Artists & Communities Host Site: Susanna Wesley Family Learning Center, Inc.
207 North Washington
East Prairie, MO 63845

Millennium Artist:
David Alexander
Storyteller and Writer
Kansas
E-mail: dmateller@yahoo.com

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Topeka storyteller David Alexander wove yarns and told tales when he partnered with the Susanna Wesley Family Learning Center in East Prairie, Missouri on an Artists & Communities residency project. Alexander taught the art of storytelling to East Prairie residents and worked with community members to explore the community's history through spoken word.

During his four-month residency in East Prairie, Alexander worked closely with the East Prairie R-2 School System and the East Prairie Committee for the Arts. Working through the school system, Alexander taught storytelling classes that emphasized technique and family history and presented assemblies that engaged and entertained students, fourth grade through high school. Adults, teens to senior citizens, gathered in storytelling circles to learn storytelling techniques from the artist.

Both in the classroom and through the storytelling circles, students of all ages learned how to compose a story, from either original material or from an existing, printed story, and how to deliver a story in an entertaining way, letting an individual's personality and style shine through.

Another component of Alexander's residency involved creating audio recordings of stories shared by East Prairie elders to pass on to younger generations. He also worked with community members to produce a multi-media piece depicting significant historical buildings and events that occurred during the past 100 years in East Prairie as well as highlighting current events and activities central to everyday life in the community. Local children provided a future context by discussing their dreams for the years to come.

In assessing the outcome of East Prairie's Artists & Communities residency, Martha Ellen Black, Director at Susanna Wesley, felt that residents were empowered "to tell their stories in a comfortable and entertaining way."

"From this residency," Black commented, "we have learned that interesting and important stories can be shared by many who never thought they were capable of such an undertaking. And, of course, the "old timers" reminded us of the importance of "sitting and talking a spell."

Commenting on the art of storytelling and working with communities, Millennium Artist David Alexander says, "whether it is having a story up your sleeve for the grandchild sitting on your lap, a bedtime-story request on a babysitting job, or turning the next family reunion into something more than a lament about politics, I believe the impact of storytelling on a community can be the catalyst that restores who we are and can continue to hold a family, a school, as well as our country together through the next millennium."

MILLENNIUM ARTIST BIO

David Alexander is a storyteller, performer, and writer who has appeared at festival events in Beijing, Peru, Bolivia, Korea, and Indonesia, as well as Tennessee, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska.