Dr. Sam Cohen, Associate Professor of English at the University of Missouri-Columbia, describes what the work of Missouri writers—from the first African American novelist Williams Wells Brown to Hannibal’s Mark Twain, Moberly’s Jack Conroy, St. Louis’s T. S. Eliot, Ntozake Shange, and Naomi Shihab Nye, Kansas City’s Melvin B. Tolson and Calvin Trillin, Columbia’s own John Williams, and West Plains’s Daniel Woodrell—tells us about the state of our state across its length and breadth and across its history. Live on The Story Center’s Facebook page.

Dr. Gladys Caines-Coggswell collected stories from many of Missouri’s African American communities in her book Stories from the Heart: Missouri’s African-American Heritage.  Angela J. Williams, BA, one of the contributors, will share the interviewing process that she used for the book. In this workshop, you will learn the art of collecting, researching, writing and/or telling historical and/or personal stories.

Wonderfully blending tradition and performance, Dr. Gladys Caines-Coggswell and Angela J. Williams, BA, bring to the stage stories of the African American experience in Missouri. They have shared stories that they’ve learned from several different areas. Both have learned from their great grandmothers, grandmothers, communities, and at family reunions. Some stories reach back to the days of slavery. Others were shared or collected during Coggswell’s research for her book, Stories from the Heart: Missouri’s African American Heritage. They also perform stories about their personal experiences. Live on The Story Center’s Facebook page.