Tellebration Brings Art of Storytelling to Port Jefferson Library

The Long Island Storytelling Network will come to on Wednesday as a part of an international celebration of storytelling during the month of November called Tellebration. The group hopes to promote the art of storytelling to the public and enlighten people on its importance to cultural heritage and education.

According to member Harvey Heilbrun the Long Island Storytelling Network (LISN-pronounced "listen") is an informal group of people interested in the art of storytelling.

"We meet once a month to discuss storytelling techniques and issues and to share stories that some of us are working on as tellers," he said. "In our group we have a number of members who are retired, teachers, librarians, and others."

Heilbrun explained that storytelling is important in building a community around shared history.

"Storytelling is an ancient art," he said. "Much research shows the importance of storytelling as a tool to connect people to their heritage, either through direct personal tales or connecting with folklore, folktales and stories from ancient civilizations."

The LISN uses Tellebration to revive this ancient art to promote it to the public. Not only that, it's fun too.

"It also is a form of entertainment," Heilbrun said.

The brainchild of a storyteller named J.G. "Paw-paw" Pinkerton back in 1987, the idea of Tellebration was to have people all around the world gather together for one day to hear storytellers share tales of all types.

The stories aren't read from a book but rather they are recited from memory and can include any type of story including myths, folktales, tall tales, literary stories and personal stories. Tellebration has been held annually for the past 20 years on almost every continent. (The group says that they have yet to conquer Antarctica.)

While the first thing you may think of when you hear about story telling is the bedtime tales you tell to your children, Heilbrun said that it's for everyone.

"The most misunderstood piece of storytelling is that it is not just for kids," he said.

LISN members, Harvey Heilbrun, Bill Pierce, Sylvia Khan, and Mira Dougherty-Johnson will be performing for Tellebration at Port Jefferson Library on Wednesday, Nov. 17 at 6:45 p.m. LISN will also perform at Riverhead Public Library on Nov. 19 at 7:00 p.m. and Long Island Museums at Stony Brook on Nov. 21 at 2:00 p.m.

For more information on Tellebration, go to www.tellabration.org