KEARNEY STORYTELLING FESTIVAL JAN. 19-24; TWO WORKSHOPS AT UNK

Julie Agard
assistant professor, Department of Teacher Education, 308.865.8556

Winter Tales: The Healing Art of Storytelling is the theme for the annual Kearney Area Storytelling Festival being held Jan. 19-24.

Two of the workshops – Story Dramatization and Our Culture Ourselves – will be presented at the Ockinga Seminar Center on the University of Nebraska at Kearney campus. The workshops are free and open to the public.

Story Dramatization will be presented by Donald Doyle from 9:30-11 a.m. Wednesday, Jan. 21. For more than 30 years, Doyle has been telling stories to children and adults as an integral component of his work in drama education as a theatre professor at Arizona State University. A nationally recognized storyteller, he appears as a featured teller and workshop leader at storytelling festivals, educational institutions, private corporations, and in public and private school districts in this country and abroad.

Olga Loya will present Our Culture Ourselves. Loya uses a dramatic mix of Spanish and English as she shares Latin American folklore, historical stories, personal/family stories and monologues with adults, children and families. Her presentation is set for 11 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 22.

“A Latina storyteller, performance artist, keynote speaker and author, she brings the spoken word alive using her voice, body and imagination,” said Julie Agard, UNK assistant professor of Teacher Education and storytelling festival coordinator.

The workshops are sponsored by the UNK Faculty Senate Artists & Lecturers Committee. The festival is made possible, in part, by support from the Nebraska Arts Council, Central Nebraska Reading Council, UNK Faculty Senate Artists & Lecturers Committee, the Museum of Nebraska Art and the Nebraska Storytelling Festival.