Tell Tales is “a short story experience with a soundtrack”. At least that’s what it says on the flyer I read while filing into the Cube’s small auditorium, with around 30 other people. I have to refer to the flyer because Tell Tales tends to defy description. It’s not a poetry “slam”, although there are more than a few poets here. It’s not a story reading: you wouldn’t need a DJ for that. It’s not a book launch, even though the Tell Tales group has just released its first short story anthology. | "Her story, X Men Reject, is about a failed applicant for the famous superhero group" | |
So what is it? After we take our seats, Liam Gallimore-Wells, a Bristol-based member of the group, jumps up to explain. Liam is laid-back, with an infectious smile and the largest hat I’ve ever seen on a stage, performances of Carmen notwithstanding. As with several other Tell Tales writers, he’s young, smart, and black. This isn’t a black group – it’s more diverse - but because of its origins it features a lot of talent from the black community. The Tell Tales company was created last August, with help from Arts Council funding, but the group was formed less officially about a year before that. It was originally the brainchild of Courttia Newland and Nii Ayikwei Parkes, who have been joined along the way by a network of writers, all of whom believe that the short story is being seriously neglected. The aim is to raise the profile of the story form and to encourage a new generation of writers.
 | | Nii Parkes is a poet and writer |
The Tell Tales group especially wants to reach writers who wouldn’t traditionally find an outlet in the current publishing market. That’s the main reason for the unconventional format of the tour. A selection of the group’s writers are playing dates up and down the country, accompanied by Amplified DJ Zak Akhimien, who provides a background of sound and music for each story. Liam introduces the first performer. Nii Parkes’s story, The Smell of Petrol, features Owusu, a wonderfully self-important African plant technician, whose self-image is boosted further by his cherished, impeccably clean, religiously-polished Toyota Starlet. One day, Owusu will even find a distributor cap for the engine and get the car moving! At the back of the stage, Zak spins his decks. From the beginning, the mix of sound effects, music and prose feels right to me, all the elements combining to give extra energy and atmosphere to the story. Next is Sharon Jennings. Her story, X Men Reject, is about a failed applicant for the famous superhero group. New anthology The story was not one of my favourites in the anthology, perhaps because the not-so-super superhero story is not new on the British scene. But Sharon’s immediate connection with the audience, plus her warm American accent - helpful for believable superheroes, for some reason - wins me over, with the well-woven musical background really building up the tension as the drama reached its climax. After a brief digression, we’re on to Courttia's tale. Courttia is the editor of the new anthology. He’s no newcomer to storytelling: starting with his best-selling début The Scholar, he now has three published novels to his name. Zak spins up a mix of playground chants and musical-box tunes to set the mood for the story, The Child Who Wished. This humbling tale, with its harrowing description of racist school bullying, spreads its shadow across the auditorium. The story is perfectly balanced, with equal parts hope and fear, building to an emotional finish with a twist that makes you sit up and think. The audience stays unusually quiet right to the end, not wanting to miss a word. For the second half, Nii has taken over as host, and explains that there’s also going to be a change on the musical front. Tell Tales is going “unplugged”. “What you see, when Zak is mixing with the CDs and giving the story the vibe, is accomplished after he spends about five to eight hours with each writer, discussing the kind of music they feel will complement their stories... it’s about creating just the right mood, the right note.” Blues smokiness Zak moves from behind his decks to take up an acoustic guitar alongside the final two writers. Multi-talented Gemma Weekes starts off the music, though, both singing and playing. Her voice, high and clear, with just an edge of smokiness, goes well with the jazz/blues Pretty, a song full of longing. Zak takes up the guitar as Gemma follows this up with an extract from the novel she’s been working on for some time, focusing on the relationship between Marcus and Eden. “Eden is a garden full of weeds. She’s a garden full of over-ripe flowers, thorns and bugs, roots tunnelling underground, everything edible, everything poison. She’s a garden humming with too much, and she’s held to a man with allergies.” Gemma’s prose bulges with imagery: it’s rich, alluring, and the excerpt makes me wish that the whole novel was in the shops right now. Finally comes the main reason that Nii has taken over the role of host: Liam will be reading his delightful This Is Not a Love Story. This is my favourite from the Tell Tales anthology. It catches you out by starting bouncy and alliterative, playfully introducing the main character, Bella from Bristol, who’s Bengali and beautiful. This is a story whose seriousness sneaks up behind you and jumps you at the last minute. The audience is hooked by the light beginning and then dragged into the deeper waters of the middle and end by Liam’s glittering delivery and Zak’s soft, rhythmic-improvised accompaniment. We’re in a cinema, but nobody’s had to spend $10m on a film to keep us enthralled for a couple of hours. All the Tell Tales group needs is a storyteller and a musician. The writers take a final bow, to an astonishing amount of noise from such a small audience. There’s another chance to catch Tell Tales at the Cube on 11 September. Every Tell Tales event is different, with an ever-changing line-up of writers, stories and music. If you have any interest in short fiction, be there. The anthology Tell Tales Vol. 1 is available from Bristol book shops. | 
