A Superheroic First-Grade School

I think today was my favorite day so far since Katelyn and I began travelling with Rosie. But we'll get to that in a minute.

I first want to share with you a little about our time actually in Jonesborough at the National Storytelling Festival. Simply said, we had a great time. We were exhausted most of the time, going to bed late and getting up early and running every which way trying not only to attend and enjoy the storytellers but also interview some of them (not to mention people who attended). It was definitely a different experience. I'm still trying to gauge exactly how I felt about it, because nearly 10,000 people crowding this tiny town and filling tents to the brim made for an interesting time. Most of the time, if you want to see one of the more popular storytellers, you have to sit around at least half an hour ahead of their show to save yourself and only one extra person a seat. This makes it difficult to eat sometimes.

We were also a little dismayed by the lack of the diversity. But we confronted it in almost all of our interviews, including with the founder of the festival, Jimmy Neil Smith. He confirmed that due to the price of tickets, most of the attendees of the festival are middle class, white and from the South. Although one of the storytellers we spoke to, an energetic, vivacious man named Teju, believed that having a diversity of tellers (which they pretty much did) will eventually bring the diversity of the crowd.

All in all, it was enjoyable and I might like to go back someday, although I want to see some smaller festivals where the telling is more intimate. I also happen to think that some college-age storytelling festivals are long overdue.

The Southern Festival of Books: amazing. Not so much going to see the authors or any of the events (I didn't really know anyone who was being featured, which made it hard to figured out what I wanted to see) but rather the booksellers. Especially this one, Pennyworthbooks (located in Chicago) with an entire TWO BOOKCASES full of new, pristine-condition books FOR ONLY $5 A PIECE. And not just second rate books, either. This included titles as diverse as Angela's Ashes, Bridget Jones' Diary, Le Morte de Arthur and Democracy in America (by Tocqueville). As strapped for funding as we are, I can always find money for books, seeing as how given a choice between eating or reading can often be a pretty tough decision. So I got some great stuff that I'm really looking forward to reading (only one of those in the aforementioned list I actually purchased, I'll leave it to you to guess which one, but here's a hint: it's about King Arthur).

So, back to why today was my favorite day. In Jonesborough, we ran into Dr. Judith Maloney, who teaches first grade at Una Elementary in Nashville. Katelyn had been trying to contact schools that she attended here but we had been having no luck and were feeling rather disheartened. Nashville was where we had planned to go next but so far no opportunity to actually get anything done had presented itself. So by a stroke of fate we happened to overhear Dr. Maloney say that she taught school in Nashville. We brought up what we were doing and she said she would love to have us come and talk to her class about what we had learned about stories.

So over the last weekend we wrote up a brief activity to do with them, involving going over the main parts of a story; beginning, middle, end, good guy, bad guy, problem, solution. We wanted to tell them a story and write a story with them. But since neither of us had either ever told a story performance-style before, or been in front of a class that young, or even had a third person to film the whole thing for us, we were a little nervous about how the whole thing would go.

Turns out we couldn't have asked for a better class. These kids were bright, attentive and fun. We were able to switch off the filming duties to one another with relative ease, so we each got to spend a good amount of time working with the class. Katelyn began by leading a brief opening discussion about what a story is, where they hear them and what kinds they like. Then I told them the story of the Billy Goats Gruff, and let me tell you: the things they say about kids snapping to attention and listening to a story is true. It was like a spell had fallen over them, and I know it had nothing to do with my technique, considering I worked out how I was going to tell the story in the shower that morning. After that we went through the parts of the story and identified the beginning, middle and end. They knew who the good guys were and why, who the bad guy was and why. I didn't have to tell them anything.

Then came the best part. Katelyn facilitated a story crafting time, in which the class wrote a story of their own. They settled on their story taking place in, of all places, a school, but not just any school: A SUPERHERO First-Grade school. First they wanted to populate their school with Batman, Spider-Man and Superman but fearing copywright lawsuits we had to steer them away from that. Once Katelyn led them to a Halloween theme, their ideas sprang up like lightning: The Ghost, Skeleton and my personal favorite, Pumpkin-Man, whose head is a big orange pumpkin and who can shoot pumpkin seeds at his enemies, as well as take his head off and throw it (I gues a lawsuit from Washington Irving is not as possible). But a serious threat plagues this Superhero First-Grade School in the guise of The Vampire, who cunningly disarms you with his charm before giving you a hug and sucking all of your powers (not blood, sorry, kids) away, leaving you "weak and sad." Good thing our heroes are resourceful, and can make a plan to capture this evil man by hiding a hole in the ground with leaves and leading him over it, causing him to fall to its depth and subsequently restore their powers.

Then the class divided into groups of three and illustrated their story, and Katelyn and I hope to find somewhere we can publish their story for them and send it back to them, although we didn't tell them that in case we couldn't make it happen.

So we were truly blessed to come to Nashville after all, thanks to Hume-Fogg Academic High School, and Humanities Council of Tennessee, and Una Elementary, and Meaghan and Jared who have let us trash their guest room with our many clothes, books and camera equipment. Speaking of camera equipment, I almost forgot to mention that we had to purchase a new shock mount for our microphone because the one we were using became stripped. Good thing we were in Nashville, the Music Capitol of America.

Funny thing, after this, who knows where we'll be? We certainly don't. Like everything else, we seem to be deciding at the last possible moment.

But of course, when we know, you'll know.