Charlotte Blake Alston, a storyteller from Philadelphia, has performed at many storytelling festivals, so she knows what to expect when she comes to Chicago for the 1996 Wild Onion Storytelling Celebration. “There are people who figuratively and literally come with their tongues hanging out waiting to be touched by a story,” she says. “The minute you stand up and announce your name, you can feel the power of the audience lifting you up.”
In addition to telling stories for adults during the three-day event, Blake Alston will join a number of other storytellers in a performance for children. She says that some of the African and African-American stories she tells are a “real blast” and often give children a chance to participate. On a version of the classic tale that replaces the Gingerbread Man with the Cornbread Man, children will be asked to join her in making his mocking laugh. “By the third time around they are champing at the bit and ready to participate and they just jump right in,” she says.
Other stories she tells carry powerful messages. One of them, a Liberian tale about a father who is lost and almost forgotten, epitomizes Blake Alston’s reason for telling stories. “It underscores the long-held belief of the Liberian people that man is not truly dead unless he is forgotten,” she explains, “and so it is that we speak the stories of our lives so that our own history will not be forgotten.”
Wild Onion Storytelling Concert for Families, 7 p.m. Friday, St. Scholastica High School, 7416 N. Ridge Ave., $8 adults, $5 children; 312-743-9200.
The annual ice-cutting event at Kline Creek Farm received a Superior Achievement Award from the Illinois Association of Museums because it is so unique, well-planned and well-researched and takes impressive safety precautions. Staff members of the farm and volunteers hope to re-create the ice-cutting techniques of the 1890s once again this year. If the weather is willing, they will score ice on the farm’s lake using a horse-drawn marking plow, chop the 150-pound blocks loose, float them to shore and load them on a wagon to be carried to the ice house. If the weather is too mild, they will bring in store-bought ice and simply explain how things were done a century ago–when ice was cut and stored for months to be used to keep milk cool before it was taken to market.
Ice Cutting, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday, Kline Creek Farm, Timber Ridge Forest Preserve, County Farm Road, 1/2 mile north of Geneva Road, Winfield, free; 708-876-5900.
To celebrate African-American History Month, the Oriental Institute is offering some “Awesome Ancient African Arts” from Egypt and Nubia. The program includes a demonstration of Egyptian spinning and weaving and Nubian-style leather-working and then lets children try their hand at some handicrafts. They will be able to make a lucky charm using ancient symbols, stamp out designs on leather to make a decorative arm band and make musical clappers shaped like the hands of the Egyptian god Horus. They will also have one last chance to look at the awe-inspiring artifacts in the museum’s Egyptian gallery before it closes for renovation. (The Assyrian, Mesopotamian, Nubian and Special Exhibits galleries remain open until later in the year.)
Awesome Ancient African Arts, 12:30-3:30 p.m. Sunday, for ages 6-12, Oriental Institute Museum, 1155 E. 58th St., free; 312-702-9507.
Friday
“GISELLE”: Presented by the Ballet Theater of Chicago, 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday, Athenaeum Theatre, 2936 N. Southport Ave. $15-$22; 312-902-1500.
Saturday
KID FITNESS FESTIVAL: Featuring past and future Olympic athletes, soccer clinic and gymnastics demonstration, 10 a.m.-2 p.m., Kiddie Academy Child Care Learning Center, 603 E. Diehl Rd., Suite 143, Naperville, $1 donation; 708-505-4204.
Sunday
AFRICAN ART FAMILY DAY: Wearable art workshop, 12:30-3:30 p.m.; “Eye Plus One” performance of West African and Caribbean music and dance, 1 and 2 p.m., Art Institute of Chicago, Michigan Avenue at Adams Street, $7 adults, $3.50 children; 312-443-3600.
