Story Stitchers @ 39th Annual St. Louis Storytelling Festival in 2018

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Teen Rap Crisis II LIVE from Saint Louis Story Stitchers on Vimeo.

The 40th Annual St. Louis Storytelling Festival is drawing near!!

For the past four years Saint LouisStory Stitchers have participated in this great St. Louis tradition. As the Festival draws near we will look back on some past performances and ahead to the Story Stitchers 2019 contribution.

Looking back at 2018…

Teen Rap Crisis II is a humanities-based program designed to give voice to concerns and triumphs, uncover facts, and build awareness of public health issues as seen through the eyes of contemporary African American youth, ages 15-24.  Reflecting on the original 25-year-old Teen Rap Crisis, participants will partake in thoughtful discussion and collaborative learning experiences through writing with Story Stitchers artists Bobby Norfolk, KP Dennis and Howard Cox, leading to a poetic performance and a post-performance discussion. Activities take place both inside and out of the City of St. Louis Juvenile Detention Center, providing an opportunity for youth to explore topics related to individual lives and society at large through writing, discussion, performance and learning. Stitchers Youth Council members Emeara, Tylea, Rachel, Chris, Yolandis, Antonio and Juwuan contributed to the project.
The program is a part of the 39th Annual St. Louis Storytelling Festival in 2018.
The goals of the activity are to bring attention, clarity and opportunity for meaningful action to the issues surrounding the challenges faced by youth, especially African American youth in urban environments through documentation, storytelling, performance and discussion. The program also creates opportunities for intergenerational interaction and collaborative storytelling through the collaborative learning experiences and discussion.
Saint Louis Story Stitchers is supporting this program in partnership with the Missouri Humanities Council and with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the St. Louis Storytelling Festival, Kranzberg Arts Foundation, and Missouri Foundation for Health and in collaboration with the City of St. Louis Juvenile Detention Center and the City of St. Louis Department of Health.
Copyright Saint Louis Story Stitchers Artists Collective, 2018. All rights reserved.

 

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40th Annual St. Louis Storytelling Festival

TO THE PRAIRIE

Peace in the Prairie For All Ages

Family-friendly, free and open to the public.

 

Saturday, April 27, 2019

12:00-12:35 PM

Gateway Arch National Park

Tucker Theater

11 N 4th St.

St. Louis, MO 63102

FREE, but registration required at http://www.cvent.com/d/36q2k4/4W

Film with live performances by Stitchers Youth Council members Elijah Foggy and Branden Lewis and Story Stitchers Artists in Residence Bobby Norfolk, K.P. Dennis and Ntegrity.

 

Sunday, April 28, 2019

1:00 PM Performance

2:00 Hike to the prairie

Missouri Botanical Garden’s

Shaw Nature Reserve

Adlyne Freund Center

352 Freund Rd.

Villa Ridge, MO 63089

FREE, but registration required at http://www.cvent.com/d/j6q3v2/4W

Film with live performances by Stitchers Youth Council members Elijah Foggy and Branden Lewis and Story Stitchers Artists in Residence K.P. Dennis and Ntegrity. Following the performance join Story Stitchers and a Shaw Nature Reserve naturalist for a hike to the prairie!

 

 

Saint Louis Story Stitchers Artists Collective presents To The Prairie, a rendition of Peace in the Prairie for all ages. The piece is an original video exploring the concept of peace through exposure to natural landscapes.  Story Stitchers are interested in the juxtaposition of urban life as experienced by African American people living in the city of St. Louis, Missouri and the state’s unique endangered prairie lands. 

Is the path towards peace through Missouri’s native prairies? 

Saint Louis Story Stitchers is working collaboratively to create an approach to health issues affecting Missouri’s urban youth. Story Stitchers bring the humanities to the forefront through a unique form of “urban storytelling”.

The artistic components for To The Prairie, include the creation of music, stories, and video. The work represents a collaborative exploration of the psychological and physical differences involved in a peaceful natural environment and an urban environment where violence is common. The resulting work is unique to Missouri, generated by local artists reflecting on loss, resilience and rejuvenation in nature and in the human experience. Leading Story Stitchers adult artists in residence Troy Anthony, KP Dennis, Bobby Norfolk, Ntegrity, and Superhood and contributing artist Susan Colangelo explored the experience of violence affecting black families in St. Louis through organized collaborative learning experiences and sharing, recording some of these stories. The artists explored and recorded native prairie landscapes via trips to Missouri prairie reserves including Prairie Day at Shaw Nature Reserve of the Missouri Botanical Garden in Gray Summit, with the Missouri Prairie Foundation at Prairie Star Restoration Farm in Osage County, and Prairie State Park in Mindenmines, Missouri in Barton County near Joplin, and Dunn Ranch Prairie of The Nature Conservancy in Hatfield, Missouri. During creative sessions, artists generated an original work that adds to the critical artistic discourse, contributes to the archived experiences of the state’s African American community and archives an endangered natural resource through art.

Peace in the Prairie expands the artistic body of work of African American artists in the Collective, addresses the community need of understanding violence while seeking peace, supports the exploration of new natural settings by both artists and audiences, and supports the greater understanding of Missouri’s unique natural heritage in its native prairie lands.

Financial assistance for this project has been provided by the St. Louis Storytelling Festival, Community Arts, University of Missouri Extension Services. The project is supported by a grant from the Missouri Foundation for Health. The Foundation is a resource for the region, working with communities and nonprofits to generate and accelerate positive changes in health. As a catalyst for change, the Foundation improves the health of Missourians through a combination of partnership, experience, knowledge, and funding. The project created with support from Missouri Arts Council, a State Agency and from Kranzberg Arts Foundation.