Adult storyteller charms library audience

Ken Karnas loves legends, fairy tales, folklore and just plain has a knack for the spoken word. A 42-year career teacher, he used stories as an educational enrichment and said he could “teach just about anything with a story.”
Karnas is a member of the New Jersey Storytelling Network (NJSN) which was founded back in February, 2002. He and the Network believe in encouraging and promoting storytelling as an oral tradition.
“Storytelling is totally different from watching a film or TV,” Karnas said.
According to Karnas, television is created for you. It’s a passive media. Storytelling is active and creative requiring the listener to be active and creative as well.
“It’s like mental calisthenics,” he told the audience listeners at the Sussex-Wantage Library on Saturday afternoon June 1.
Sponsored by the Friends of the Library, Karnas was introduced by Library Friend Mary Caferelli. Karnas simulated and mesmerized the group with stories like Portugal story Tia Miseria, an elderly woman who outsmarted death. A Wantage based story about the real treasure in life. Also on the roster was the story entitled Old Frost, New Frost.
In this day and age of impersonal communication, Karnas is proud to continue the art of creative oral communication. He shared a mini story about his bachelor Uncle Ted who started keeping company with a very young woman. When Karnas asked Uncle Ted what was going on, the uncle answered, “My doctor said to get a hot mama and be cheerful.”
Turns out the doctor really said, “You have a heart murmur so be careful.”
The wonderfully animated Karnas is a pleasure to experience. He shared a quip with the library audience that he would tell his students.
“Every story I make up is true.”