The 2000 featured storytellers will be Jay Ungar and Molly Mason, two of America's best known folk musicians, and Awela Makeba, a nationally acclaimed teller of tall tales. Makeba, who learned the art of storytelling from such family figures as Bigmama Alice and Gran'daddy Joe, is based in Oakland, California but tells her stories throughout the United States and foreign lands. The initial format of the festival was so successful that only minor modifications have been necessary. All human stories are interesting. Truth really is stranger than fiction.
Family history supplies a foundation for children's lives.
When they are moved from school to school, community to community, they need some constant, something unwavering. Given the anchor of family history, they have an undergirding We, not a fragile Me to sustain them. Each family's story is a piece of history - and we help make history. She points out that we need to celebrate the unsung heroes, the mythmakers, within our families, reminding her audiences that Joseph Campbell tells us mythology defines and guides our lives as individuals and as a culture. It has been important to collect our tales of the rails from throughout the valley.