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Storytelling fest is Saturday at Middleton High School
By ELISABETH DYER
Published April 7, 2006
BELMONT/JACKSON HEIGHTS - Meagan Martin has been telling stories to her bedroom mirror since the sixth grade. "I try to express my emotions, make it my story," says the 19-year-old theater art student at Hillsborough Community College, who lives in Tampa Heights. "I want to connect with my audience." Meagan will go on stage Saturday during the 26th annual Tampa-Hillsborough County Storytelling Festival, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Middleton High School, 4801 N 22nd St. The free festival features professional tale weaver Len Cabral, puppet performances and folk singers. Sponsored by the city's Parks and Recreation Department, Hillsborough County Parks and Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Libraries, the festival seeks to inspire young people to continue the art of storytelling. Student storytellers will divide into groups and tell tales in classrooms. Guests will gather under tents for impromptu storytelling. Meagan will perform in the Ambassador Tent with other youths selected as promising storytellers. This year's festival added about 200 student storytellers, bringing the total to nearly 700. Among them is Meagan's 12-year-old sister, Dymond. Both girls learned the art of storytelling from Victoria Gregor, a sixth-grade teacher at Williams Middle School, an International Baccalaureate magnet. Gregor uses storytelling to teach her students writing skills and leads the school's storytelling club. Meagan was so shy she barely spoke when she was in Gregor's class. She wouldn't raise her hand to answer questions, and when asked a question, she would mumble an answer. Then one day Meagan said she wanted to tell the class a story. She told the African folk tale of an ant that struggled to find the courage to carry a crumb much larger than himself. "When she told that story, I almost fell off my chair," Gregor said. Meagan reminded her of Maya Angelou, who didn't speak for several years as a child and then one day found her voice and hasn't stopped speaking and writing. Gregor says storytelling can open the minds of children like Meagan. "Storytelling pretty much changed my life," said Meagan, who dreams of performing as a stage actress. "It gave me courage.''
[Last modified April 6, 2006, 14:45:05]
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