jonesborough

Storyteller: Lollie Mae McKinney Surratt

Story Collector: Nancy Kavanaugh

https://tnartscommission.org/

Storyteller: Ellen Hattaway

Sponsored in part by the Tennessee Arts Commission

In this episode of Off Off Pod, I interview storyteller, Saundra Kelley.

As many of you probably know, I've been staying with my parents in Tennessee for a while since my mother's been going through treatments for cancer.  And while here, I wanted to find some local artists to interview.  Jonesborough, Tennessee is THE place to go for storytelling.

Saundra is the President of the Storyteller's Guild, an organization in the Jonesborough area, and she and her group perform in a beautiful complex built just for storytelling.  Besides the local "tellers," performers come from all over the world to Jonesborough to perform.  The height of the excitement happens in October during a yearly storytelling festival.  There are links below if you want to find out more about the area.

I had asked Saundra if she had any local true ghost stories she could tell, and she delivered.  Afterwards I got a tour of some of the old buildings and locations.

Topics covered in the podcast:

• The introduction (0:00)
• Saundra Kelley, The Story Teller’s Guild http://storytellersguild.org (5:05)
• The Jonesborough Storytelling Center http://www.storytellingcenter.net (6:50)
• Beautiful Historic Jonesborough, Oldest Town in Tennessee (11:12)
  
• A Master’s Degree in Storytelling ETSU (East Tennessee State University) http://www.etsu.edu/coe/stories (14:40)
  
• The storytelling festival in October (18:15)
  
• How Saundra Kelley made her way to Jonesborough from Florida (20:11)
  
• Why I asked her for a ghost story (26:42)
• Ghost Story: “Blood on the Floor” (32:51)
• The seasonal ghost (48:41)
• Andrew Jackson strolls around town (51:58)
• Some of the mechanics of storytelling -- using images (55:54)
• How to partake in storytelling in your area http://www.storynet.org (1:03:17)