Shared Gypsy proverb 

                  (from Meg Gilman)

We are all wanderers on this earth. 

Our hearts are full of wonder, and 

our souls are deep with dreams

Calendar:                         

             APRIL

4 - Breese Child Care (9:30 and 10:30 am)

5 - Litchfield, IL All day for Reading Literacy

 - SWIC - Granite City Campus - The Riverwind Storytellers for an evening performance

7 - Jackson Park School - University City, MO - All day Larry -flintknapping     Marilyn - stories (4th grade)

7 - Lewis and Clark Community College - Children's Literature Class

13 - Riverwind Meeting

16 - Gillespie Public Library - Spring Stories 10:30

21-24 - Northlands Conference - IL Rep for board meeting and workshop presenter. See article.

28-29 - Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows - Belleville "Earth Days" Marilyn - Stories Larry - flintknapping

29 - Carlisle Elementary near Paducah, KY Evening Reading Event.

              MAY

1 - Earth Day - St. Louis Forest Park from 11:00-1:00

-Stories 'n Stones - St. Louis Art Museum 2:00 and 3:00 for Hero, Hawk, and Hand exhibit

     St. Louis Storytelling      Festival Under the Arch May 4-7:

4 - Missouri History Museum workshop for Seniors "Treasures from Your Memory Box." 10:30

5 - Powder Valley (10:00 and 1:00)

6 - Dust Bowl at the St.Louis Arch (11:00 and 1:00)

7 - Children's Concert at the Arch (10:00-12:00) and Swapping Ground (1:00-3:00)

8 - Mushroom Fry

14 - Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie in. IL  all day - Stories 'n Stones and breakout sessions

             JUNE

 8 - Harrisburg, IL (10:00 am) "Goin' Ape Over Super Heroes"

10-11 - Dillard Creek "Dillard Days" All day

14 - Lincoln Library "Goin' Ape Over Super Heroes."

15 - Latzer Public Library, Highland, IL (1:00) "Goin Ape Over Super Heroes."

16 - West Frankfort Public Library (2:00) Goin' Ape Over Super Heroes."

17 - Pleasant Ridge Park, Fairview Heights, IL (10:30) Storytelling

18 - Gillespie Library - Summer Stories (10:30)

21 - "Stories 'n Stones - Ishi" Julia Davis Branch (10:00) and Baden Branch (3:00) St. Louis

22 - Bethalto Public Library Storytelling (1:00)

- Columbia Public Library Stories 'n Stones - Ishi (7:00 pm)

24 Quincy Public Library "Stories 'n Stones - Ishi" (10:00 and 11:00 am)

28 - Edwardsville Public Library "Stories 'n Stones - Ishi" (1:00)

29 - "Goin' Ape over Super Heroes" Moweka Public Library (11:00) Assumption Public Library (2:00)

               JULY

6 - "Goin' Ape over Super Heroes" Smithton Public Library (10:00)

7 - Johnson City (?) (12:30)

8-9 - 40th Class Reunion

12 - "Stories 'n Stones - Ishi" Walnut Branch (10:00) and Carpenter Branch (2:00) St. Louis, MO

13-17 Oklahoma City for the National Storytelling Conference to present "The Perfect Story from Nursery School to Nursing Home"

19 - "Stories 'n Stones - Ishi" Buder (10:00) and Cabanne (2:00) St. Louis

24 - Stories 'n Stones - Ishi" Cahokia Mounds (time?)

2005 holds the promise of lots of new stories and storytelling venues. Since the Summer Reading Program in IL is "Super Heroes: Powered by Books." Larry (long-suffering husband) and I came up with a new twist for our Stories 'n Stones. This year it will be called "Ishi - Last of the Stone Age Superheroes."     

I will tell the story of Ishi, the last of the Yahi Indians in CA. And Larry will follow by demonstrating the various skills that Ishi taught modern man. I will conclude the program by talking about the last days of Ishi and references for more about his life and the lives of other notable Native Americans.

             Taleypo

For my own presentations this summer, I am offering a show called "Going Ape Over Superheroes." My puppet, Samantha,

found herself a Spiderman outfit and will accompany me as part of the program telling spiderman jokes and leading in to my telling Anansi the spider stories. We will finish with a puppet play called "Anansi and the Moss-covered Rock." 

