Well-traveled storyteller Alice Susong will, along with her husband, Dunbar, step up as featured performer in the Story Swap at the Port Angeles Library on Tuesday.

Well-traveled storyteller Alice Susong will, along with her husband, Dunbar, step up as featured performer in the Story Swap at the Port Angeles Library on Tuesday.

Sequim storytellers to spin tales at Story Swap

PORT ANGELES — The first Story Swap of the new season is a mashup: part campfire tales and songs, part open mic. All of the above is free to the public starting at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

The place, as always for the swaps, is the Raymond Carver Room inside the Port Angeles Library, 2210 S. Peabody St.

Alice Susong, a well-traveled veteran of America’s national parks, and her husband, Dunbar, will knit their words together: hers in stories and his in song. The longtime Sequim residents are the featured performers at the Story Swap, so they will step up during the first half.

Then comes a snack break and, in the second half, the open mic section, when anyone is welcome to share a short story. The evening wraps by 9 p.m.

The open mic tellers — who may also be singers and music players — can plan on abundant inspiration from the Susongs. While Dunbar was a Yellowstone National Park ranger a couple of decades ago, Alice began telling stories to their own kids around the fire.

Many years later, the Susongs took a “Prairie Home Companion” cruise to Alaska with radio host Garrison Keillor himself. Alice tried out for the onboard talent show and found herself among the 12 chosen performers.

She told a time-burnished tale about camping at Yellowstone Lake, where an encounter with a bear made things especially vivid. A surprised Alice won second place in the talent contest and took home a $200 prize.

For close to 20 years now, Alice has also shared her stories with local children in Sequim and Port Angeles schools, at the Northwest Folklife Festival in Seattle and in national park programs from Olympic to Grand Teton.

At the Tuesday swap, she’ll venture down south with a story about Sir Ernest Shackleton’s journey to Antarctica. An excerpt from “Moby Dick” is also part of her set.

“I’m just going to tell the final part; I’m not going to do the whole thing. I don’t have time,” Alice quipped. “Dunbar will have some of his whaling songs to go with it, as ‘he has a nice voice,’ ” she said, adding that her husband has a way of taking a well-known tune and switching the lyrics up to fit the setting.

The nonprofit Story People of Clallam County host free Story Swaps the third Tuesday of each month through fall, winter and spring. There’s one exception: next month, when the swap is skipped in favor of the Forest Storytelling Festival, the Oct. 20-22 affair at Peninsula College.

For more about the swaps and the festival, visit www.clallamstorypeople.org or call 360-460-6594.

________

Diane Urbani de la Paz, a former features editor for the Peninsula Daily News, is a freelance writer living in Port Angeles.

Dunbar Susong

Dunbar Susong

More in Life

Photos by Katie Newton-Salmon
2024 Sequim and Port Angeles Equestrian teams got off to a great start during its first WAHSET competition, bringing home where they brought home nine first place wins. Top row from left: Katelynn Sharpe, Kennedy Gilbertson, Savanah Boulton, Celbie Karjalainen, Asha Swanberg
Bottom row left: Coach Misty Gilbertson, PA member Olivia West, Kenzie Winters, Lilly Meyer, Joanna Seelye, Taylor Lewis, Kiaja Johnson, Paisley Morris, PA member Zakara Braun, and coach Ady Crosby. Not pictured non-competing member Paige Reed and advisor Katie Newton.
HORSEPLAY: First high school equestrian event of the year for Sequim

SEQUIM HIGH SCHOOL’S equestrian team had a “great first meet,” said coach… Continue reading

Emily Matthiessen/Olympic Peninsula News Group
Sequim Ballroom intern Brie Rocha follows instructor Werner Figar’s lead as he keeps an eye on his intermediate/advanced swing class.
Dancers work on moves during classes at Sequim schoolhouse

Beginners, intermediate students learn variety of ballroom styles

ISSUES OF FAITH: The courage of religious leaders

“JUSTICE, JUSTICE SHALL you pursue” (Deuteronomy 16:20). The Jewish Bible, the Tanach,… Continue reading

Rev. Asha Burson-Johnson
Unity in the Olympics service slated

The Rev. Asha Burson-Johnson will be the speaker at… Continue reading

Jamal Rahman
Rahman scheduled for OUUF program

The Imam Jamal Rahman will present “Spiritual Insights and… Continue reading

The USS Argonaught stationed at Pearl Harbor and Brisbane, Australia during WWII.
BACK WHEN: The human cost of war hit the Peninsula in WWII

SEVENTY-NINE YEARS ago the end was in sight for World War 2.… Continue reading

A GROWING CONCERN: Make the most of the last weeks of winter

TODAY IS THE eve of Groundhog Day. Regardless if the furry rodent… Continue reading

Unitarian speaker slated in Port Angeles

The Rev. Terry Barrett will present “The Gift of… Continue reading

Tools for caregivers class set for Sequim

The public is invited to enroll in the Powerful Tools… Continue reading

Prayer gathering for peace slated

Bahá’is of Sequim and Port Angeles will host “Prayers… Continue reading

ISSUES OF FAITH: Finding our way home

THIS COMING SUNDAY is the Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany and this… Continue reading