This is a story about Story. It’s got unforgettable characters. A beautiful setting. A happy ending. And the promise of more to come.
It’s my fault.
I’ve driven three and a half hours to Jonesborough, Tennessee, planning to spend Sunday afternoon at the Jonesborough Repertory Theatre watching “The Miracle Worker.” Without a ticket.
And it’s sold out.
A local play on a winter Sunday afternoon, in a town of 5,000 tucked in a corner of Tennessee…sold out?
I leave my phone number on a waiting list and walk toward the door, where a costumed man stops me. “You look pretty disappointed. Tell you what: If you’ll usher for us, we’ll set up a folding chair along the wall and let you watch.”
I do. They do. And the play is astonishingly good.
None of this should have surprised me. Jonesborough
is known as The Storytelling Capital of the World, and each October thousands gather for the longstanding National Storytelling Festival. The International Storytelling Center sits in the middle of Main Street, headed by a world-renown champion of the power of Story to create understanding and build peace. (See sidebar).
There’s the McKinney Center, inside the WPA-era Booker T. Washington School, where, in addition to a full set of art classes, the past and present stories of Jonesborough are performed on the Jackson Theatre stage under direction of nationally known playwright Jules Corriere.
Across the street, the Jonesborough Senior Center has its own weekly storytelling initiative, First Story Circle.
Jonesborough even has a storytelling blog. Log on to onlyinjonesborough.com and read stories about and by Jonesborough residents. Or post your own. (It comes as no surprise that the town of Jonesborough has hired full-time social media and website directors.)
And just when you think you’ve heard it all…you find out that the historic Eureka Inn where you’re staying is holding tryouts in the lobby for its upcoming Mystery Theatre play.
In Jonesborough, story is much more than a brand. Story is a way of life—and it’s also their ticket to economic stability.
Jonesborough’s story goes way back: it’s the oldest town in Tennessee, many of its buildings dating back to the late 1700s. Jonesborough was the first capital of the short-lived State of Franklin, which tried and failed to become America’s 14th state. Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett and John Sevier all have Jonesborough ties.
Today, you can take a well-annotated walking tour of the town, led by Heritage Alliance tour guides. Stops include the historic Washington County Courthouse, the Chester Inn Museum (Presidents Andrew Jackson, James K. Polk and Andrew Johnson slept here), and numerous 19th-century churches, homes and storefronts.
Bob Browning has been the town administrator since 1978, and he’s seen Jonesborough ebb and flow.
“In the early 1970s, the town realized that competing with Johnson City and big box retailers wasn’t the way to go. The town leaders gathered and determined that preservation and tourism were the way forward.”
The result? The formation of The Civic Trust, which oversaw the restoration of Jonesborough’s Main Street to become the first downtown in Tennessee designated as a historic zone. All utilities went underground, and brick sidewalks were reestablished.
This is when a story hero appeared—Jimmy Neal Smith. He organized the first National Storytelling Festival in 1973, which drew all of 60 people to hear stories told from the back of a hay wagon. Last year’s festival drew more than 10,000 visitors, each of whom spends an estimated $800.
“People come to Jonesborough for the Festival—and they think they’ve landed in Brigadoon,” Browning says.
It seems right that Browning is part of the Jonesborough story. He’s a big part of the town’s story—and he lives it, appearing in many Rep Theatre productions.
“This is an extended family of people who care about one another,” he says. “We know the value of story.”
Spend five minutes with Jules Corriere, co-author of “Story Bridge: From Alienation to Community Action,” and you’ll know why she’s part of the Jonesborough Story. She came to town to write and direct a play, “I Am Home,” and she never left. Now the Director of Public Outreach at the McKinney Center, Corriere recently debuted “The Long Trip Home, “a play she wrote from the “extraordinary stories of ordinary people” collected by the Jonesborough Story Brigade. A full third of the 40 cast members are people of color.
“This is necessary art,” she says. “It shows what is possible with built and shared understanding. You don’t have to go to Hollywood—we have our own stories to tell.”
Mitch Miller, of the Northeast Tennessee Regional Economic Partnership, is focused on the region’s business development. Yet he greatly values what Jonesborough offers to prospective businesses and their employees. “It comes down to this: you have to piece it all together. Jonesborough adds much to the lure of the region. Storytelling Capital of the World. Lots of history. A town with world-class amenities. This is community at work.”
Jonesborough is a story addict’s dream come true: a place where small stories get told and become large. Large enough to bring a small mountain town economic stability and, just maybe, understanding to a fragmented world.
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The article above appears in our May/June 2019 issue.
