Beast Blog

Bay Area Storytelling Festival - May 21-22

A little bit outside the typical Beast Blog geography, but seemed cool enough to pass along:

Bay Area Storytelling Festival: the longest running solo performance/spoken word event in the East Bay

20 Years of Storytellers and Spellbound Listeners

When was the last time you heard a really scary ghost story? Or had someone tell you a folk tale from a land you've never been to-but told it so well you pictured every detail in your mind? Your chance is coming up as the East Bay Regional Park District and the Storytelling Association of Alta California present the 20th Bay Area Storytelling Festival, May 21-22, 2005, at Kennedy Grove Regional Recreation Area in El Sobrante.

From its humble beginnings in a classroom at Fort Mason Center, the Festival now draws hundreds of listeners from around the state to the East Bay's Kennedy Grove, where three stages and an amphitheatre feature the best of entertainers who can captivate an audience with just their voices.
 
Fans from Santa Cruz to Sacramento bring lawn chairs and blankets to gather for a weekend of fables, ballads, legends, and ghost stories. Nationally renowned storytellers bring the storytelling traditions of Africa, Asia, the Pacific islands, Europe, and America to the stage. This year, the invited storytellers include these favorites from the past 19 years:

Diane Ferlatte, Oakland, CA

Internationally renowned storyteller and recipient of the National Storytelling Network's Circle of Excellence Award, Diane Ferlatte has wowed people the world over. With a repertoire of hundreds of African, African-American, multi-cultural stories and songs, Ferlatte has thrilled and touched audiences with her tales of inspiration, struggle, values and character.
www.dianeferlatte.com

Willy Claflin, San Francisco, CA

Willy Claflin brings an extensive repertoire of Scottish ballads and a love for rubber squeaky toys to performances that range from personal experience to personal nonsense. Willy will be joined by his long time associate Maynard Moose, teller of ancient tales.
www.willyclaflin.com

Donald Davis, Ocracoke Island, NC

Raised in the Southern Appalachians, Donald Davis kept company with stories next door, over the hill, and in the fabric of daily life. Now he brings family stories to audiences worldwide. From the comforts and challenges of small town Southern life, Donald creates a timeless world of decent folk doing the best they can, and then invites us to come in and stay awhile. Donald is a much honored and celebrated artist whose following spans geography and generations.

Eth-Noh-Tec, San Francisco, CA

Eth-Noh-Tec combines the performance chemistry of Nancy Wang and Robert Kikuchi Yngojo. Robert and Nancy weave music, dance and rhythm with the spoken word as they layer Asian myth, folklore and urban legends with Asian American sensibilities to create a new blend of storytelling and kinetic theater. Imagine an artistic conversation among Robin Williams, Ginger Rogers and a Chinese village teller, against a backdrop of Japanese martial arts and music.
www.eth-noh-tec.org

Dovie Thomason Sickles, Waldorf, MD
Dovie Thomason first heard the voices of the Animal People in the stories of her Lakota and Kiowa Apache relatives. With understanding and sly humor, she has joined those voices to share wise, boisterous teaching tales. When she adds stories from her own life and from her people's experience, the result is a contemporary vision of the rich cultures of the First Nations of North America told with elegance, wit and passion.

Also featured are special guests: storytellers from the previous 19 years of Festivals will be dropping by to share a tale or two.

The Festival is recommended for ages 9 and up.

The Bay Area Storytelling Festival is part of ArtSFest 2005 (http://www.artsfestsf.org) and is co-sponsored by the Storytelling Association of Alta California (SAAC) and the East Bay Regional Park District. SAAC is a nonprofit membership organization dedicated to promoting and preserving the ancient art of storytelling.

The Festival, hosted by the East Bay Regional Parks District since 1991, reflects the District's commitment to diverse programming highlighting the cultural and natural resources of the Bay Area. EBRPD manages over 95,000 acres of parkland in Alameda and Contra Costa County, 65 regional parks and recreation areas, and sponsors hundreds of educational and interpretive events each year.
http://www.ebparks.org

Saturday, May 21, performances are scheduled from 10:00 AM to 7:30 PM.

Sunday, May 22, performances run from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM.

Local students from El Sobrante, Pinole, and Richmond will attend a student concert on Friday, May 20.

A complete schedule is available at http://www.bayareastorytelling.org.

Tickets: $11 (single event) to $55 (entire weekend). Discounts for seniors, families, kids.

More information:
(510) 869-4946
http://www.bayareastorytelling.org