Public speaking consistently ranks as people’s number one fear. It comes before spiders, the dark, nuclear war, death. Death? Yes, before death.
I’m lucky. I’ve been a public speaker for my entire adult life—in forensics, debate, moot court, the legal field, and now as a teacher. I was never afraid of public speaking for some reason. (Don’t worry, I have a list a mile long of other fears!)
I knew I had stories to tell, but I wasn’t sure where to go. I lamented this to a fellow teacher, who said he was a member of the Ann Arbor Storytellers’ Guild.
Founded in 1997, the Ann Arbor Storytellers’ Guild (AASG) boasts dozens of members. At its second meeting in February of 1988, the nascent group planned once-monthly members-only meetings/story swaps where tellers could tell, receive feedback, and refine their art. Later, they organized monthly public storytelling events and kids’ events at what was then Nicola’s Books (now Schuler’s Books). They also mapped out workshops where tellers could hone their skills.
Darryl Mickens has been a member of the AASG since 2002, but he began telling much earlier, sharing ghost stories with his siblings.
“I think people like storytelling so much because it’s our primitive nature to enjoy oral telling,” he says. “We get the chance to paint a canvas of stories inside our head, and we share those stories with a community.”
From the moment I walked through the door, I felt warmth. Newcomers were welcomed but not made to stand up and introduce themselves; rather, the feeling was that you were a member who just hadn’t made it to a meeting yet. I received helpful feedback, some praise, and different ideas of what to incorporate and what to omit. I practiced in my car, at home, and at subsequent meetings until the story felt airtight.
Some people debut with epic tales: meeting the love of their life, moving across the globe, solving the problem of world hunger. But me? My first story was about taking the bar exam after a miserable law school experience. (Hey, they can’t all be The Odyssey.)
My public storytelling premiere happened at an event called Tellabration. Created in 1988 by a board member of national storytelling organizations and envisioned as a fundraising event, Tellabration events are now held all over the world.
Our Ann Arbor Tellabration began in 1992 when four school librarians who used storytelling with their students decided to create an evening of storytelling for adults. Calling themselves Schoolfolk, Gail Beaver (Huron High), Fran Lyman (Wines), Judy Schmidt (Clague), and Sunnie Tait (Lawton) curated an event that filled up the First Unitarian Church on Washtenaw Ave. (the building is now the Stone Chalet bed and breakfast). The magical evening was so well attended that they ran out of programs. The group raised enough money from the event to put on a storytelling conference with the Washtenaw Intermediate School District. For a decade, Schoolfolk produced Tellabration before passing the mantle to the AASG, who added a family Tellabration.
The moment I stepped on the stage for the 2014 Tellabration, I knew that I had found something special. My bar exam story hit all the right notes and even ended up on the AASG’s annual CD!
Related: Tellabration, Nov. 2007
Storytelling’s origins have been traced back 30,000 years. The Greeks had The Iliad, the Sumerians had The Tale of Gilgamesh, the Germans had Grimms’ Fairy Tales—all of which began as oral stories. Indigenous Americans used animal fables to impart lessons and religious tales to teach creation, and in Africa’s western Sahel, griots still pass down legendary tales. Closer to home, we tell stories through podcasts, TikTok videos, stand-up comedy, and everyday conversation. Storytelling, it would seem, is an integral part of the human experience.
What is so special about this craft?
“The first rule of storytelling,” says one of AASG’s original members, Judy Schmidt, “is to choose a story you love. Then when you work at it and with it and tell it numerous times, the story becomes yours. And then you get new insights every time you tell it.”
Even veteran storytellers often feel a surge of that old primal fear of laying your soul bare in front of strangers.
“I get an adrenaline rush after I’m done storytelling,” Schmidt says. “It is a peak experience. It makes me feel wonderful.”
“As a teacher I enjoyed reading books to my students,” says retired Ann Arbor Public Schools educator Jeff Gaynor, “but when I tell a story—publicly speaking in front of an audience—that engagement multiplies. There is no intermediary between me and the audience. It’s magical.”
Tellabration was renamed to StoryFest; the last one was held in 2022. Due to lack of volunteers, it has been put on hold.
But there are still plenty of local events for budding (or veteran) storytellers: monthly meetings of the AASG at the downtown library, concerts featuring members of the AASG, and monthly Moth StorySLAM competitions presented by Michigan Public and sponsored by the Moth, a NYC-based nonprofit storytelling organization. Further afield, there’s the Bright Water Storytelling Festival in Howell, the Scary Festival at the Howell Opera House, and the Secret Society of Twisted Storytellers in Detroit.
There is also an annual storytelling festival at the Ark. This year it’s a liars’ contest held on Friday, February 20—and yes, I will be telling.