By NATE KING
Salina Post
What makes someone a "good" storyteller? Is it the vast and interesting vocabulary they use? What about the style of story they tell? Or is it their ability to wrap up a story by neatly connecting multiple themes into one concise narrative?
According to Kansas Storytelling Festival storyteller, Mo Reynolds, there is no gatekeeping when it comes to storytelling - anyone can tell a story.
On this episode of King in the Community, Reynolds talks about the way she got started telling stories, her first experience attending the annual Kansas Storytelling Festival in Downs, and her storytelling visits to regional grade schools in April.
"Storytelling festivals are a beautiful place of community and connection. A lot of times storytelling festivals will have a set of storytellers that will each do like a 15 to maybe 20 minute story. But this is a different kind of festival," Reynolds said. "I'll have a 45 minute block. So you'll be able to see different tellers, and they have a really nice, stretch of time to take you on a ride. And so I was really wanting to write this experience in kind of a cool fluid way, and wrap it up with some other stories. So I was really thankful for how Kansas has it set up because it gave me that challenge and opportunity."
The Kansas Storytelling Festival is made possible each year by a dedicated group of volunteers who coordinate the event, the entertainment, and the business of the Kansas Storytelling Festival. The committee functions underneath the guidance of the Downs Arts Council Board.
Former Kansas Governor Bill Graves officially recognized Downs in 1998 as "The Storytelling Capital of Kansas," and has proclaimed the last week of April as "The Kansas Storytelling Festival."
Each year storytellers from all across the country gather in Downs to showcase their talents and share their stories.