Timpanogos Storytelling Festival is setting a new standard in youth involvement
Barbra McBride-Smith performs during the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival in 2013. The annual event and accompanying conference returns to Utah Valley from Wednesday through Saturday.
Increasing crowds have grown the festival to its current headquarters at Mt. Timpanogos Park, as well as a host of other locations throughout Utah Valley.
Children watch performers at the 2013 Timpanogos Storytelling Festival. Of all the storytelling festivals across the country, Timpanogos involves youth to a higher degree than the others.
Speaking in front of hundreds of people is no easy task. Not child’s play, right? Tell that to Karen Acerson.
The Board President of the Timpanogos Storytelling Institute watched in amazement last year during the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival as a 3-year-old participated in the festival’s “Tall Tales” competition.
“She was spot on,” Acerson remembered, adding that the girl’s 6-year-old sister placed first in the contest.
OK, so maybe it can be child’s play sometimes.
Kicking off its 26th year on Thursday, the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival has not only become one of the country’s most prominent storytelling festivals, but a trailblazer in incorporating youth and storytelling education. The festival’s efforts go far beyond the four days it descends on Mt. Timpanogos Park.
* * *
Given the festival’s origins, perhaps it’s no surprise that organizers weave youth education into it all. Acerson and the other organizers had young children when the inaugural festival happened in 1990. While other similar festivals might have one event that is youth-focused, this festival intertwines youth storytellers into the program throughout each day. The Institute also decided to move its annual Storytelling Conference, which usually happens in the winter, to the same time frame as the festival. Acerson said they hope this will increase the draw for each.
“We really like to work the youth in,” Acerson said. “If we’re going to keep having an event, we need to raise up the next generation of storytellers, and I think we’re doing a great job of that. Our national storytellers are just in awe of how good these kids are.”
Donald Davis, arguably the festival’s most renowned storyteller, can attest to that awe.
“What you watch that’s really impressive is their sense of control of themselves and the timeframe,” Davis said of the festival’s young storytellers. “The question is, are they in control right now? Are they in charge? And you see some little kid that gets up there, and all of the sudden, magically, they’re totally in control of everything that’s happening. And I don’t know where that comes from; I don’t know how you teach somebody that.”
As the Timpanogos Storytelling Institute’s efforts attest, you can teach somebody that.
* * *
The festival has always incorporated young storytellers to some degree, but that expanded last year when the Institute launched its Storytelling in the Classroom school outreach program. To say the program is ambitious is a bit of an understatement. The Institute staff is coordinating with more than 60 elementary schools across Utah — from small schools in Monument Valley to larger ones in Salt Lake and Utah counties — with curriculum that incorporates various storytelling education, techniques and assignments. Teachers decide how to adapt that material to meet their individual needs.
As part of the program, the Institute visits individual schools throughout the school year with an accompanying storyteller. Participating schools can also bring their students to the festival and contribute to the festival’s various storytelling events. In total, the Storytelling in the Classroom program will reach more than 35,000 teachers and students in Utah this school year.
“At face value, it’s a great literacy tool,” said Eliot Wilcox, executive director of the Institute. “But on a more subtle level, storytelling is a fantastic tool because our minds are hardwired to remember stories. In fact, research shows that’s one of the best ways to remember something, is to incorporate it into a story. So looking at it like that, storytelling can become a teaching tool in science and mathematics, basically in any of the different educational pursuits.”
As Wilcox and the Institute have forged connections with Utah’s elementary schools, they’ve come to see just how far reaching the festival’s education efforts have been over the past 25 years.
“Going around the state, it’s amazing how many teachers I come across that say, ‘Hey, I remember going to the festival when I was a kid,’ or even more often, ‘I told at the festival when I was kid,’ ” Wilcox recalled. “It’s a lot of fun to see that kind of come full circle, as some of the first generations of kids who did that are now helping their own students get the same experience.”
TIMPANOGOS STORYTELLING FESTIVAL AND CONFERENCE
Where: Mt. Timpanogos Park (up Provo canyon) and other locations throughout Utah Valley
When: Wednesday through Saturday
Tickets: $8-$140, depending individual events, day passes, entire event passes, etc.
Info: timpfest.org
