Northeast Woodlands Native American Stories, Saturday February 1

Indigenous Youth Stories:
Northeast Woodlands Native American Stories
Saturday February 1
1 – 2 PM

Join us on Take Your Child to the Library Day for a special Native American storytelling performance with Anne Jennison. Traditional Native American lesson stories are - first and foremost – entertaining. The stories are meant for the whole community, from 5 to 105! This event is drop-in and free.

Anne Jennison has been telling Native American lesson stories for more than 30 years – at powwows, museums, libraries, colleges, festivals, and historical societies, etc. Over the years, Anne has also had the opportunity to hear – and thereby learn from – some very fine Native American storytellers, such as: Wolf Song, Medicine Story, Peter Brodeur, Joseph Bruchac, Jesse Bruchac, Marge Bruchac, Dovie Thomason, Johnny Moses, Hears Crow, John Bear Mitchell, Angela Klingler, Willow Greene, and Kevin Locke.

Anne’s Native American storytelling performances mostly draw from Abenaki and other Northeast Woodlands traditions – and always begin with a greeting song or friendship song, accompanied by her rattle or frame drum. The listeners are invited to join Anne in singing. This creates a sense of community in which the stories may be told. Then Anne shares a few Abenaki storytelling traditions to place the stories in cultural context – and to teach listeners how to participate in the storytelling through the use of a call-and-response phrase.

After that, listeners will be taken on a spell-binding and entertaining journey through a series of traditional Native American stories that could explain everything from “The Earth on Turtle’s Back” to “How Maple Syrup Came to Be” to “The First Strawberries” to “The Great Battle Between Chipmunk and Bear” OR “How Hummingbird Put the Stars in the Sky” - and more. Each story has a compelling narrative, but also some subtle – and some not so subtle–life lessons!

Prepare for an interactive storytelling experience filled with humor, drama, and moments of wonder! Anne is available after her performances to briefly answer questions and informally chat with audience members, while children in the audience are invited to try their hands at playing Anne’s drum.