Storytelling -- Appalachian Region

Scope and Contents This collection consists of audio and video recordings, photographs and transcripts which document the experience of the four students who participated in the 2025 Berea Folklife Apprenticeship Program. This program offers Berea students the opportunity to apprentice with community artists in traditional arts and craft, foodways, storytelling, music or dance, anywhere in Appalachia. The participants for 2025 were Michael Adebusoye, Anthony Crowder, Jacob Mudd, and Bella Watkins....

Scope and Contents This collection contains video recordings documenting the Fifth National Festival of Black Storytelling held at Berea College, November 12-14, 1987. Features of the event included concurrent storytelling sessions for various ages, the Second National Liars Contest, an informal "Swapping Ground" for storytellers, and scholarly lectures on the status of blacks in Appalachia.Among the fifteen master storytellers participating in the festival were Mary Carter Smith and Linda...

Abstract The Hutchins Library - Indiana University Folktale Workshop was a three-week research residency held in Berea July 7-26, 2003. It was sponsored jointly by Berea College, the Folklore Institute at Indiana University, and the Tales Online Project. Participants included students, teachers, storytellers, and researchers. The Primary focus of the study was Berea's Leonard Roberts Folktale Collection. Activities included archival research, tale transcription of audio recordings, guest speakers,...

Scope and Contents This collection consists of an audio recording of Robert and Laura Thurman’s presentation about their east Tennessee heritage generally and storytelling in particular given at the Berea College Appalachian Center on November 11, 2022. Also included are recordings of ten stories told by Robert Thurman on another occasion. Listen to...