Storytelling festival in Springfield this weekend

[October 15, 2009]  SPRINGFIELD -- A weekend of storytelling for the entire family will be featured when the "Once Upon a Prairie" storytelling festival returns on Friday and Saturday in downtown Springfield. The festival will feature tales about the Civil War and Abraham Lincoln, a new set of nighttime scary stories, and a cookies-and-milk session for kids. All of the sessions are free and open to the public.

"Classically Scared: READ into it what you will!" is a new session that will kick off the storytelling festival on Friday from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Vachel Lindsay Home, 603 S. Fifth St. Performer-readers will be in several rooms of the historic home to read from classic stories and poems of suspense. The evening will feature the sounds and sights of the All Hallows season, and hot chocolate and cookies will be served by lantern light in the back garden. The session is free and is suitable for those middle school age and older, but reservations are required due to the limited amount of room. Call 217-524-0901 to make reservations.

"Stories Like Lincoln Used to Tell" will be presented Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 3 to 4 p.m. at the Old State Capitol State Historic Site in downtown Springfield. Storytellers will include Anne Shimojima of Morton, who has delighted youth and adult audiences of all sizes with her graceful and spirited tellings of folk tales from her Asian heritage and around the world; Linda Gorham, who inspires audiences by using movement, humor and sometimes zaniness as she tells imaginative multicultural folk tales updated "with attitude"; and Bobby Norfolk of St. Louis, three-time Emmy Award-winning host of the CBS-TV show "Gator Tales."

Families are invited to a special "Cookies and Milk Story Hour" on Saturday from 2 to 3 p.m. at Café Moxo, 411 E. Adams in downtown Springfield. Free cookies and milk will be provided for kids, and this event is timed so no one will have to miss any of the other storytelling sessions that day.

"Once Upon a Prairie" will conclude at 6 p.m. Saturday at the Old State Capitol with "In the Shadow of Lincoln," presented by Norfolk, the "Gator Tales" host, who is a nationally renowned storyteller. In this celebration of Lincoln's 200th birthday and the upcoming 150th anniversary of the Civil War, Norfolk will tell the story of Lincoln, the Civil War, and the trials and triumphs of African-Americans living in the shadow of slavery. Portraying a freed slave named Jacob around 1865, Norfolk will use first-person narratives, poetry and song to highlight the key players, events and political forces that brought ordinary men and women into extraordinary circumstances.

The "Once Upon a Prairie" storytelling festival is sponsored by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, which administers the Old State Capitol and Vachel Lindsay Home State Historic Site, and Café Moxo.

[Text from file received from the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency]