St. Louis, MO – The St. Louis Storytelling Festival Board, in association with the University of Missouri–St. Louis and the St. Louis Public Library, is proud to announce Sara Northern as the 2010 Irene Eveland Award Recipient.
Northern currently works at the St. Louis Public Library, Julia Davis Branch, in youth services, after being an elementary teacher for six years. She is also completing her dissertation, which focuses on children’s literature. Northern expresses a great interest in restructuring classic fairy tales by including St. Louis attractions, African American characters and modern details that interest her young listeners.
This award is a tribute to the efforts of Irene Eveland, a tireless supporter of storytelling and the St. Louis Storytelling Festival. In her 35 plus years at St. Louis Public Library, she was an advocate and promoter of storytelling, as well as a mentor, model and nurturer of new storytelling talent. To be eligible for the award, nominees must be employed in a St. Louis Metropolitan area library, must tell stories in their library as part of their regular employment and must be new talent.
“By having the honor of receiving this award, I am now able to share my stories citywide instead of solely with students in my library region,” Northern said. “I’m also able to be mentored by the best storytellers in the St. Louis area. I believe by restructuring fairy tales I am able to encourage listeners to read classics so that comparisons and contrasts can be made and these classics will not be forgotten by the new generation. I hope Irene Eveland is in storytelling heaven smiling down on me.”
As the award recipient, Northern will be featured at the 31st Annual St. Louis Storytelling Festival. She will share her African American version of Rapunzel at the Old Courthouse in St. Louis at noon, Thursday, April 29.
The Festival begins Wednesday, April 28 and ends Saturday, May 1. For these four days nationally known and regional storytellers will join UMSL with storytelling activities and free events at various locations throughout the Metropolitan St. Louis area. For more information visit http://stlstorytellingfestival.org or call (314) 516-5960.
