National Storytelling Festival

In fact, last episode, I mentioned that Jonesborough, Tennessee, is one of the national capitals of storytelling.

We have, I think, the National Storytelling Center in Jonesborough.

You can get a storytelling degree from East Tennessee State University because it is that important to this region.

It is a part of our culture.

So put a lot of energy into that.

And I'm going to go to the National Storytelling Festival, which is in Jonesboro, Tennessee, in early October.

I was featured to be a much bigger part of that this year, but I backed off on that.

But I'm still going to go into a small part of it.

Jonesboro was established in 1779, making it Tennessee's oldest town 17 years before Tennessee even became a state.

But the tradition that really put this little Appalachian town on the map started much later, in 1973, when local teacher Jimmy Neal Smith helped organize the first National Storytelling Festival.

The stage was an old farm wagon in Courthouse Square.

The audience sat on hay bales and storytellers and listeners combined numbered fewer than 60.

Fast forward 53 years and this weekend as many as 10,000 listeners are expected to gather in Jonesboro for the National Storytelling Festival.

Five big top tents will fill the walkable downtown as storytellers share everything from family memories and Appalachian tales to comedy and history.

I love that one piece of the original festival is still alive.