny Corn Island,
now covered by the murkey waters of the Ohio River, where George Rogers
Clark led Louisville's first settlers. Through the years, the festival has
been held at different sites throughout Jefferson County, such as the
historic Belle of Louisville, Locust Grove, and Long Run Cemetery. It is
fitting that the festival has now come full circle and that events are now
held on the River Front near its namesake. Keeping the circle unbroken was
not easy, but volunteers did it as a labor of love.
At the first festival, there were twelve storytellers and nine
people in the audience, but that was enough to inspire the growth of an
art that has always been a part of our heritage. Year after year, the
festival grew until it became an event of national and international
importance. It knew the glory of attracting thousands of people from all
over the United States and the world, and it knew the despair of the 9-11
attack that came two days before Corn Island's annual opening program that
year. Those were dark days as we grieved for our nation and for the
victims and their families. Planes were not flying, and storytellers and a
great number of ticket-holders could not get to Louisville. We didn't see
how we could possibly go on and then someone said, "It is now more
than ever that we need the stories."
We made it through the days that followed, and people felt more
connected than ever before. Sharing our stories gave us hope and strength,
but with our audience limited by tragic circumstances, the festival did
not make enough money to pay for itself. It looked like there would be no
Corn Island Festival the next year.
Then storytellers did what storytellers do. They began to share our
story, and amazing things began to happen. Contributions poured in from
individuals and groups from across the country and around the world. With
their donations and encouragement, we had enough money and inspiration to
go on.
Now another story season has come. From September 8-10, the Corn
Island Storytelling Festival is offering an unforgettable line-up of
tellers, tales, minstrels, and music, connecting people to people as it
always has and always will.
The festival gets off to a "spirited" start at 7:00pm on
Thursday, September 8, with Mr. Ghost Walker (Robert Parker) and
our popular downtown Louisville Ghost Walk. Leaving from the Holiday Inn
on Broadway (the festival's official hotel), the 90-minute tour will
include such haunted sites as the Brown Hotel, the Palace Theater, the
Brennan House, the Old City Jail, and the Seelbach Hotel.
At 7:30pm on Friday, September 9, a special Corn Island style
edition of WFPK's Kentucky Homefront will feature our own Bob Thompson and
John Gage.
On Saturday, September 10, a variety of programs will be presented
on Louisville's renovated River Front from 11:00am to 12:00pm and from
1:00pm to 2:00pm. Between these sessions, individuals not scheduled on the
program are invited to sign up and tell a story. Beginning at 7:30pm at
the same site, tellers tell tales of terror and mystery at the Ghost
Tales, our most popular event.
Storytellers and performers for the 2005 festival are (in
alphabetical order) Roberta Simpson Brown, Cynthia Changaris, Thomas
Freese, John Gage, Bob Sander, Graham Shelby, Bob Thompson, The Twa
Sisters, Donna Washington, and Zoe Speaks.
Kentuckian Roberta Simpson Brown, known as America's Queen
of the Cold-Blooded Tales, is the author of five books of original scary
stories, with cassettes and CDs. Her work has also been published in
England, Italy, and Japan. She has performed in many states from coast to
coast and has appeared on Lifetime TV's program, "Beyond
Chance." Retired from teaching at the end of 1999, Roberta writes,
tells stories, and works (along with her husband Lonnie) with the
Louisville Ghost Hunters Society on active paranormal investigations.
Cynthia Changaris, born and raised in Charlotte, North
Carolina, attended her first storytelling festival at Corn Island in 1984.
She was so entranced that she began studying the art herself. Her style as
a performer is playful and interactive, often incorporating various
musical instruments with her stories. She produced a CD, Spin
Me A Tale, which won Parents' Choice Recommended Award. She has
presented at the National Storytelling Conference several times and serves
as a state liaison to the National Storytelling Network. Currently, she
works with the Kentucky Storytelling Association and is the proprietor of
Storyteller's River House Bed and Breakfast in Bethlehem, Indiana.
Thomas Freese, is a writer and storyteller, and counselor. He writes for Lexington's Chevy Chaser Magazine and has just published Shaker Ghost Stories from Pleasant Hill, KY. His stories include ghost stories, porquois tales, world folk tales, life anecdotes, stories with origami, silly tales, winter stories and more. Thomas animates his storytelling with a range of voices and movements and adds guitar and harmonica to original songs he's written.
