A good storyteller can transcend time and place, as the Possum Town Tales Storytelling Festival audience a year ago could attest. The phenomenon happens again Sept. 23 through 27 when the Columbus Arts Council presents the third annual festival at the Rosenzweig Arts Center at 501 Main St. Professional storytellers Dovie Thomason and Charlotte Blake Alston are featured during the multi-day event highlighted by workshops, public performances, a “homegrown” session and school appearances.

“Storytelling is such an art,” said Beverly Norris, arts council program manager. “The tellers once went from village to village, gathering people in the square. Now modern day storytellers are still capturing our imaginations and hearts.”

One festival goal is audience development as more people learn what storytelling is. Some may assume it is for children. While the stories are suitable for families, the storytelling audience is primarily adults.

“It’s a bit like a one-person dramatic presentation, but it’s hard to adequately explain,” remarked Norris. “The best way to learn what it really is, is to come.”

Master tellers

Thomason and Alston, both of Pennsylvania, are internationally-known tellers with varying styles.

Thomason, a traditional Lakota storyteller, has been featured on stages including The Kennedy Center, the Smithsonian Institution, London’s Barbican and Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. Her Kiowa Apache grandmother Dovie (“Geronimo with a perm,” Thomason has said) was a great influence, encouraging her granddaughter to study oral traditions of the First Nations with tribal elders across the country. Thomason’s repertoire, with presentations such as “Buffalo Gals Won’t You Come Out Tonight?” and “How the West Was Spun,” is laced with affection and humor.

“Told with elegance, wit and passion, her stories inspire delight in the spoken word …,” said The Washington Post, also noting Thomason’s “sly humor and astonishing vocal transformations.”

“I have been surrounded by storytellers my whole life,” said the teller, who has lectured at Yale University and the American Museum of Natural History. “I have seen how effective storytelling is. How powerful it is … ” She credits her ancestors for giving her stories to share today. “Without the old ones, we’d have nothing to say.”

Among Thomason’s honors are the American Library Association Editor’s Choice Award and the National Storytelling Network’s Circle of Excellence Award. She has been selected by the University of Manitoba Centre for Creative Writing and Oral Culture as writer/storyteller-in-residence for January-March 2015 in Winnipeg, Canada, the first American to be granted the appointment.

Thomason conducts a workshop Tuesday evening at 7 p.m. “for those who love a good story and want to learn how to tell one.” She also performs Thursday and Friday evenings at 7 p.m.

Her appearance is sponsored in part by South Arts, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts.

Tales from African culture

Charlotte Blake Alston is a master storyteller, narrator, librettist, instrumentalist and singer who has performed in venues from the Smithsonian Institution, Kennedy Center and a refugee camp in Senegal, to presidential and gubernatorial inaugural celebrations.

She has collaborated with many performing arts organizations, choirs, symphony orchestras and operas. For six seasons, she hosted “Carnegie Kids,” Carnegie Hall’s children’s concert series, and is a host of Carnegie Hall’s Family and Education Concert Series. Her narrative voice has often been heard on national public radio and television. Her many awards include the National Storytelling Association’s Circle of Excellence.

Alston’s dramatic style breathes life into stories of African and African-American tradition and is often enhanced by stringed or percussion instruments. Her love of storytelling began early.

“My introduction to literature and the planting of seeds that later bloomed into storytelling came in the 1950s,” the teller has shared. When she was about 6, Alston’s father began reading to her from his favorite poets and authors. “My father relished and touted the genius of these writers. He handed me the ‘Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar,’ selected a poem for me to memorize and launched me, as a child, on the spoken word path.”

Alston is a featured storyteller Friday at 7 p.m. and presents a free workshop titled “Rhythm This and Melody That” at 9 a.m. Saturday. The workshop is supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities through the Mississippi Humanities Council.

Desiree Wilson of Steens attended festival performances in September 2013.

“It’s such an experience; it was fabulous,” she said. “It seems passive to sit in a chair and hear someone talk, but when the storyteller can cause you to feel it in your mind, to be there, it is very much an active experience. It’s much like reading a good book live.”

Local tellers may share their tales in a Homegrown Storytelling segment Thursday at 7 p.m., prior to a story performance by Thomason. To sign up, contact the arts council, 662-328-2787.

“Storytelling is such a unique and compelling art form,” said Tina Sweeten-Lunsford, arts council executive director. “We hope to grow this event every year.”

Possum Town Tales schedule

Events are $10 each (except for the free Saturday morning workshop) or $25 all-inclusive.