It Was Ten Times Upon a Time
by Sam Yada Cannarozzi

ad you been in Grenoble, France at the Folk Museum of Upper Savoy May 28th, 1997 we probably would have shared a great glass of wine and some delightful salmon appetizers. For it was there that I got the call (and the honor) to MC the 10th anniversary of this city’s "Arts of Storytelling" Festival.

I have been coming to the festival since 1987, and this year Henri Touati, the event’s artistic director, and his team decided that everything should be done in ... tens! So there I found myself steel drum in hand, in a blue magician’s turban trying, at times frantically, to organize the 400 invited guests into ten different groupings so I could send them ambling off down the corridors and up the stairwells of the Museum toward ten opening comments by ten local mayors who were presenting the ten featured inaugural story tellers.

Each of the ten groups had a special color to wave, bells to ring, phrases to chant and gloves and walnuts to proffer. (Grenoble is traditionally known for its fabrication of glove-ware and walnut cakes and cordials, yummm.,.)

The evening flowed on with official presentations by local and regional cultural officials and culminated with, yes, you guessed it, ten storytellers on stage that yours truly presented with, what else, ten costume changes. It wasn’t until late that night that we could finaly sit down to a well earned meal and recollect, of course, our ten best memories of this on-going extravaganza.

But, in fact, the festival actually opened two days before the inauguration with a symposium entitled "From Homer to Rap." Two days later at the prestigious National Cultural Center, you could hear five different languages on stage: Sumerian of ancient Mesopotamia, Saharan Touareg, Akan from the Ivory Coast in West Africa, Yiddish and, of course, French. It was one of the most popular evenings of the festival and again a record crowd turned out to cheer their favorite tellers.

This year alone the festival hosted some 60 tellers presenting almost 200 performances for adults and young people. Since the beginning of the event 10 years ago, over 300,000 listeners have greeted 245 artists from some 20 countries. On any one day between May 28th and June 7th a baker’s dozen of performances or more were making this part of the world the most storied piece of land on earth! Put together by the Center for Oral Research (or Maison de la Parole), in fact almost before the present festival is over, preparations are being made for the next. And all year long projects, tours, venues and recordings speckle Grenoble’s and the surrounding area’s cultural life.

On another front, the festival has forged ties with French speaking Africa and Canada and has also heavily invested in bringing quality storytelling to the homeless and unemployed. All in all it is much more than a simple festival, it is a whole philosophy of story.

The last day I performed, Henri Touati and I exchanged vests. From the pockets in my vest hung numbers from 1 through 10, each one representing a different year and from which I had produced as many different images of our decade together. I regretted having to leave the festival before it was over, but had to accompagny Til Eulenspiegel to yet other adventures in Flanders, Scandinavia and destinations north.

One thing I’m glad about though, the tenth anniversary only comes once and, more especially, you’ve got ten years to prepare for the twentieth.

The "Arts du Récit" Festival is held in Grenoble, France and surrounding areas in May each year. For further information contact:

Les Arts du Récit
Couvent des Minimes
rue Dr. Lamaze
38400 St, Martin d’Hères FRANCE

—published in WIP Winter 1998

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