Imagine communities throughout the world gathering at the same time on the same night with one common purpose: to tell and listen to stories. Welcome to TELLABRATION! - a far reaching program designed to make storytelling happen in your community.

TELLABRATION! is a synchronized network of story-centered events celebrated world-wide. From the United States to Japan, from Brazil to Germany, from Canada to France, each November during National Storytelling Week (U.S.A.), global communities gather to create their own TELLABRATION!

TELLABRATION! is traditionally held on the Saturday night prior to the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday.

When people gather for TELLABRATION!, great things happen. In the past, funds from TELLABRATION! have been used to support local schools and libraries, shelters for the homeless, Habitats for Humanity, Food Banks and Crisis Ministries and a host of other good causes.

As a result of TELLABRATION!, storytelling has become a permanent part of communities world-wide. You're invited to make it a part of your community, too.

For more than a decade, the National Storytelling Network has helped others to participate in TELLABRATION! We can help you, too.

• NSN offers an easy-to-use guidebook ($25) and promotional kit ($10)(cost for guidebook and kit is $35). Or it can be downloaded free below.

• NSN serves as a facilitator to producers and a clearinghouse for information.

•NSN publicizes TELLABRATION! events worldwide

•NSN, through its TELLABRATION Volunteer Corps, provides support and mentoring.

ANYONE can produce a TELLABRATION! This event can be presented in storytelling centers, schools, libraries, colleges, museums, performing-arts centers, elder hostels and even on airplanes.

TELLABRATION is one of the many ways the National Storytelling Network thinks globally and acts locally. Through the simple power of storytelling and TELLABRATION! you can make great things happen!

 

Tellabration is a worldwide benefit evening of storytelling. It creates a network of storytelling enthusiasts bonded together in spirit at the same time and on the same weekend.

Tellabration originator J. G. Pinkerton envisioned this international event as a means of building community support for storytelling. In 1988 the event was launched by the Connecticut Storytelling Center in six locations across the state. A great success,Tellabration extended to several other states the following year, and then, in 1990, expanded nationwide under the umbrella of the National Storytelling Network (then called NAPPS, and later the National Storyelling Association).

In 1995, for the first time, there was a Tellabration in Japan, brought there by Japanese storyteller Masako Sueyoshi, who had been a part of Tellabration when she lived in Connecticut for several years. By 1997, there were Tellabration events on every continent but Antarctica. (Anyone know any good penguin storytellers?)

Tellabration is traditionally held on the Saturday night before Thanksgiving. Some events, however, may be at an alternate time during the same weekend.

Anyone can produce a Tellabration event: storytelling organizations and centers, schools, libraries, colleges, museums, performing-arts centers, story-swap groups, story enthusiasts, and others.

NSN serves as a facilitator to producers and a clearinghouse for information. NSN also publicizes Tellabration events worldwide and offers an updated, camera-ready, Promotional Kit for $10.00. For new sites, a Manual and Guidebook is available for $25.00. Both of these are also available on the National Storytelling Network (1-800-525-4514).

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