Below is information about both storytelling groups involved in this joint Tellabration! ™ as well as bios for all of the tellers. There is a description of the history of Tellabration! ™ at the bottom of this page.
Asian American Storytellers in Action
Member of Storytelling Association of California (SAC)
Spurred on by the pandemic and the eruption of anti-Asian hate, a group of talented Asian Americas storytellers came together in 2020 to create Asian American Storytellers in Action (AASIA.) AASIA is a collective whose mission is to promote and celebrate Asian and Asian American culture and heritage through the art of storytelling. Our vision is for the world to embrace and celebrate diversity where all peoples are respected and treated equally.
AASIA has produced many online programs and created a YouTube channel of Asian stories and activities:
Asian American YouTube Channel.
We posted biweekly 15-20 minute episodes of diverse stories and activities by Asian American storytellers from around the United States. The channel was created for elementary school students in grades K-5, their families, and all story lovers. Our storytellers have performed at national and global storytelling festivals, schools, libraries, museums, and conferences.
Please visit our website to leave comments or find a storyteller to bring to your community or organization.
Asian American Storytopia Website.
The tellers and a Master of Ceremonies from Asian American Storytellers in Action are listed below. If you click on their name, you will get a short bio about each teller and the MC.
Bowen Lyam Lee is the Master of Ceremonies for Asian American Storytellers in Action as well as one of the tellers.
Tobey Ishi-AndersonInland Valley Storytellers of Southern California
Affiliate Member of National Storytelling Network (NSN)
Member of Storytelling Association of California (SAC)
The Inland Valley Storytellers (IVS) was formed in 2003 in Claremont, California and has members that live in the east end of Los Angeles County and the west end of San Bernardino and Riverside Counties. We meet monthly, the second Tuesday of each month at 7:30 PM, in the Claremont Forum to share stories. IVS welcomes both storytellers and story listeners. Attendance is free and open to anyone. We produce 2 storytelling concerts per year, one at the Claremont Friends Meetinghouse in the spring and one at the Claremont Folk Music Center in November. Our first Tellabration! ™ concert was at the Claremont Forum in 2003. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic IVS meetings were online using Zoom until December 2022, when we returned to meeting in person at the Claremont Forum, 586 West First Street in Claremont. Now our monthly story swap meetings are hybrid meetings with both in person and Zoom attendees. To learn more about IVS, click on the links at the bottom of this page.
There are 4 tellers from the Inland Valley Storytellers. If you click on their name, you will get a short bio about each teller.
John St. Clair is the MC for the Inland Valley Storytellers as well as one of the tellers.
History of Tellabration! ™
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 Association for the Preservation and Perpetuation of Storytelling, or NAPPS, which later became the National Storytelling Association, and is now called the National Storytelling Network.
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. In 1999, 333 sites, 400 producers, and 6700 production staffers spun stories to a combined audience of over 34,000.
J.G. "Paw-Paw" Pinkerton passed away on November 4, 2008, just 3 weeks before the 21st year of Tellabration! ™ celebrations, on his way home to Connecticut from a family wedding in Texas.
Storytelling was J.G.'s second career, to which he devoted himself passionately after his retirement from Texasgulf in 1988. He served on the Board of Directors of NAPPS (the National Association for the Preservation and Perpetuation of Storytelling, parent of NSN) for six years, and he also served on the Board of the International Storytelling Center. He has been a generous friend and mentor to hundreds of storytellers.
In this season we remember J.G. particularly as the creator of the tradition of TELLABRATION! ™ - the night of storytelling on the weekend before Thanksgiving. As many of us produce and perform in our hundreds of Tellabrations! ™ across the country and the world every year, let us thank J.G. Pinkerton, with whose vision it all began.