In the South, stories run deep as roots in the ground, soaking up the life and the earth around them, adding abundance to the growing history of the land. For some, these stories are the foundation of Southern culture, the breath of life that moves the branches of the trees and ripples still river waters. For one artist, stories are the only breaths she ever takes.
Minton Sparks, singer, poet, educator, fine artist and performer, will be sharing her storytelling talents at this year’s SarahFest, during a special Thacker Mountain Radio Pop Up Show this Saturday, beginning at 9 p.m. She will be joined by noted guitarist John Jackson, as well as other SarahFest featured artists like Jon Langford, Kelly Hogan, Amy Ray, Tenement Halls, Jim Mize and Laurie Stirratt.
Sparks, who grew up outside of Nashville, said she thinks narratives are the bedrock of much of the art in South. At Sarahfest, she hopes to introduce people to her latest work, including her new video Time Flies. But mostly, she just wants to share her stories.
“I’m always taking notes on what happens both in my life and the lives of my family members,” Sparks said. “I want to see somebody wear a full length fur to a Christmas party when it’s 50 degrees outside. I have done it all my life. I think that’s what makes me a storyteller.”
Sparks said she believes any story, whether it be a mountain ballad, an old wives’ tale or the last time your great aunt took a shot at your uncle as he drove away with a spray of gravel, is a story worth telling in a creative, unique way. She often blends together multiple mediums in her work, sometimes using poetry, spoken word and music to take her audience along on a journey. In her unique style, Sparks accomplishes a deep connection with her audience, perhaps unlike any other artist we can claim in the South.
“I haven’t met anyone doing exactly what I am doing as a performer,” she said.
Sparks calls her style a hybrid art, somewhere between spoken word art, performance art, songwriting and storytelling. She was a therapist and social worker for years after graduate school, and credits those experiences as having heavily influenced her work. Her choice to use multiple methods of artistic expression, however, comes from a deeper sense of connection to her work.
“(I’m endlessly) interested in the arts,” Sparks said. “Any form of expression that is true and heart-opening. (I’m) following that.”
Most of her inspiration she draws from the world around her, writing on the open road in her car, where she says there are conduits to life review.
Spending a lot of time looking in the rearview mirror, she said, is what her new video Time Flies is all about. She sad she hopes to share the video at Sarahfest, as well as other aspects of her work she feels align well with the spirit of the festival.
“Sarahfest is a thrilling gathering to me,” she said. “My divinity school studies focused on feminist spirituality. I’m a Southern writer with a bend toward redemptive women’s stories.”
