A Kansas festival is preserving the ancient art of storytelling. Once used to pass the history of one generation down to the next, storytellers are now helping people communicate without their phones. It might be a silly story, an old western or even a comical confession.
“She thought about that for a minute, and yelled, ‘Little ole boy!'” said Billy Harley, storyteller.
“Billy Earp always had, he was a wild, rich kid,” said Joe Herrington, storyteller.
But most all of the stories get a reaction. “We’ve always communicated that way, but we’re getting away from it, and so I feel the value of storytelling is to get people back in that human communication,” said Herrington.
No phones and no computers, just the spoken word, for two days during the annual storytelling festival in Downs. Organizers say it’s more than spinning a yarn. This was the 26th year for the storytelling festival. It started small, but now attracts visitors from all over the country.
(Read more: Top Stories | KSNW)