For  more info on the new season click on Flyer of the 2005 season To book these shows just click on: markinsella19@hotmail.com or call Elsenpeter Productions at 217/335-3338

For more programs offered by Taleypo the Storyteller and Stories 'n Stones go to "About Marilyn"

I've added two new pages to my website. I hope to add the folktales I tell, one by one, to the page called "Fabulous Folktales."

•  To find out how Taleypo came into being, simply click on "Taleypo Tells Tailypo"  

• For some luck of the Irish come to see "Darby the Tailor."

 I belong to something called the Storytell Listserve. It's a great place for Storytellers to come together from all parts of the world to discuss our favorite topic - Storytelling! This was a little something that Jonathon Kruk posted. With his permission I have reprinted it here. It speaks volumes about our passion of telling stories:

Years ago, performing in a New York City vest pocket park, my audience of young children could not settle down amidst the  traffic, sirens, a sprinkler, interloping drunks and an relentless ice cream truck.  "Story Time!" I offered, but they gave me the Bronx cheer, the Brooklyn "fahgetabou it!"  I could not yell over all Manhattan island's noise and haste!
Clapping my hands, I hoped to catch the audience's attention.  I caught, instead,  an inspiration.  Sneaking among them , looking intently after something unseen, I began catching.  Children asked, what are you doing?  The drunk did too.
"I am catching words!"  I explained.  Curious, they joined in.  The cacophony muted, as we gathered words.  I asked them to toss them into my heart for a story by heart.  We counted one story two story three story and "vooom," threw words my heart's  way.
The result was magical.  The noise continued, but no one let it enter their ears. They saved their listening for my  storytelling.  Eventually, I got a holographic rainbow button from a New Age shop to wear over my heart as a "target".
I've kept this word toss to start most of my shows.

Jonathan Kruk

Riverwinds involvement in Story Tsunami: www.storytsunami.org was a huge success. We collected over $1000.00 to give to Save the Children, The Oblates Mission, the DOC Missions, and the American Red Cross. I still have some copies of the CD that the Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows taped for the Radio Information Service. They cost $15.00 (that's with shipping!). It is a collection of the stories told at the Shrine. And, if you don't know what a "Boosung Pohoo" is, you will just have to purchase the CD - cause I ain't tellin'!

I had a great trip to Boston to present at the Sharing of the Fire. The workshops were well-received. Everyone at the conference was gracious and fun. They have put this conference on for over 25 years and it is one of the best in the nation. To find out more about the workshops that I presented go to the following sites:

• How to Put Together Useful Study Guides for Elementary Schools

• Show Me at a Showcase - tips on going to showcases. 

This April I will present "The Perfect Story From Nursery School to Nursing Home" at the Northlands Conference in Madison, WS, on April 22-23.

The "biggie-wiggie" is my presentation at the National Storytelling Conference in Oklahoma City, OK, on July 13-17. I've attended this event more times than I can count and feel privileged to be able to present. Again I offer "The Perfect Story From Nursery School to Nursing Home."

I wrote this several years ago.

Unfortunately the old H has gone

away to that great tractor ride

in the sky. However, the story is

            forever...

   The Kinsella rite of spring

                :

The grass on our knoll begins to

ripple - time to crank up the old

'45 H tractor. It's the only

artifact that remains of the days

when my husband, Larry, worked

on the farm with his dad.

For a day or two, Larry tinkers

 with the belly of this megabeast.

Finally, a puff of oil spews from

 the top of its head, and with a shudder and a cracky growl, it

 wakes up from its winter's sleep.

Larry mounts the beast and slowly, ever so slowly, it lumbers its way

 to the front yard  where it begins its methodical trek of denuding the yard of anything  remotely green. A white, thunderous noise fills the house as it shakes in the wake of

the megabeast.

Then, with a snort... silence.

Larry descends his mount

 and begins his creative tirade

against god and nature. Kicks the

obstinate beast in its rubber foot

 and reboots.

After this scenario repeats

itself several times, and

the yard is scalped of its

luscious mane, Larry returns the H

 to its shadowy lair where it's

 allowed to sleep once more...

         until the rain.

 Nine requisites for contented living:

Health enough to make work a pleasure.

Wealth enough to support your needs.

Strength to battle with difficulties

and overcome them.

Grace enough to confess your sins

 and forsake them.

Patience enough to toil until some good is

accomplished.

Charity enough to see some good

 in your neighbor.

 Love enough to move you to be useful

 and helpful to others.

Faith enough to make real

the things of God.

Hope enough to remove all

anxious fears concerning the future.

--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)