Welcome to Flatwater Tales Storytelling Festival

 In 2017, at the International Storytelling Festival in the middle of Main Street in Jonesboro, some Oak Ridge friends looked at each other and said, “Why can’t we have a great storytelling Festival in Oak Ridge?”

They could! They did.

Those founders, Martha and David Hobson, Emily and Charlie Jernigan and Pat Postma aimed high. They decided to bring only the best tellers and they intended this Storytelling Festival to put Oak Ridge on the map! And that name “Flatwater”?  Oak Ridge was already on the map as a national rowing venue and our flatwater lake  – was what made it a special venue.

We were so excited when Bil Lepp agreed to head our festival that first year and he was joined by Minton Sparks and Tim Lowry. Our first venue in 2018 was at our local Playhouse and was almost sold out. In 2019 we moved to our much larger historic Grove Theater. With an interruption for COVID, we continued to grow our audience with tellers including Carmen Deedy, Bobby Norfolk, Andy Offut Irwin, Kim Weitkamp, Robert Jones and Sheila Arnold. But always Bil Lepp, our champion of Flatwater Tales!

Flatwater Tales is deeply involved in the community.  We are a project of the three local Rotary Clubs who provide volunteers for our many tasks.  We give back to the community, for example by securing a grant to replace the lighting at the Grove.  

In 1955, students known as a Scarboro 85 were mandated to desegregate Robertsville Junior High School and  Oak Ridge High School, the first desegregation of a school system in the southeastern United States. There was no violence, so there were no headlines, and the story was ignored and forgotten.

Flatwater Tales commissioned nationally acclaimed storyteller Sheila Arnold to write and then tell the story of the Scarboro 85 at the Flatwater Festival in June 2022, where she received a standing ovation.

“Even when there is no violence, there can be great harm,” says Ms. Sheila, as she is known on the national storytelling circuit.  “Forgetting the story was part of the harm after these youngsters sacrificed so much.”

In 2024, the Tales received a grant from the Tennessee Arts Commission to bring Ms. Sheila back for a February event. She retold her story nine times in nine different venues, including Robertsville Middle School and Oak Ridge High School during Black history month.

Black and white friends from across the city came together to hear the story.

We are told that story brings people together, that story heals. Sheila and her story seem to be proving that for Oak Ridge.

  Flatwater Tales is a community service project of the Oak Ridge Breakfast Rotary Club, the Oak Ridge Rotary Club, and the Oak Ridge Rotary Club Sunset.  It also receives support from local businesses and individuals.