Peter Cook, storyteller to the deaf

Big storytelling festival in May

The 23rd annual St. Louis Storytelling Festival on May 1-4 will be a great place for kids and their families. Admission is free and story-telling will go on at many sites in the metro St. Louis area.

Of particular interest to kids will be a special youth storytelling "concert" on Saturday, May 4. It will be in the Cowboy section under the Gateway Arch from 10 a.m. to noon.

A special program for the deaf will be at 7 p.m. Thursday, May 2. That will be at the J.C.Penney Conference Center on the University of Missouri-St. Louis campus. The stories are interpreted for both the hearing and the deaf.

The festival's "grand finale" will be at 7 p.m. Saturday, May 4, in the theater under the Gateway Arch. All of the festival's featured storytellers will perform there.

Neeake, teller of Shawnee Indian stories

But, the storytelling festival provides smaller sessions at various locations in the metro area in both Missouri and Illinois. You can find a location and program near you by clicking on to www.umsl.edu/~conted/storyfes.

The featured storytellers are from all over the country. Many have been featured on television and in foreign countries. But, the festival also has over 70 regional storytellers from Missouri and Illinois. Many are from the metro St. Louis area.

The storytelling festival is a special program of the College of Arts and Science at UMSL.