La Crosse Storytelling Festival Showcases Storytelling’s Modern Revival

Everyone loves a good story. It’s engaging. It makes us think, reflect, laugh, or cry. It makes us feel our emotions. And in recent years, there’s been a modern revival in storytelling.

This weekend, those stories, along with more traditional folk tales, will take stage at Wisconsin’s only storytelling festival, the La Crosse Storytelling Festival. The 14th annual event will feature modern and classic storytelling aimed at adults and children.

“Anyone can tell a story,” said storyteller and festival organizer Terry Visger. “We all do it, but some are better than others. Their stories may be more succinct or have more information. The teller maybe put more feelings into it.”

Storytelling has existed since humans learned to communicate — it’s the way we learn, and it’s been evolving over time, Visger said.

“Plato was concerned when writing came around since students weren’t learning through oral tradition,” Visger said. “Over the years, people made a living going town to town, bringing information, news and gossip into the community. They were revered. This has happened in every culture.”

Then came the invention of broadcasting, which changed everything.

“People forgot about the story,” Visger said. “We didn’t share stories and jokes as much. The idea of storytelling died a bit. But now, people feel like they need connection through storytelling. It’s evolving back again.”

Programs such as The Moth — an organization providing professional and amateur storytellers a stage through live events across the country and on public radio — have inspired the rise in similar personal, short story events in communities across the country, breathing new life into the art form.

Visger said such programs and events are great because it’s getting a younger generation interested in storytelling again.

To hear Terry Visger tell the tale “The Power of Storytelling,” listen here.