Southern Appalachian Studies
Stories From a Mountain Kid
Roxanna Jones
November 27, 7 p.m., Sharon Lawson Room
Everybody has a story! You might not think so, but let a good storyteller start spinning a yarn and before you know it you are traveling down memory lane. You are drawn into the world of your childhood, your home, your friends, your holidays.
To demonstrate how to share personal stories, Roxanna Jones will share Stories from a Mountain Kid on Monday, November 27, at 7 p.m. as part of the Southern Appalachian Studies series at Blount County Public Library. Jones says:
Painting a picture with words the teller transports the listener through time and space. It’s hypnotic, it’s magical and you find yourself laughing, crying, and settling into a blanket woven with strands from your own life! Mountain stories are particularly powerful. Mountain people are a study in paradox, Here, fierce mountain pride is wedded to the “undowered” bride of poverty. Here the chill of December’s winds are tempered by the warmth of the heart, a heart flamed by the hot coals of memory and made glad by the stories that come from the experience of mountain living.
Roxanna Jones grew up in the mountains. The stories are real, the people are friends and family who helped form her into the adult she now is. She says that she sees through the eyes of love and respect for those whose lives she now tells. With her words, she strives to bring them to life once more so others can know them too.
As with all storytellers, Jones says there is “sometimes exaggeration, but the kernel of what was and what now lives only in memory is true.”
Jones, who lives in Maryville, is Director of Connectional Ministries at Fairview United Methodist Church.
Open to the public, this program is hosted by the Blount County Public Library, located at 508 N. Cusick Street, Maryville. For further information about library programs or services, call the library at (865) 982-0981 or visit the Web site at www.blounttn.org/197/Public-Library.
