Everyone has a story

The weekend of May 1, thousands of people from around the country will be taking part in one of Ojai’s most storied traditions, as the ninth annual Village of Tales opens up at the Libbey Bowl.

Founded in 2000, the Village of Tales Ojai Storytelling Festival will take place from May 1-4. The festival features seven storytellers and 23 programs, including an outreach program for 2,000 students from Port Hueneme, Oxnard, Ventura and Ojai.

Artistic Director Brian Bemel says he expects approximately 3,500 people from all over the country to attend this year’s events.

“We attract a lot of people from out of Ventura County to the festival, and I would say that in the last two to three years, we are starting to get a lot of people from Ventura County, and it’s a mixture of local people and people from all over,” Bemel says.

This year’s lineup features storytellers, musicians and comedians, Bemel says, as Kuniko Yamamoto, Dovie Thomason Sickles, Bil Lepp, Kevin Kling, Andy Irwin, David Holt and Charlotte Blake-Alston are all expected to perform.

Bemel is responsible for choosing the festival’s performers, and he says he usually finds storytellers for the Ojai festival at the annual National Storytelling Festival in Jonesboro, Tenn. He says he has high standards when picking the people to perform in Ojai, and those standards help make the Ojai festival’s program so popular.

“I look for storytellers that really connect strongly with an audience, that’s my main criteria,” Bemel says. “It’s not just spoken word — it’s primarily spoken word, but there’s a lot of music. And people will hear all kinds of different stories, from comedy to suspense to high drama, and they’re all really incredible in their own way.”

Bemel says attendees can expect to hear four-time Grammy winner Holt playing his banjo, Blake-Alston performing with traditional African instruments and Yamamoto playing the flute and koto, among other additions to the spoken word stories.

Storyteller Andy Irwin says attendees at the festival can also look forward to a visit from his Aunt Marguerite, a character beloved on the international storytelling circuit for her down-home humor.

Irwin, who will be appearing at the festival for the second time, says he enjoys performing at the festival because the people of Ojai are able to appreciate his humor.

“Ojai is a funky bunch of amazing folks, and they’re into the arts, and they’re amazing people,” Irwin says. “I’d be in trouble with the storytelling community if I didn’t bring along my Aunt Margeurite, so I know Aunt Margeurite will be there telling stories about growing up in Covington, Ga., and becoming a recovering racist.”

Although Irwin is best known for his humorous tales, other tellers will be sharing stories about more serious subjects. Kevin Kling said his repertoire includes relationships with his family and learning to live life with a disability.

“My stories revolve around a Midwest upbringing, mostly autobiographic,” Kling says. “I lean toward the humorous, with an occasional venture into pathos. Some of my stories also deal with disability. I have a congenital condition with my left arm and my right arm was paralyzed in an accident. As unfunny as this may sound, there is always a chance to laugh or find blessings in the curses. … I find humor opens doors and allows us to travel down some pretty treacherous trails.”

Kling says he is also excited to travel to California for the festival.

“I’m from Minnesota, so I’m excited about temperatures over 40,” Kling says.

Bemel says he expects the festival’s unique setting will entice many people to make the trip to Ojai.

“The setting at Libbey Bowl is fantastic,” he says. “It’s beautiful, sitting outdoors, under the oaks and the fragrance of the orange blossoms. And Ojai is just a fantastic community to have it in, and that’s why people come from all over to be here.”

He says the influx of tourists the festival brings has made it a boon for Ojai’s business community, which in turn has inspired local residents and restaurants to provide lodging and meals for the visiting storytellers.

“People have come and told their friends, and people are bringing people with them, and it’s really been grassroots marketing. It’s been very effective,” Bemel says. “A lot of the restaurants in town have ponied up, and they’re feeding the tellers while they’re here. It’s been great business in town. All the restaurants are filled up, and the hotels are filled up. Art is great business when it brings people in like this.”

Bemel says people are attracted to the festival because it offers a form of entertainment that is rarely found in modern America.

“I think that in these times of high-tech that we are living in, it’s so refreshing to see somebody stand up with very little technology, just their voice and imagination, and you watch them capture people of all ages,” Bemel says.

“We’re just boiling it down to the basics of words creating pictures.”

Kling also says he thinks the festival offers an important alternative form of entertainment, and that is why he thinks people should make the trip to Ojai for the festival.

“Stories tell us who we are, how we belong, where we come from, where we go after life, what’s funny, what’s sacred,” Kling says. “In a world of screens and media, the truth is often found in myth these days, in a good story well told.”   

The Ojai Storytelling Festival at Libbey Bowl in Downtown Ojai May 1-4. For more information, visit www.villageoftales.org.