MTSU alumna Christi Underdown-Dubois, left, explains how she participated in the “Story Slam” competition at the recent National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, Tenn.

MTSU alumna Christi Underdown-Dubois, a relative newcomer, was a part of the recent 2012 National Storytelling Festival in historic Jonesborough, Tenn. The October event celebrated 40 years of storytelling that started in the tiny East Tennessee town and has become an international movement.

This special report on the storytellers and the National Storytelling Festival features some of the prominent artists who practice the profession as well as the founder of the festival, Jimmy Neil Smith. Smith conceived the idea of a storytelling festival in a conversation with his students in the early 1970s after listening to comedian Jerry Clower. The first festival was held around a wagon on the courthouse square; today, the National Storytelling Festival features multiple venues in and around Jonesborough.

For more information about the event, visit www.storytellingcenter.net/festival.