This weekend marks Tellabration 2002, a celebration of the art of storytelling by storytellers and listeners in 41 states and 16 countries around the globe. Tellabration originated 13 years ago, spearheaded by Stamfordite J. G. Pinkerton who envisioned the international event as a vehicle for building community support for storytelling.

We welcomed to our studios for the show’s first hour Edward Pleasant, also from Stamford, a professional baritone who has sung with the New York City Opera, Amato Opera, New England Lyric Operetta and the Connecticut Opera Association, among many other groups. Eddie also had a key part in National Public Radio’s “The Flight of Lindbergh”.

The most recent addition to his lengthy resume is “storyteller.” He has narrated such hits as “Peter and the Wolf,” “The Carnival of the Animals” and “Tubby the Tuba” with the Norwalk Symphony and the Greenwich Symphony. And he’s shared his storytelling craft at previous Tellabration ceremonies in Westport. Our thanks to Dr. Paul Bluestein, a member of WSHU’s Broadcast Society, for inspiring this show.

The second hour of the show was devoted to more storytelling from Bill Harley and U. Utah Phillips, as well as some storytelling in song from a new release by Kate MacLeod and Kat Eggleston and Canadian Aengus Finan’s debut album.

• Eddie Pleasant Live in WSHU’s Studio A

• Story: James Weldon Johnson’s “The Creation” from God’s Trombones , , ,

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• CD: “Shadrack” (The Biblical Tale), , ,

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• Two musical compositions written from Aaron Copeland, , ,