John Gage is an established folk singer/songwriter who has
made a career of entertaining audiences with his resonant tenor voice and
flat-picking guitar. John performs on arts and festivals stages throughout
Kentucky and conducts interactive and motivational workshops throughout
the southeast region to show educators and parents how the performing arts
contribute to improved academic learning and personal well being. John is
host and emcee of Kentucky Homefront, a radio show that preserves
Kentucky's cultural heritage through storytelling and traditional music.
Bob Sander, the fourth generation of his family to live in
Indianapolis, Indiana, is a charismatic storyteller, often incorporating
music with his stories for unforgettable performances. He specializes in
folktales and stories of history and family. He has been commissioned for
stories by many organizations such as Storytelling Arts of Indiana, the
Indiana Humanities Council, and the Indiana Historical Society. In 2001,
the Arts Council of Indianapolis awarded Bob a Creative Renewal
Fellowship, one of his most
cherished recognitions. Bob is the co-founder of Storytelling Arts of
Indiana.
A crowd-pleaser with adults and children alike, Graham Shelby
returns to Corn Island to share more of his spellbinding tales. Graham
spent three years teaching English in rural Japan and came home with both
real and make-believe stories that he's been telling in schools, at
festivals, and on radio ever since. He is an announcer for public radio
station WFPL in Louisville and a commentator for KUT radio in Austin,
Texas. He has also written for the Courier-Journal, Lexington Herald-Leader, Kentucky Monthly, and the
public radio program, A Prairie Home
Companion.
Master storytellers must run in Bob
Thompson's family. He and his famous cousin, Lily Tomlin, are perfect
examples! Bob grew up next door to his grandmother's country store in
Western Kentucky. He listened to stories told on the front porch in summer
and around the pot-bellied stove in winter. Bob graduated from the
University of Kentucky with a degree in engineering, but has kept
storytelling as an important part of his life. Both sides of his brain
work equally well! He is chairman of the board and programming director
for the Corn Island Storytelling Festival and is a regular on local
National Public Radio Station WFPK's weekly Kentucky Homefront program.
Folk singers Janis Duley of Missouri and Kentuckian Annie MacFie
are the Twa Sisters, a name taken from an old Scottish ballad.
Janis and Annie met as young actresses in summer stock theater. Both
married actors and worked for years in husband/wife performing duos. Both
eventually became soloists, each putting out several recordings and
touring overseas. They formed their now-and-then duo in 2001 for the
enjoyment of harmony and the creativity in working with more than one
voice and one instrument in a song arrangement. Their expert blending of
story and song make them an act that is much in demand.
Donna Washington is a beloved author, renowned storyteller,
and an accomplished presenter and educator. She has written and performed
four one-woman shows and adapted folktales for the stage. Based in Durham,
North Carolina, she travels all over the country offering workshops in
storytelling, writing, education, and creative drama. She has written
several books and made several CDs. In 2002, she received a Parents'
Choice Award for her recording Live and Learn: The Exploding Frog and Other Stories. In 2004, her
CD Fun, Foolery, and Folktales
won the Parents' Choice Silver Honor Award.
The duo Zoe Speaks consists of Mitch Barret and Carla Gover.
Their music is drenched with the Appalachian sounds they heard where they
were raised. Mitch grew up in Madison County, Kentucky. He played for over
ten years as part of the folk duo Mandala. After moving back to Kentucky,
he began honing his storytelling skills. Carla grew up in Whitesburg,
Kentucky, where her early years were immersed in music. After college, she
performed with the percussion dance ensemble, Footworks, but returned to
Kentucky out of homesickness. The couple met in 1996. They have won a
variety of songwriting awards and tour full time in a large van with their
two daughters, Zoe and Maizie.
For more information about the upcoming festival, tickets, tellers, or schedules, contact the Corn Island Storytelling Office at cornislandstorytelling@msn.com or by calling (502) 245-0643. For links to individual tellers, refer to the Corn Island homepage.
by Roberta Simpson Brown