Stories to Tell
Published 5:55 pm Wednesday, March 1, 2017
- Storyteller Donald Davis speaks to the crowd at the LaGrange Memorial Library Tuesday Night (James Simpson II | LaGrange Daily News)
LaGRANGE- Storytelling was in session Tuesday night at the LaGrange Memorial Library as well-known storyteller Donald Davis stopped by to give the audience a preview of what might take place at the 21st Annual Azalea Storytelling Festival this weekend at Callaway Auditorium.
The Storytelling Festival is held every year in the first weekend of March in LaGrange and is centered around multiple storytellers telling interesting and fascinating stories to the community. The festival draws close to 2,500 people each year, with almost 200 patrons attending from 23 states and several foreign countries.
“It’s a wonderful thing,” said Davis, referring to the popular storytelling festival. “This will be 21 years and each of us storytellers will be telling different stories to everyone.”
Joining Davis at the festival will be storytellers Charlotte Blake Alston, Andy Offutt Irwin, Tim Lowry and emcee, local storyteller Carol Cain.
Alston specializes in traditional and contemporary African-American stories; Irwin, who is a singer, songwriter and comedian blends that in with his Southern-based stories; Lowry likes to mix tales about the American Revolution, Civil War, Western Frontier, growing up as a Baptist, and teaching English to Russian immigrants; and Cain likes to enlighten the crowd with folktales, family stories and monologues.
“I like to tell stories about things so ordinary that people have done too,” said Davis. “So, I’m not going to tell stories about going to the moon or saving someone. I would tell about having a bicycle wreck or running out of gas. You know stuff like that because I want people to say, ‘Oh yeah I’ve done something like that or my mom said that too.’ I like to work with common things and there all about trouble, but it’s the ordinary day-to-day stuff.”
The event kicks off Friday at 7:30 p.m. at LaGrange College’s Callaway Auditorium and continues Saturday with sessions at 9:30 a.m., 2:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. Sunday’s sessions are at 9:30 a.m. and 10:50 a.m.
For tickets and other information, visit LSPArts.org.
Reach James Simpson II at 706-884-7311, ext. 2155, or by email at james.simpson@lagrangenews.com
