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A master storyteller weaves pure magic.
A storytelling festival brings tellers and listeners together for one enchanting event you won’t soon forget.
As a storyteller’s story unfolds, personalized images play on the screen in each listener’s mind. Images based upon each person’s own unique life encounters and experiences. Those gathered find themselves enthralled as they revisit some old long lost friends… memories created along this journey called life. Perhaps a memory about your favorite teacher or man’s best friend. Tears, joy, laughter, sorrow, recollections and remembrances: a gamut of emotions are experienced.
Cape Girardeau — like storytelling — is a historically rich treasure where the river turns a thousand tales: A charming river community as stimulating as the stories themselves. A place where you can feel the romance of the river and its tales. Live history through the people and places that created it. Experience the region’s best dining, lodging and entertainment… And leave with a story of your own.
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There Are Stories Waiting to Be Told…
Have You Heard?
by Chuck Martin
I grew up in a small town in a time when there were no cell phones, no computers, no pagers, no e-mail, no Internet. The TV was black and white and offered three fuzzy channels and was seldom watched. I grew up in my grandparent's backyard. In looking back, I now marvel at the nightly ritual that took place. My parents and grandparents visited each evening with their neighbors to the right and to the left. They were outside actually having conversations face to face with other human beings. We didn't have text messaging, but we did have the Davie Street grapevine. And the stories flowed freely and richly each evening.
Today, life comes at us at a fast and furious pace, and the demands and expectations are ever-increasing. We often find ourselves so busy making a living that we fail to take the time to fully and richly live life itself. A special, family-friendly, multigenerational event is coming to downtown Cape Girardeau, Missouri, April 3rd through the 5th, 2009. Cape Girardeau will be host four of the nation's best storytellers, and four of the best storytellers from the Midwest for one unforgettable weekend, the "Cape Girardeau Storytelling Festival: Where the River Turns a Thousand Tales."
At last year's Festival, I listened to a teller speak lovingly of his family and the wonderful times they enjoyed growing up together. Warm and wonderful memories. I thought about my dad being the only elder statesman remaining on my side of our family. My dad is 83. I thought about my children, who are no longer children. Both of my sons, Chris and Ben, are attending Southeast Missouri State University. And I thought: Where have the years gone? As I round each new curve in this race called life, I become ever-mindful of how quickly the years do pass. This life is indeed brief. And the preciousness of family, and the love we have for one another came quickly in to focus. I hugged my dad.
Another wonderful storyteller recounted his years of growing up in an ethnic neighborhood in south Chicago. He also told some touching stories about man's best friend. For a moment I was once again a little boy hiding out in my secret fort in a mulberry bush, planning my tactics for the next great rock-throwing battle with Terry Henderson in the back alley. And I once again remembered fondly two dogs that I had the pleasure to call my own, Charlie and Kelly.
As I sat and listened to yet another teller speak lovingly about one of his teachers, Miss Daisy, I found my mind recollecting a wonderful kindergarten crush on my teacher Miss Karen Follis, and the faith and encouragement of my third-grade teacher Mrs. Helen Hodges, both of whom helped to shape me into the man that I am.
For three wonderfully full days, I had the pleasure to shift life's gears from overdrive into park. And instead of living at a hundred miles an hour, I merely sat. And I listened. And I honestly relished and enjoyed every moment. I loved the stories, the lumps in my throat, the tears in my eyes, the hearty laughs and the wonderful recollections and memories that had sat on a back shelf in my mind for far too long.
As we're now preapring for our second annual event, allow me to offer a special thank you to our festival sponsors: Southern Convenience Stores, Drury Hotels, Drury Southwest, Shivelbine's Music and Sound, the Missouri Arts Council and the Cape Girardeau Convention and Visitors Bureau. Simply stated, without their help and support, the idea of creating an annual storytelling festival in our community would still be on the drawing board. Please express your appreciation to these generous sponsors for their support of this wonderful event.
The “Cape Girardeau Storytelling Festival: Where the River Turns a Thousand Tales” provides a wonderful way to reconnect with family and friends. Through the presentations of gifted storytellers, days become hours, and hours become minutes. Each story has its own unique and personalized impact. And that for me is what a storytelling festival is...
I hope you'll mark your calendars for April 3rd through the 5th, buy your tickets now and plan to join us for this unforgettable event. Come share the experience, and start a tradition.
For more information and/or to purchase tickets contact the Cape Girardeau Convention and Visitors Bureau at 335-1631.
Chuck Martin is executive director of the Cape Girardeau Convention and Visitors Bureau and co-producer of the Cape Girardeau Storytelling Festival. |
