The Friends of the Livingston County Library and the Chillicothe Area Arts Council have teamed up with funding and programming to bring master storyteller Loretta Washington to Chillicothe for a series of programs from Thursday, Sept. 9 to Sunday, Sept. 12.
St. Louis based Washington is recognized throughout Missouri for her workshops on storytelling, and for her masterfully crafted stories of American Folklore and African-American history. She has presented many workshops for the Missouri Humanities Council’s Read First program. Among her stories are those of her great-grandmother, Ellen, who was born into slavery in the Missouri Bootheel in 1853.
Washington will present a program at 6 p.m, Thursday, Sept. 9 in the courtroom of the Livingston County Library, 450 Locust. She will present to school assemblies on Friday, and then present her stories in the Storyteller’s Area of Chautauqua in the Park in Chillicothe’s Simpson Park at several times on Sept. 11 and 12. She will perform on stage during the Chautauqua on Saturday, beginning at 2:05 p.m. The Chillicothe Area Arts Council received a grant from the F.M. and Gladys McCall Foundation to help fund Washington’s programs in Chillicothe.
