A Singing Harp Production

    Alyssa Reit, Director

Johanna Maria Rose, Associate Director

FESTIVAL 2009        

The Sunflower StoryArts Festival will be held in Mt. Kisco, NY, on May 22nd-24th, 2009. Embracing the breadth of story arts traditions, the Sunflower StoryArts Festival will bring together a roster of internationally acclaimed story artists, create a forum for Metropolitan area based tellers, and provide workshops for children, educators, and families. Headliners include Diane Wolkstein, Ron Sopyla, Regina Ress, Laura Simms, and Jim Weiss, plus a late night party with the actor Paul Hecht, who tells one of the Canterbury tales. The Festival programming ranges from events for younger children and family fun to “adults only!” with everything in between.

Our plan is to fully integrate the festival into the community. For example, in addition to “main stage” performances at St. Mark’s and the United Methodist Church, we will be presenting Jewish stories at Cosi, an early bird breakfast at Starbuck’s, a “Stories in Song” buffet supper, and a late night” bawdy tales”—the last two both at O’Malley’s Pub. Each of these restaurant events will be co-hosted by a festival emcee and a local storytelling group, and will be open to participation by community members. 

We are working with such organizations as the Boys and Girls Club, the Mount Kisco Child Care Center, the Mount Kisco Library, and the local schools to introduce young people to story arts by offering activities leading up to the main festival weekend. Another advance special feature will be a collaboration with The Moth (a New York City organization) to bring their outreach storytelling training program to a number of “at-risk” community groups. We are also presenting a free family oriented telling in Spanish .

An important part of our plan is to have Community Forum, where festival participants can meet and sit together to talk over coffee.  There will be space for local storytelling groups to promote their own events, as well as a place where books and recordings by the featured tellers will be available for sale. 

The above is a general overview.  We have more info on our website  www.sunflowerstoryarts.com

It is still under construction, but we’ve already posted a listing of events, and we will be adding more information all the time.

Feel free to contact us with any questions, ideas, or suggestions. Volunteers are welcome! We are interested in connecting with and serving the whole community in as many ways as we can—to be, as Rumi puts it, “part of the exchanging flow.”