The Crossville Storytelling Festival has been re-imagined into the Cumberland Mountain Storytelling Festival.

Originating with the Crossville Arts Council three years ago, PAART is excited and proud to present great storytellers and to do our part in keeping the tradition alive and well in our community.

Not to be outdone, the storytelling committee, composed of leaders from the Crossville Arts Council, Cumberland Artisans for Creative Expression (CACE), the Performing Arts Alliance of Rural Tennessee (PAART), and storytellers Betty and Mike Roe, has become the Crossville Storytelling Guild. Core members of the committee who have worked on the festival since its beginnings now welcome other community members into the guild.

The new storytelling guild will meet on Monday, July 18th at 1:00 pm at the new Shanks Center for the Arts across from the Depot on Main Street. If you have questions, please contact Debra Mendenhall at [email protected] for more information.

The Cumberland Mountain Storytelling Festival will be held on Friday evening, October 21 and Saturday evening, October 22 at the Palace Theatre, with a shorter Senior/Student matinee on Friday afternoon. Featured storytellers will include Connie Regan-Blake of North Carolina on Saturday evening, and Michael Lockett of Ohio, Judy Baker of Cleveland, TN, and Finn Bille of Chattanooga, TN for both performances on Friday.

Bill Landry, Tennessee’s favorite storyteller and host of public television’s “Heartland Series,” will MC Friday evening’s performance.Plans are already underway for the 2012 storytelling festival, so stay tuned for updates for this fall and beyond. Check PAART’s website at www.performingartsalliance.org for the latest updates.