The 19th annual Inland Valley Storytellers Tellabration!™ was a live in-person event at the Claremont Folk Music Center on November 20 at 7:00 PM. Proof of COVID-19 vaccination was required for attendance. Everyone except the teller was also required to wear a mask. This was the first live and in person storytelling event for IVS since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. 21 people bought tickets to attend and everyone enjoyed an evening of great stories and song. Special guest Ellen Harper, accompanied by Jerry O'Sullivan, joined 5 IVS tellers to entertain the audience. You can watch the recorded video of this Tellabration! ™ on the Inland Valley Storytellers YouTube channel.
The performers are shown below with their photo and name. If you click on their name, it will show you a short bio about each performer.
Scroll down to read about the history of Tellabration!™ at the bottom of this page.
Stephanie Townes ............................... Karen Rae Kraut
Nick Smith ...................................................... John St. Clair
Ron Evans ................................... Ellen Harper
History of Tellabration!™
In 2003 the Inland Valley Storytellers presented their first Tellabration!™ concert at the Claremont Forum and IVS has produced a Tellabration!™ concert every year since.
Tellabration!™ is a worldwide benefit evening of storytelling. It creates a network of storytelling enthusiasts bonded together in spirit at the same time and on the same weekend.
Tellabration! ™ is a worldwide evening of storytelling. It creates a network of storytelling enthusiasts bonded together in spirit at the same time and on the same weekend.
Tellabration! ™ originator J. G. Pinkerton envisioned this international event as a means of building community support for storytelling. In 1988 the event was launched by the Connecticut Storytelling Center in six locations across the state. A great success, Tellabration! ™ extended to several other states the following year, and then, in 1990, expanded nationwide under the umbrella of the National Association for the Preservation and Perpetuation of Storytelling, or NAPPS, which later became the National Storytelling Association, and is now called the National Storytelling Network.
In 1995, for the first time, there was a Tellabration! ™ in Japan, brought there by Japanese storyteller Masako Sueyoshi, who had been a part of Tellabration! ™ when she lived in Connecticut for several years. By 1997, there were Tellabration! ™ events on every continent but Antarctica. In 1999, 333 sites, 400 producers, and 6700 production staffers spun stories to a combined audience of over 34,000.
J.G. "Paw-Paw" Pinkerton passed away on November 4, 2008, just 3 weeks before the 21st year of Tellabration! ™ celebrations, on his way home to Connecticut from a family wedding in Texas.
Storytelling was J.G.'s second career, to which he devoted himself passionately after his retirement from Texasgulf in 1988. He served on the Board of Directors of NAPPS (the National Association for the Preservation and Perpetuation of Storytelling, parent of NSN) for six years, and he also served on the Board of the International Storytelling Center. He has been a generous friend and mentor to hundreds of storytellers.
In this season we remember J.G. particularly as the creator of the tradition of TELLABRATION! ™ - the night of storytelling on the weekend before Thanksgiving. As many of us produce and perform in our hundreds of Tellabrations! ™ across the country and the world every year, let us thank J.G. Pinkerton, with whose vision it all began.