It's June and time for the Berea experience!

Greetings all!

Summer is hotter than hot and I've been busy. I joined the Jonesborough Storytelling Guild and have already performed with them a couple of times at the Cranberry Thistle. They are a great group and so very good at doing what we all love best - storytelling.

The gigs down in North Florida were great fun - I enjoyed telling eco-tales under the tent at the Green Energy Expo in Crawfordville, and also loved seeing old friends again. The day before, I told literally all day at Woodville Elementary, my dad's old school. One of the most exciting things that happened came just after lunch. I brought my cartoon storybook to review what I wanted to tell next and the art teacher saw it. She asked that I tell Third Grade Drama Queen, which is about the discovery of my learning differences and challenges (believe me, they are challenging. . .) When I told it, I also shared the cartoons and found it very rewarding. One youngster in the back of the room popped up with his hand held high and said - I have that too!

Speaking of Third Grade Drama Queen - I told that story for the Annual Tennessee Dyslexia Conference in Knoxville in April. Again, I had my book of cartoons with me and the keynote speaker saw me reviewing it and asked to look at it. We had a great discussion about the use of hand-drawn pictures as a learning aid for dylexics, and I sent them photo-copies at The Grange School in New Jersey for some of their students. That day was wonderful in many ways: it was great to be among intelligent, educated folks who understood the condition and many of whom share it with me.

More next week about Berea!

over the mountains and through the woods . . .

This past Saturday, I went to Marshall, North Carolina to visit with ballad singer, Betty Smith. When I arrived, I called and she drove down from the mountain top to pick me up. When we got back to her log cabin, which is nestled into a knob and totally surrounded by trees, we were greeted by birdsong. I thought it boded well for our time together, which although she didn't sing, was filled with musical memories.

Sunday, I drove over to Boone, North Carolina and met with Charlotte Ross. She is a true oral storyteller who works totally from the experience of her memory. Listening to her talk about her childhood in Georgia was a treat beyond description.

Saundra Gerrell Kelley, Storyteller/writer

Hello! This is my maiden voyage into the deep waters of the 'blogesphere' and I'm excited about it. I've signed onto blogs and even used them in classwork when I was at ETSU, but one of my own????

I graduated December 15th with my masters in storytelling and since then have been hard at work to find the best ways to put my stories to work. For now, I've got gigs coming up in March and April, with more on the way. I'm also searching for the best ways to get Dot Jackson, 'Going Home' which was my capstone, into circulation. Dot wrote Refuge, a novel published by Novello Press in 2006, and it is my great honor to have had the opportunity to interview her and hear her stories.

For now, I am keeping busy with the ETSU School of Medicine and ETSU Storytelling Program grant. It's my job to interview cancer patients to collect their journey stories about the experience. It has a been a tremendously rewarding opportunity to meet these wonderful people and to hear their stories. If you want to know what it means to live fully, listen to a cancer survivor - you'll never be the same again.

My winter/Spring schedule

February 15, 2008, Relay for Life Black Tie Dinner, Elizabethton, TN

February 25, 2008, Bluff City Elementary School, Bluff City, TN

March 13, 2008, Johnson City Employees Awards Dinner, Johnson City, TN

March 22, 2008, The Green Energy Expo, Crawfordville, FL

April 19, 2008, Tennessee Dyslexia Association Annual Conference, Knoxville, TN