Storytelling Festival In Tampa On April 16th

The 31^st Annual Tampa-Hillsborough County Storytelling Festival will be held on Saturday, April 16, in Tampa. The event features storytellers presenting tales, fables and classic stories.

It is put on by various city and county entities, including the Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library System and the City of Tampa Parks & Recreation Department.

“People from all ages will enjoy this event,” says Jody Wren, co-director of the festival. “Attendees can expect to hear good stories from both adults and children.”

One of the highlights of this year’s festival will be the headlining storyteller.

“Our headliner this year is Donna Washington who is fantastic,” Wren says. “Donna is an award-winning storyteller and author from North Carolina.”

The festival will have an “ambassador tent,” where youth tell stories. “Children attending the event really enjoy hearing other children tell stories,” Wren says. “Storytelling is an old art form, but we are all in essence storytellers our whole lives.”

Wren says that the festival is especially important for children because storytelling can help kids gain self-esteem and learn how to present themselves in a positive manner.

“We had a teacher who taught sixth-grade, and she worked with our kids teaching them how to tell stories and saw changes in those children,” Wren says. “If they were a poor student in their academics, the storytelling seemed to give them confidence that they could do other things, and with that confidence their grades improved.”

The Tampa-Hillsborough County Storytelling Festival will run from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on April 16 at Hillsborough High School, 5000 N. Central Ave. in Tampa. The event is free and open to the public.

Source: Jody Wren, City of Tampa Parks and Recreation Department
Writer: Kimberly Patterson