Stories being told: Festival gives valley kids outlet for expression

By Emily Richmond

Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2002 | 11:02 a.m.

The Bristlecone Storytelling Festival continues at 6 p.m.:

When told by 11-year-old Travis Bennie of J.M. Ullom Elementary School, the fable of Jack and the beanstalk becomes a cautionary tale of greed, Vegas-style.

Spurred on by his prior success stealing from the giant, Jack goes back up the beanstalk for another try.

"The gold he stole could have fed Jack and his mother forever, but he still felt lucky," Travis told the rapt audience that turned out for Clark County's first-ever storytelling festival. "He climbed up to the top and the giant's wife told him, 'You stupid boy, my husband will eat you for breakfast.' "

Fortunately for Jack, Travis found a way to bring him safely down to Earth with the jackpot -- the giant's gold -- for a happy ending and much applause.

But school officials say the story doesn't end there. Travis told the tale as part of the Clark County School District's new storytelling festival, which is designed to help students improve everything from language and listening skills to self-confidence, librarian Rita Botzenhardt said.

Named for one of Nevada's state trees and the oldest species of tree on Earth, the Bristlecone Storytelling Festival was the idea of School Board member Ruth Johnson, who saw a similar festival in Utah. The Las Vegas-Clark County Library District co-sponsored the event.

Fourth-grade and fifth-grade students across the Las Vegas Valley are participating in the festival, with performances continuing throughout the week. The goal wasn't for students to memorize a story but to figure out on their own a way to share the story in their own words, Botzenhardt said.

Students began by reading a variety of stories and then choosing which tale they wanted to tell. Travis, who was selected by his classmates to represent his school, and told performed Monday at the Sunrise Library on Harris Avenue in Las Vegas along with students from four other nearby elementary schools.

Recognized as both an ancient art form and a teaching tool, storytelling shows children first-hand the power of language, said Stan Fuke, coordinator of library services for the school district. Students for whom English is a second language also benefit, Fuke said.

"Speaking the language is the best way to learn the language," Fuke said Tuesday. "Storytelling is a wonderful way to encourage children who are not native English speakers to practice the patterns and sounds."

At Paradise Elementary School, located on the University of Nevada, Las Vegas campus, most of the students speak Spanish, librarian Julie Doyle said. During the schoolwide festival one boy told the story of "Rumplestiltskin" in Spanish, and 60 percent of the students listening raised their hands when asked if they could understand him, Doyle said.

"I hope next year our Spanish speakers will feel even more confident to participate," Doyle said.

Shae'lon Holmes, a fifth-grader at Paradise, retold an Italian fable about a girl who encounters a mischievous red elf, but updated the tale to reflect his own experiences. A celebratory banquet of pasta in the original tale became "a whole mess of collard greens and mac and cheese," when Shae'lon told the story Tuesday.

"That's what this project teaches us, that every storyteller has their own perspective," Doyle said.

M.J. Bennie, Travis' mother, said she was impressed by the response of the mostly student audience to the storytellers.

"You could hear the children laughing, being entertained by other children," Bennie said. "They all got very quiet at some parts, and you could tell they were really listening."