PORT ANGELES — It’s a double feature, live-storytelling style, as Port Angeles-based tale spinners Viola Nixon and Elsa Johnson arrive for the Story People’s open gathering.
Beginning at 7 p.m. in the Raymond Carver Room at the Port Angeles Library, 2210 S. Peabody St., Nixon will tell “Kalevala,” the epic story of Finland, while Johnson will stay with the Scandinavian theme as she offers the “Story of the Norse Gods.”
Admission, as always, is free to this monthly get-together with the Story People, Clallam County’s long-running group of storytelling enthusiasts.
An intermission with refreshments will follow Nixon and Johnson’s folk tales.
Then, everyone is encouraged to stay for the night’s second half, which will be given over to storytellers who step up to the open mic.
Nixon, who joined the local storytelling community in 1992, has discovered much during gatherings like the one to be held Tuesday.
“Through my involvement with the Story People,” she said, “I have become interested in how human beings throughout the world have used story to explain existence as they see and experience it.
“These stories, I am convinced, show that people are more alike than they are different.”
Johnson, for her part, is inspired by her experiences at storytelling festivals and by a trip to her Norwegian homeland.
She loves true and personal stories the best — and tells her own with gusto.
Many of her tales come from her family. Others come from history and give Johnson a chance to become the protagonist from the past.
For more details about Tuesday’s event and other Story People activities, phone 360-457-4881.
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Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-417-3550 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.