Stories for the New Year @ The Blue Ridge Story Space
-The following first appeared in The Floyd Press on January 10, 2019
A first kiss, how we met, a new career after a parent’s death were some of the “beginnings” stories told at the January Blue Ridge Story Space (BRSS). It was the year anniversary of the monthly storytelling event and one of the best turn-outs yet, said organizer Christal Trivett-Presley.
Trivett-Presley, an English teacher at Patrick County High School, spoke of preserving the mountain tradition of oral storytelling during the evening’s introduction and before passing the hat that held the names of signed-up storytellers. Free and open to the public, the story space as a non-competitive, safe place where people come together to share 5-7 minute stories, she said. Held at the June Bug Center on the first Saturday of the month from 5:30 to 7:00, the BRSS’s February theme will be “secrets.”
Photos: An attentive audience listens to Jane Avery’s story of growing up as a tomboy in Connecticut and experiencing her first kiss.
A storyteller from Meadows of Dan spoke on the mind’s journey of exploring the variety, ambiguity and cyclic nature of beginnings.
Clinton Atwater got the audience’s attention when he joked about being a drug dealer (a pharmacist). He, talked about learning to be comfortable with public speaking through his participation in a Toastmasters leadership club.
In a story about ‘how we met,” BRSS’s organizer Christal Trivett-Presley (left) recalled when she and her wife Jane (right) got married in their PJS at a courthouse in Atlanta after the Supreme Court ruling made same sex marriage legal in the U.S.
“I’ve been at more than one party that started under a bridge in the rain,” said Greg Locke, while sharing his adventures as a motorcycle enthusiast. Locke got his first bike in high school. “I don’t have a title,” a friend that was selling the bike said to Locke. “That’s okay, I don’ have a license,” Locke replied.
Hari Berzins of Floyd Citizens Cooperative TV hooks up a storyteller whose story began with a blue piñata. Video-taping is an optional feature of the BRSS. The taped stories are aired on Citizens TV Channel 20 and can also be found at the BRSS youtube site.
The audience responds with laughter during the blue piñata story. – Colleen Redman
January 15th, 2019 4:02 am
How awesome! I would love to participate in something like that one day.