Bring your children, friends and family to hear master storytellers

The Museum is partnering with the Chicago Storytelling Guild to sponsor a day of storytelling in conjunction with TELLABRATION '99, an international network of storytelling performances in hundreds of sites world-wide during National Storytelling Week (the week before Thanksgiving). Later the same evening, TELLABRATION continues as the Chicago Storytelling Guild presents its third annual storytelling concert for adult listeners at 6:00 pm, Hyde Park Union Church, 5600 S. Woodlawn Avenue.

At the Chicago events, nationally known master storytellers will be joined by local tellers and musicians to share an eclectic mix of stories ranging from ancient folk tales to personal tales of contemporary life. The scheduled performers include John Berquist, Denise Berry-Hanna, Nancy Donoval, Mama Edie, Vicki Elberfeld, Velma Sias Gladney, Laura Gruen, Judith Heineman, Tom and Chris Kastle, Amy Lowe, Campbell McNeal, Susan "Supe" O'Halloran, Shanta, Anne Shimojima, Joseph Daniel Sobol, Susan Stone and Megan Wells.

O'Halloran tells humorous and touching original fables and personal stories, many based on her experiences as a teenager growing up in Chicago in the 1960s. As she tells of her personal journey from the protective circle of her Irish, working-class neighborhood to the wider world of race, politics and personal protest, audiences are moved to laughter, tears and glimpses of personal recognition.

Mama Edie has done interactive performances of Tales and Songs of the African Diaspora since 1989, reflecting the various cultures of Africans worldwide. Denise Berry-Hanna and Susan Stone are also seasoned professional storytellers, both of whom have won awards for their audiotapes of Children's stories. Berry-Hanna's Folktales Near and Far won a 1998 NAPPA Honors Award (National Parenting Publications Award) for excellence in children's recordings, and Stone's audiotape won a 1991 Parents' Choice Gold Award.

Sobol is a professional musician and storyteller who earned a Ph.D. in performance studies from Northwestern University. He is the creator of In the Deep Heart's Core: A Mystic Cabaret, a music theater piece based on the works of W.B. Yeats, and is the author of The Storytellers' Journey: An American Revival, a recently published book charting the history of the rapidly growing storytelling revival movement.

Heineman, TELLABRATION producer and founder of the Chicago Storytelling Guild, is an actress and performance poet who has increased her focus on storytelling since relocating to Chicago from Los Angeles several years ago. She teaches storytelling workshops at the University of Chicago's Graham School of Continuing Education and is also a founder and former producer of the Los Angeles Women's Theatre Festival.

Envisioned as a means of building community support for storytelling, TELLABRATION began in 1988 in six Connecticut locations, extended to several other states the following year, and expanded nationwide in 1990 under the umbrella of the National Storytelling Association. In 1998, Tellabration events occurred in 284 sites worldwide.

Proceeds from the Chicago TELLABRATION will benefit the non-profit Chicago Storytelling Guild, launched in January of 1998. the guild meets on the third Tuesday of each month at Hyde Park Union Church, enabling storytellers to hone their craft, network and teach others interested in developing storytelling skills.

For reservations, to volunteer, or more information contact Judith Heineman, Producer, 773-288-7217.