The Storytelling Guild at West Texas A&M University is proud to present the 2019 WT Storytelling Festival “Trail of Tears” featuring award-winning Choctaw author and storyteller Tim Tingle on May 3.
Two children’s concerts will kick off the festival at 10 a.m. and 11:15 a.m. in the Branding Iron Theatre. Later, Tingle will host a storytelling workshop at 2 p.m. in the Sybil B. Harrington Fine Arts Complex, room 176 and an evening storytelling concert at 7 p.m. in the Branding Iron Theatre.
Tingle’s great-grandfather, John Carnes, walked the Trail of Tears in 1835, and his paternal grandmother attended a series of rigorous Indian boarding schools in the early 1900s. In 1993, Tingle began retracing the Trail of Tears to Choctaw homelands in Mississippi and began recording stories of tribal elders.
Also performing for the evening concert are guild members Nicolai Hartling, (Copenhagen, Denmark), Ejiro Favour Uwode (Lagos, Nigeria), Vanessa Garcia (Borger), Kelsey Knight (Clovis, New Mexico), Bailee Barber (Bushland) and Shane Gregory (Amarillo).
“Tim Tingle has a way of capturing his audience's attention. From his soothing voice to the beat of his drum, he has a strong presence when telling a story. I hope to learn from Tingle how to captivate an audience and tell stories from the soul,” Kesley Knight, president of the Panhandle Storytelling Guild, said.
“Tim Tingle is one of my favorite storytellers. He has a way of pulling you into the conversation, he invites you into his world and shows you what it is to be truly human. I also love that he is a man of great wisdom, who lets the narrative flow naturally, and this is what I hope to learn from him,” Favour Uwode, a graduate communication student, said.
Tingle was a featured author and speaker at the 2014 National Book Festival in Washington, D.C., based on critical acclaim for “How I Became a Ghost,” which won the 2017 American Indian Youth Literature Award. “When a Ghost Talks, Listen,” was released in June of 2018 at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., and at the American Library Association Conference in Orlando.
His first children’s book, “Crossing Bok Chitto,” received over 20 state and national awards, and was an editor’s choice in the New York Times Book Review. In 2003, Tingle obtained a masters degree in English literature at the University of Oklahoma with a focus on American Indian studies. He wrote his first book, “Walking the Choctaw Road” while teaching writing courses and completing his thesis.
The Department of Communication has produced the festival every spring since 1991. Tingle’s performance is made possible by support from the WT Guest Artist Series.
This festival is sponsored by the WT Guest Artist Series, the Department of Communication and the WT Panhandle Storytelling Guild. All events are free and open to the public. For reservations, contact Dr. Trudy Hanson at 806-651-2800 or thanson@wtamu.edu.
-West Texas A&M University
Photo by WTAMU