Storytellers share their tales at the 33rd Annual St. Louis Storytelling Festival

March 15, 2012 - PRLog -- ST. LOUIS – Nationally known and regional storytellers will join the University of Missouri–St. Louis for four days of storytelling activities and events at the 33rd Annual St. Louis Storytelling Festival. The festival runs from May 2–May 5, 2012, and has events at various locations throughout St. Louis and St. Charles counties. Stories shared are suitable for all members of the family, and most events are offered free to the public.

Locations include the Touhill Performing Arts Center at UMSL, the museum under the Gateway Arch, library branches, parks and bookstores. Storytellers also make special appearances at outreach sites for audiences unable to attend the regular performances, such as patients at Shriners Hospitals for Children and residents at the St. Louis County Family Court Detention Center.

The Festival features special events including family storytelling, tales for adults, a youth storytelling concert, storytelling workshops, a storytelling program for the deaf, an evening of faith-based storytelling and ghost stories. The Festival concludes with the Saturday Night Storytelling Concert at the Touhill, in which all the featured storytellers perform beginning at 7:30 p.m.

This year’s Featured Storytellers include: Noah Buchholz, a deaf performing artist who performs cultural folktales, original fiction stories and poems, improve, and comedy; Willy Claflin, a favorite at the National Storytelling Festival and at regional festivals across the land who sings his own songs along with his stories; Angela Lloyd, who regularly appears at festivals and theatres across the country and performs poetry, story and song played on autoharp, guitar, and spoon and bell; Kunama Mtendaji, a native St. Louisan who presents rich oral traditions from African folklore with the accompaniment of authentic dress, setting, music and dance; Susan O’Halloran, author of six books, recipient of national and international video honors for her training films, and creator of a diversity curriculum; and Dovie Thomason, an award-winning storyteller, recording artist and author, recognized internationally for her ability to engage listeners with stories of her Kiowa Apache and Lakota relatives.

The Festival is also conducting the Second Annual Story Slam, which allows amateur storytellers to submit their performances for a chance to win a $100 Visa/MasterCard gift card, a Festival t-shirt and two tickets to the Grand Finale performance at the Touhill. This year, the Slam is partnering with the a local nonprofit storytelling group, St. Louis 10 (https://www.facebook.com/SaintLouisTEN). Interested participants can either submit their own YouTube video link, or perform at one of the St. Louis 10 events to be videotaped at streamed through the Storytelling website. Visitors will vote for their favorite from April 9-20. For more details, please visit http://stlstorytellingfestival.org/index.php/slam.

For detailed information about the Festival, including a full list of storytellers and events schedule, please visit http://stlstorytellingfestival.org/ or call (314) 516-5948.

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