Conner Prairie Presents An Online Celebration of Storytelling

This event will be held on Saturday, May 16 from 10:00 a.m. until 8:30 p.m.

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(Fishers, Ind.) – While being stuck inside it has been difficult for some to keep their children occupied.

Conner Prairie will be hosting an online celebration of storytelling. The prairie will be sharing Lenape Animal Tales, learn how newspapers and letters tell very special stories, hear about how inventors, squirrels, and pigeons are a part of Hoosier history, and tell a story with no words at all.

They will also be sharing live performances through the day, from West African Dance to harps, and special stories about Indiana’s Madam C.J. Walker.

This event will be held on Saturday, May 16 from 10:00 a.m. until 8:30 p.m., you can choose to attend each storytime or just ones that really spark your interest.

The schedule of events is as follows:

Lenape Animal Tales - 10:00 a.m.

• Before the pioneers arrived in Indiana, the Lenape lived here. Like any other culture, they told stories about who they were, where they came from, and how their society functioned.

 Paper Puppets Present: Indiana Inventors - 10:30 a.m.

• Household items become simple puppets, that are then used to tell the stories of three Hoosier inventors. Can you invent a paper puppet play?

The Culture of West African Dance with Ronne Stone (Live Performance) 11:00-11:30 a.m.

• Move along with Ronne as she shares traditional West African stories through dance. Learn about the cultural symbolism of dance, expressed individually and in groups, through movement.

 Silent Storytelling - 1:00 p.m.

• We tell stories with our voices and our bodies, but can we tell a story with no words at all?

Writing Home: Letters in the Civil War - 1:30 p.m.

• Correspondence written during the Civil War give us great insight into the daily lives of soldiers and their far-away families. These letters help to tell a personal version of the larger story of this historic time in our nation's history.

Sense a Story with Melissa's Harps (Live Performance) 2:00-2:30 p.m.

• Join Melissa Gallant and her concert harp to explore the connections between music and language. Learn how slow and fast, soft and loud, and low and high sounds help us create and express emotion.

The Ballad of John Wise - 3:00 p.m.

• This is the story of John Wise, pioneer aeronaut, and how the first official airmail delivery in the United States came to be. You'll laugh, you'll cry, and you'll learn how sometimes even when things aren't going quite right, you can still claim victory in the end.

Headlines from Home - 3:30 p.m.

• Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Write about it, too! Newspapers tell us all different kinds of stories. If your household had a newspaper, what stories would be told?

Sarah the Dream Builder: The Story of Madam C.J. Walker, told by Deborah Asante (Live Performance) 4:00-5:00 p.m.

• Facing poverty and tragedy from a very young age, Sarah Breedlove beats the odds and becomes the first woman in America to be a self-made millionaire. Storyteller Deborah Asante guides our exploration of the girl, the wife, the mother, the mogul, all parts of the woman known as Madam Walker.

Just Passing By The Story of the Passenger Pigeon - 6:30 p.m.

• One small bird - or a whole lot of them! - and it's place in Indiana history.

The Great Squirrel Stampede - 7:00 p.m.

• Sometimes the impossible, improbable, and inconceivable happens. History has never been stranger than it was in 1822.