Speak Story Series Continues to Bring Tales to Life
Adam Booth credits a course he took with Rachael Meads in the Appalachian Studies department at Shepherd University for starting him on the path to becoming a professional storyteller, a passion he has pursued as a career for the past fifteen years. While researching folklife in West Virginia, he found the Liars Contest, an annual event held in Vandalia, West Virginia since the 1980s. On a lark he entered the contest and placed 3rd. Hooked, he went back again and in 2004 was named West Virginia’s Biggest Liar for the year. It was Bil Lepp, one of the judges, that encouraged him to keep telling and Booth went on to the National Storytelling Festival in 2006. “To see how people were interpreting and preserving tales that make up the story culture, it encouraged me to commit my life to it.”
Booth describes how his storytelling has developed over the past fifteen years: “It divides into three parts. There are the traditional Appalachian stories that I retell in my own voice and style. These stories are what we tend to associate with central Appalachia — West Virginia and Kentucky. There are personal stories that I model off traditional stories in their structure, motifs and story arc, overlaying new material on the skeleton that has worked for storytelling for centuries. I also tell non-traditional stories. I think of these as ‘new fiction’ — stories that fill in the gaps of tradition and the stories that are not being told.”
…each person who hears the story changes it to reflect their own life…
“In the Appalachian story tradition, there is a surprisingly rich breadth,” Booth continued. “The dominant voices are from the British Isles, but think about all the people who have passed through the region. All of their stories are still here if you listen. The Cherokee, the eastern European immigrants, the Italian and Germanic traditions, the Pennsylvania Dutch, the African-Americans. Today we hear voices of Latino, Hispanic and East Asian culture reflected in the stories of recent immigrants.”
Telling and listening to these stories helps to reveal the diversity that has always been here in Appalachia, but you don’t always see, Booth explained. For example, “a lot of traditional stories feature characters who change genders or cross dress to further the narrative. Typically they change back, but there are stories where that doesn’t always happen. I found the story from Kentucky of Billy Beg and His Bull, a variant of a story that appears to have originated in nineteenth-century Ireland, where the male protagonist marries the prince.”
Booth explains that “fundamentally, the art of storytelling involves gathering a group of people into a shared space and using the energy that comes from both the teller and the listeners. When I tell a story that way, I can sense the energy. And each person who hears the story changes it to reflect their own life, by what they remember, by what they forget.” Looking at the past year, he noted what’s been missing. “When you are in front of an audience, you are shaping the story based on the verbal and visual cues you get from the listeners. You miss those cues when you tell a story online, it does change it. It’s still storytelling, but it’s different.”
We need to sit and experience this together
“It has had upsides,” Booth continued. “With an online audience, storytellers are able to reach a broader audience, and venues that might not have had a budget to fly a storyteller across the country can introduce new tellers to their audiences. It could create a shift for many storytellers, but I do see the need to gather people together, for the watching, the spiritual connection, the act of experiencing something with others. When you are in front of a good storyteller, your mind can let go of what’s around you and focus on the story. When you are staring at a screen, it’s hard to break that connection to fully experience the story.”
Booth feels fortunate to have received enthusiastic support for the Speak Story Series, both at Shepherd University and in the surrounding area. “The community obviously cares about what we do, it supports us, it shows up to the events. They tell others about us.” As the organization heads into its ninth season, it has set itself up as an independent non-profit with the goal of being self-sustaining. “We envision serving the community beyond just presenting a concert series. We have our tellers do outreach when they visit, to schools and organizations. It’s also a means to engage in dialog, to help the community experience different feelings and identities more clearly.” For 2021, Speak plans to schedule monthly storytelling events — “now is the time we need more art” Booth exclaimed. “We will be online for as long as we need to be to be safe for the community, but we are committed to get back in person. We need to sit and experience this together.”
Visit the Speak Story Series website for more information on upcoming (virtual) events.
By Steve Pearson