Carols Coming to the Mountain State

Susanna "Granny Sue" Holstein and Jeff Seager will begin their annual series of presentations of the program, Here We Come A-Caroling, this evening for Road Scholars at Cedar Lakes Conference Center in Ripley, WV.

Holstein and Seager have been presenting the program for five years, in venues as diverse as the carols they explore. House concerts, libraries, state parks and churches have all hosted the presentation, which offers the stories and lore behind the carols and opportunities for audience singalong. Some of the songs are familiar favorites, others are obscure and ancient with roots leading back to Celtic times.

The Charleston GazetteMail ran an article about this program this Sunday. Click here to read the article. 

For more information about the program, contact Susanna Holstein at 304-372-5861, or via email at susannaholstein@yahoo.com. There is still time to schedule a presentation for the coming holidays.

 As storytellers who take part in festivals, we are aware of the fund raising challenges these events face. Grants are difficult to secure, and often require matching funds.
 My Welsh storytelling friend Eirwen Malin, who is a chair of the Beyond the Border Storytelling Festival in St. Donat's, Wales, has asked me to pass this link on to you as a means to help secure funding for the next festival in 2018. It has become as difficult for our friends in the UK to secure arts funding as it has become here for us.

www.beyondstorytime.com is a link to a subscription organized by the Beyond the Border Festival. It is a year-long subscription that features recordings of stories geared to children. You can visit it as many times as you like, and stories will be added throughout the year.

I invite you to check it out. Eirwen tells her original tale, "The Christmas Angel."  Her partner, Phil Thomas, designed the new website. Peter Stevenson, who visited with several of our Guild members in October in Morgantown, also tells a tale. I have heard many of the tellers featured, and I can assure you, their work is delightful.

At a time when it appears that the world is spinning out of control, it is wonderful to have something that brings us back to a place of peace and calm, and I can think of no better place than to listen to fine stories.

Thanks for the listen!

Judi Tarowsky