Once upon a time, storytellers were as common as books are today. To relive those days, the 28th Annual St. Louis Storytelling Festival, hosted by University of Missouri-St. Louis, returns on May 3 to May 6, and will be held all around the city of St. Louis.
The festival will begin at 12:15 p.m. on April 30, with Ron Adams at J.C. Penney Conference Center at UMSL. Through the following week, storytellers will use their craft all over the city, from Kirkwood to Forest Park, to University City, to the campus at UMSL, to the courthouse.
Some of the heroes of this magical event are Andy Offutt Irwin, who will recount the stories of Southern scenery and universal themes; Antonio Rocha, who will perform entertaining, educational and poetic performances; Tim Tingle, who will tell of the Choctaw Nation; Diane Williams, who will tell the story of Africa while wearing traditional garb; Kuniko Yamamoto, who will tell stories of her native Japan; and finally Karen Young, who will tell the story of people young at heart and ancient in spirit. There are also several other local heroes who will join these six inspiring heroes.
These storytellers will join together on the last night of the festival at Touhill Performing Arts Center at UMSL.
For a complete schedule and profiles of the storytellers, go to www.umsl.edu/storytelling.
