ISSUED: 14 February 2018
MEDIA CONTACT: Valerie Owens
SHEPHERDSTOWN, WV — Speak Story Series, part of Shepherd University’s Appalachian Studies Program, kicks off its 2018 season on Tuesday, March 20, at 8 p.m. in Reynolds Hall with Elizabeth Ellis, Shepherdstown’s first Appalachian Heritage Storyteller-in-Residence.
Admission is $12 at the door with express entry for Speak membership cardholders, and free for Shepherd students with a valid Rambler ID. Please note the date and time change for this concert. As storyteller-in-residence, Ellis will perform concerts for the community and in schools and will conduct storytelling workshops.
Ellis, who currently lives in Texas, grew up in the Appalachian Mountains in a family of storytellers. Her grandfather was a circuit-riding preacher and told stories he had collected in his travels, as well as those he had made up. Ellis’s aunt was a keeper of the old fairytales learned from her Irish immigrant grandmother.
Ellis has mentored and coached storytellers around the nation for 40 years. She is the first recipient of the John Henry Faulk Award from the Tejas Storytelling Association. The National Storytelling Network honored her in 1997 with the Circle of Excellence Award, which is given to those recognized nationally by their peers to be master storytellers.
For more information about Speak Story Series, visit https://www.speakstoryseries.com/.
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