Stories upon stories

Once upon a time, the TALES Storytelling Festival offered people the chance to sit and listen to masters of oration offer their myths and legends, and spin some goofy yarns too.

This week, The Alberta League Encouraging Storytelling (TALES) is bringing its 29th annual festival to its stages, and it's bringing 150 golden threads all lined up to help people get in the spirit of celebrating the nation's 150th birthday.

Kathy Jessup, artistic director of the fest, said that she first needed to dispel the myth that storytelling is just for the kids. Storytelling is an oral cultural tradition and that means adults are meant to be front and centre too.

“I think it's a common misconception that storytelling is only for children,” she said. “In fact, most of the stories and performances are for all ages and there are evening concerts that are specifically for adult audiences.”

The Edmonton storytelling festival is one of only a few true grassroots festivals left in North America.

While this year's edition kicks off tomorrow evening with a story slam competition that usually attracts a younger “rowdy” crowd, there are some mature content events taking place throughout the weekend that will certainly leave no doubt about it.

On Sunday, Order of Canada appointee Jan Andrews will leave her kids' books at home and bring Written in the Body instead. It's her own story about sexuality and gender confusion to the stage.

“She's quite a celebrated children's author but when she tells stories it's usually for adults. She does Greek myths and epic storytelling but this weekend she's telling a set that she's taken several places in Canada. It's about her coming out in middle age as a lesbian, and owning that and her life changing from then on. It's just a remarkable show.”

Jessup added that the reading would be recorded as part of its StorySave project, an effort by Storytellers of Canada to record the voices of elder Canadian storytellers. Each year, a new storyteller – “teller” in Jessup's lingo – is chosen for having developed a marked personal style in the telling craft, or for having a remarkable body of work that should be kept alive.

“We're so lucky. I'm so pumped to have her come and do that show here. It's so powerful. That's a first for the festival too, to run a show that is openly gay content. We're really growing.”

There's also the Canadian Spirits event on Friday evening, which involves the sampling of real Canadian spirits. As you might guess, that's also an adults-only gathering.

Other notable features of this weekend's fest include Peyahtik - Wihtamawin: Tales Told Gently by Saskatchewan's Joseph Naytowhow, a Plains/Woodland Cree storyteller, as well as Jessup herself who all will help with the national celebration aspect of the show. Tales, Trails and Rails is about the building of the nation, and Jessup will recount The Trail of 42 about the construction of the Alaska Highway. The original route to Dawson Creek took people through St. Albert.

While the festival is about the country's sesquicentennial, the highway itself is only at the half-sesquicentennial mark. She is usually joined by musician Bill Dolan and First Nations teller Allison Tubman for the 90-minute show but Jessup will be a solo act with only a portion of the full traveling show this time out.