People often visit the library to take in stories, but from November 10-16, visitors can let the pros take over. The St. Louis County Library is hosting the 46th annual St. Louis Storytelling Festival, a free event that welcomes talented storytellers to the Gateway City for a robust lineup of programs.
New additions to this year’s festival lineup include a spoken word performance from the Saint Louis Story Stitchers, a group dedicated to connecting at-risk youth and professional artists to create community; Amateur Story Hour, Cirque Du Weiner Dogs by WhatIf Puppets, and various workshops on writing and storytelling.
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The festival is one of the largest free storytelling festivals in the world, attracting thousands each year. This year’s attendees can listen to performances from nine nationally renowned storytellers including April Armstrong, Peter Cook, Lynette Ford, Andy Offutt Irwin, Kevin Kling, Mo Reynolds, Devan Sandiford, Gene Tagaban, and Kim Weitkamp.
Armstrong has been a performer for her entire life. She was bit by the acting bug at a young age, and she has always felt the stage is where she belongs. For two decades now, Armstrong has been performing as a storyteller for audiences young and old, sharing comedic and multicultural tales.
What began as a job to do in between acting gigs became passion for Armstrong. She started by doing assemblies at school auditoriums and has now won various awards, including the National Storytellers Network’s J.J. Reneaux Emerging Artist Award for Storytelling and the Bronx BRIO Award for Storytelling.
“For me, I think that the storytellers are the keepers of the culture,” Armstrong says. “I think we are the living historians and teachers. We are part historian, part teacher, part comedian, part philosopher.”
Storytelling festivals are celebrations of people’s personal histories and the shared experience of other people’s stories. For Armstrong, what story to tell depends on the room in which she performs. She chooses to share stories from across different cultures and decides her stories based on the audience and time given to perform, not wanting to shorten a story just to fit a time frame. Sometimes during performances, stories need to be adjusted based on audience reaction.
“In storytelling, you’re really kind of being yourself…Everybody’s kind of unique,” she says “You might fall into a certain category, but you’re even unique within that category.”
Audiences can hear from Armstrong and her fellow storytellers all week long at the St. Louis County Library Clark Family Branch, Florissant Valley Branch, Missouri History Museum, and virtually via Zoom. All events are free and available to the public. The full schedule of events can be found at slcl.org.
