For the third year as a literary festival, organizers have planned two educational panels as part of the entertainment and literary connected weekend scheduled to begin Friday. Don’t let that limit your idea of learning fun. 

To kick off the weekend, Marcelle Bienvenu will be teaching novice and experts her version of crawfish etouffee. Tabasco’s  Lionel Robin will prepare shrimp and pasta, and Alex Patout is cooking chicken and sausage gumbo — tasting is a great way to brunch on Friday. 

Little has been told about this year’s Storyteller event, the first time to appear at the festival. Two experienced storytellers are slated for 4 to 5:30 p.m. April 6 at the Iberia Parish Main Library. 

Cajun Born Storyteller

Tobias E. Taba III, also known as Tom Coleman, hails from near Mowata in Acadia Parish. Actually, he’s from Rork, or as he likes to say across the highway in New Rork.

Coleman grew up in his grandmother’s farmhouse listening to tales from his uncles about the strange happenings in the nearby woods. And, of course, he had no trouble relating those same stories with embellishments as he saw fit.

In 1990, Tom responded to an open casting call for storytellers at A.R.T. Station, a local arts organization in Stone Mountain, Georgia. They were looking for Southern storytellers, but it’s hard to go further South than south Louisiana. Coleman became the old Cajun storyteller at A.R.T. Station’s Tour of Southern Ghosts in the plantation of Stone Mountain Park.

He was part of the Tour’s regular tellers for 10 years and still returns as often as possible. He was recently part of the 25th anniversary celebration of the Tour.

Tom was invited to the Atlanta Storytelling Festival, the Middle Georgia Storytelling Festival in Cochran, Georgia, and was a teller at Caldwell Gardens, the Atlanta History Center and the Sandy Springs Historical Society among others. He has been a member of the Southern Order of Storytellers Guild, the Ocali Storytelling Guild in Ocala, Florida and is a member of the Bayouland Storytellers Guild of Southwest Louisiana.

Taba has returned to his roots in Lafayette because he wanted to hear people without accents. He is available for festivals, business meetings or family campfires where an inspirational story can fire up the campers or a ghost story can frighten salespeople. It’s good to mix things up, he said.

Storytellers Capture Imaginations

Sherry T. Broussard is a former classroom teacher, school and academic librarian and is currently a storyteller, and book author who recently completed the books, “Images of America: African Americans in Lafayette and Southwest Louisiana,” and her newest book, “Louisiana’s Zydeco,” published by Arcadia Publishing Company. 

Broussard has spent more than thirty years producing programs that highlight the achievements of African Americans and has produced special programs and exhibits for Black History Month at local and area schools, at the Lafayette Parish Public Library, Camp Bluebird, Edith G. Dupre′ Library, Clifton Chenier Center Auditorium and Library, and at the John Lafitte Center.  Other programs and exhibits include the Veterans Oral History program and exhibit, Women In History, the Great African-American Read-In, the Louisiana Book Festival, and Read Across America. 

She is the founder of Bayouland Storytellers Guild, co-founder of Malunda African American Book Club, and founder of the Just Write Cultural Arts Group.  Broussard received bachelors and master degrees in education from USL (UL Lafayette), Southern University, Louisiana State University, and East Tennessee State University.   She is a Louisiana State Roster Artist and promotes reading through storytelling programs throughout the state.

Two Panels Saturday

A highlight at the last two literary festivals has been the University of Louisiana Lafayette Symposium focused on the writing style of James Lee Burke. This year Burke’s post-Katrina novel, “Tin Roof Blowdown” will be the focus of the University of Louisiana symposium on James Lee Burke/Dave Robicheaux at the Books along the Teche Literary Festival from 10 a.m. to noon April 6 at the Main library.

Keynote speaker and Professor of English  at UL, Dr. Mary Ann Wilson, the James D. Wilson Endowed Professor of Southern Studies, says of her presentation Ode to a Lost World: James Lee Burke’s Tin Roof Blowdown,  “the title works on many levels as will my presentation pointing out the deeply moral vision of Burke as he confronts the trauma and tragedy of environmental and human disasters like Katrina all the while telling a crackerjack detective story.”  

Joining her on the panel, “James Lee Burke and his Milieu,” will be Sally Donlon, currently a doctoral candidate in English and creative non-fiction at UL and Assistant Dean in the College of Liberal Arts. New Iberia resident James Edmunds also appears on the panel as a writer, media specialist, photographer, art, literary and internet consultant. The two will give insider/outsider perspectives on  New Orleans, New Iberia, in relation to Burke’s  “Tin Roof Blowdown.”

This third annual university sponsored panel continues its tradition and focus on James Lee Burke and his New Iberia detective, Dave Robicheaux.

Noon Speakers Panel for Writers

Each of the past two Author Panel discussions have been designed to provide information to the beginning writer or published authors looking for alternatives to traditional publishing. This year’s focus is back to the writing, or the part that happens before the pen hits the paper or the fingers tap the keyboard. 

A panel discussion on the topic “Investigating the Story,” features authors across several genres and the intense work to discover the story — fiction or nonfiction.

Moderating the panel will be Vicky Branton, Teche Life Editor for The Daily Iberian. Panel guests consist of authors she has come to know through their books, interviews or speaking engagements. 

Judge Anne Simon became an author wanting to tell stories not told in the courtrooms around the 16th JDC, but inspired by colorful collaborative characters pieced together through her years on the bench. Carrie Simon, a paralegal who has turned her passion for reaching youth with faith to handle the horrors facing them in this world is completing her fourth book and working on film possibilities. Ann Trousdale’s true story about Clarence Jordan, the man whose life and writings became the inspiration for Habitat for Humanity, spent 15 years getting to know the man who died a half-century earlier. As a retired professor at Louisiana State University, she brings the academics into play with authorship. Jack Caldwell writes fiction to tell history, not just fiction set in history. Research has earned him the right to have his books at historic sights. Chris Smith with the Jefferson Parish Library rounds out the panel.

The event is free at noon at The Sliman and is open to public, but reserved seats for authors, writers and festival attendees will be served first. Lunch plates are limited but any remaining may be available for purchase by the public if lunch quantities will allow.

Ernest Gaines appearance follows at 3 p.m.

For a full list of events with descriptions, visit BooksAlongTheTecheLiteraryFestival.com or TecheFest.com. Tickets are available at Eventbrite.com or at The Shadows Visitors Center.