Storytelling at Tucson Meet Yourself Festival

Penelope Starr — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 17:40:16 +0000

This year the Tucson Meet Yourself Festival is expanding dramatically, and for the first time the festival will include a whole area in the TCC Plaza, outside the Tucson Music Hall, dedicated to storytelling and the narrative traditions of Tucson’s living cultures. There will be a stage set up like a Southwestern living room for a wide range of performances. Adjacent to this area festival attendees can participate in a version of the sobremesa tradition by gathering around tables to share stories of their own on particular themes. (Sobremesa, according to Google Translate, is after dinner table-talk.)

Come out to hear the tales:

Tellers include Big Jim Griffith (founder of the festival and Tucson legend), Jordan Hill (Jewish stories and Tucson ghost lore), Sheila Patteson (Irish tales), Marc Severson (stories of life in Tucson), Anne Lee (Slavic stories), Jean Baxter (stories from Tucson’s early days), Tucson teens from VOICES and Tucson Hebrew Academy (tales of living young in Tucson), and youth from the Singing Bird Sangha (Buddhist stories).

Come out to tell tales of your own:

Facilitators of the sobremesas include Odyssey Storytelling, the UA Creative Writing Club, Rabbi Stephanie Aaron, and more. Topics range from food, love, injuries, and holidays to immigration, religious experiences, and encounters with Tucson ghosts and wildlife (of all kinds).

Come out and be a part of an exciting and profound new way for Tucson to truly meet itself! The Festival will be in downtown Tucson this coming Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Thanks to Jordan Hill for this information.

Telling Stories » Big Jim Griffith

Storytelling at Tucson Meet Yourself Festival