STORYTELLING
Laura Simms
Kewulay Kamara
and Friends
WOMEN AND WATER
LAURA SIMMS with STEVE GORN
Tuesday February 28 7:00pm
The Cathedral
“Women guard the water.
Women safeguard the land”
Women in stories are often protectors of the natural world, and /or embodiments of the strength and fluidity of water. The role of the feminine in these stories reminds us of the ancient belief that animals, plants and the elements have rights and selves, and need someone in the human community to speak for them. Women, whose bodies carry new life within cradling waters, mediate conflict between the powers of the earth and mankind.
Laura Simms’ mesmerizing storytelling draws on traditional narratives as well as tales of daily life. In collaboration with musician Steve Gorn, her performance returns us to the wisdom of story where the commonplace and the exotic are equally at home, where mind and heart meet.
Artist will remain for discussion
AN OCEAN OF STORY
children and their families and friends
LAURA SIMMS
Saturday March 3, 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
The Cathedral
Followed by a Scavenger Hunt
Tales from India, Africa, Zuni Nation, Haiti, and Russia hold young audiences spellbound, and gently impart crucial knowledge about the centrality of water, its functions, powers and perils. Children are naturally drawn to waves and rivers, rain and snow. With the aid of a map, intrepid child explorers will be able to search the Cathedral, after the performance, for some of the water-related images found in the stories. The current art exhibition, The Value of Water—paintings, drawings, sculpture, video and installation—contains many artworks that immediately engage young imaginations.
Scavenger Hunt follows
MAMI WATA: HEALING WATERS
KEWULAY KAMARA and LAURA SIMMS with
Musicians and Dancers from Africa
Tuesday March 6 7:00 pm
The Cathedral
If you know your origin
You will see your destiny
Everything in the world
Starts with water
Traditional finah Kewulay Kamara and storyteller Laura Simms will perform sections of the dazzling epic Mansa Milli Milli (“The Place of Turning Water”) from Northern Sierra Leone, a country where they both have strong familial connections. Accompanied by dancers and musicians, the two will weave folktales, myth and contemporary encounters with the sacredness of water into this central story. Expect an evening of enchantment as stories and storytellers interact, as drums, other instruments and human bodies add their wordless commentary.
Artists will remain for discussion
Laura Simms has been telling stories for 40 years. She has recorded her stories on numerous albums, CDs and DVDs, and created theater and dance pieces. She teaches storytelling workshops all over the world, as well as at the University of Milwaukee, New York University and Naropa University. Laura’s projects include A Key to the Heart and Other Afghan Tales, Chocolate Sauce (2003), benefiting children's education in Afghanistan; the Next Generation Environmental Program sponsored by the Murie Center for the Environment (with Terry Tempest Williams); and the Gaindeh Project, an international initiative to aid youth in crisis by teaching storytelling as a way of binding generations and communities together.
Kewulay Kamara is a finah—a storyteller, in the West African language Mandeng—born in Sierra Leone. He came to this country when he was 18, earned an M.S. in Economics from The New School and taught for two decades at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, while raising a family in New York City and telling stories. Kamara has performed at Cooper Union, The Kitchen, Alice Tully Hall, City Center, the American Museum of Natural History the Museum of African Arts and Poets House. He has started a secondary school and other initiatives in his native village of Dankawalie, and produced a documentary, The Traveling Word; A West African Epic about his attempt to recreate an ancient oral epic after the only written copy was destroyed in Sierra Leone’s recent Civil War.
Steve Gorn, whose flute is featured on the 2011 Grammy winning recording, “Miho – Journey to the Mountain,” with the Paul Winter Consort, and the Academy Award winning Documentary film, Born into Brothels, has performed Indian Classical Music and new American Music on the bansuri bamboo flute, soprano saxophone and clarinet in concerts and festivals throughout the world. He is also featured on Angelique Kidjo’s Grammy nominated cd, “Oyo”
ADDITIONAL PERFORMERS TO BE ANNOUNCED.
The Value of Water: Sustaining a Green Planet was made possible by generous support from the Bermant Foundation; Compton Foundation; GRACE Communications Foundation; the Roy A. Hunt Foundation; Invoking the Pause; the Kalliopeia Foundation; the Lambent Foundation, a project of the Tides Center; the Panta Rhea Foundation; an anonymous donor; The Episcopal Diocese of New York; and friends of the Cathedral.
The Cathedral of St. John the Divine is the Cathedral of the Episcopal Diocese of New York. It is chartered as a house of prayer for all people and a unifying center of intellectual light and leadership. People from many faiths and communities worship together in services held more than 30 times a week; the soup kitchen serves roughly 20,000 meals annually; social service outreach has an increasingly varied roster of programs; the distinguished Cathedral School prepares young students to be future leaders; Adults and Children in Trust, the renowned after school and summer program offers nurturing activities; the outstanding Textile Conservation Lab preserves world treasures; concerts, exhibitions, performances and civic gatherings allow conversation, celebration, reflection and remembrance—such is the joyfully busy life of this beloved and venerated Cathedral.
The Cathedral is profoundly grateful to its Staff, Clergy, Volunteers, Board Members, Advisors and Friends whose unparalleled energy and determination make thousands of annual services, programs and events possible. Please visit the Cathedral website and join us on Facebook to stay in touch.
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