Becoming Part of the Story of Appalachia
Many travelers don't realize that Georgia has mountains--wild, beautiful, and home to a rich
legacy of Appalachian culture. Minutes away from Brasstown Bald, the highest peak in Georgia,
but only two hours from Atlanta, Young Harris College will celebrate Appalachian culture,
particularly the spoken word tradition, during the third annual Georgia Mountain Storytelling
Festival to be held on the college campus on 31st March and 1 April 2017. The festival will
showcase the art of Southern storytelling with a particular focus on Appalachian stories, both traditional
and contemporary. The GMSF offers storytelling and musical performances by a wide range of wonderful
artists: acclaimed folksinger John McCutcheon; award-winning children’s author Carmen
Agra Deedy whose tales are a delightful blend of her Cuban heritage and her upbringing in
Georgia; Cherokee teller Lloyd Arneach; master of the tall tale, the hilarious Bil Lepp; and
Sheila Arnold Jones, creator of History’s Alive!. Funded by a grant from the Georgia
Humanities Council, Sheila Arnold Jones’ presentation on Zora Neale Hurston, AfricanAmerican folklorist and acclaimed author of Their Eyes Were Watching God, is free and
open to the public. By making the festival free to all local students, we hope to encourage
young people to embrace and participate in the legacy of telling their own stories and the stories
of their region. We also hope that our Festival will bring us all a little closer together by showing
that, as individuals and families, we share many of the same dreams, the same aspirations, the
same stories.
Purchasing your tickets in advance is strongly recommended. Advance ticket sales will run
through 25 February, 2017, via Eventbrite. You may also purchase in advance by mailing your
ticket order and check to: Dr. Ruth Looper, Department of English, Young Harris College, 1
College Street, Young Harris, GA 30582. Make your check payable to Young Harris College,
and write "storytelling festival" in the subject line. For more information,
contact [email protected] or visit us on Facebook.
Grants from the NEA and the GHC help fund the GMSF, but we welcome
sponsorships and any size donation. Please contact [email protected], call 706-3795136, or visit us on Facebook. You may also visit http://gmsf.eventbrite.com. or
yhc.edu/storytelling. Thanks and join us!
Bil Lepp