Making Words Flow Like Water: The Art of Verbal Expression

The Western Illinois Museum, in partnership with the One Book One Community Festival, will host an afternoon to learn and experience the power of first-person narrative through verbal expression using storytelling, song, and poetry. On Sunday, April 14th from 1:00 to 5:30, the Museum will offer three programs in one afternoon where guests can join in some or all of the activities. All of the programs will be held at the Western Illinois Museum at 201 South Lafayette Street in downtown Macomb, Illinois. Refreshments will be served throughout the afternoon and there is a suggested $5 donation at the door.

For this program, guests have the opportunity to pick and choose from 1) taking a storytelling workshop, 2) enjoying a performance with seasoned storyteller Brian Fox Ellis, and 3) hearing local poets and storytellers share their work at an open mic. The schedule for the afternoon is as follows:

Storytelling Workshop from 1:00 to 2:00 pm
The afternoon starts with a workshop offered by storyteller Brian Fox Ellis and will explore such techniques as creating a storyline, turning inspiration into words, developing a historical character, and developing one’s voice. Participants in the workshop are invited to share their stories in the open mic section of the program. The workshop is appropriate for school-age children and up. Children under the age of 12 should be accompanied by an adult.

Brian Fox Ellis Performance from 2:30 to 3:30 pm
Storyteller Brian Fox Ellis will present an hour-long program titled, The Role of Steamboatin’ in the Union Victory! This immersive program is based on Captain Detweiller’s pilot log books and explores the role of steamboats delivering troops and supplies during the Civil War on the Mississippi.

Open Mic from 3:45 to 5:00 pm
The afternoon concludes with a showcase of local talent where guests can hear the open mic presenters respond to the theme of water to convey history, experiences, creative expression, and cultural heritage. Barbara Lawhorn will host an open mic session bringing multi-generational groups together to share the art of verbal expression. 

Both listening to and presenting in the open mic session are open to the public and there is no cost to participate. Participation in the workshop is not required to participate in the Open Mic. Registration to present in the open mic session is highly recommended.

Guidelines for the Open Mic Presenters

• Presenters are asked to use the water theme for their piece.
• Each presenter is limited to five minutes.
• Presentations can be collaborations with multiple presenters and are also limited to five minutes.
• Pieces should be created with the awareness of the Museum’s multi-generational audience.
• The open mic session is limited to 12 participants
• Advance registration is highly recommended and available online, by email at info@wimuseum.org, by phone at 309-837-2750, or by text at 309-837-2613.

The Western Illinois Museum is a non-profit organization celebrating and nurturing the history, culture, and traditions of McDonough County.  The Museum is located in a historic building at 201 S. Lafayette Street, one block south of Macomb’s Courthouse Square. For further information, call 309-837-2750, text 309-837-2613, or email info@wimuseum.org. 

About Brian Fox Ellis
Brian “Fox” Ellis is an internationally acclaimed author, storyteller, historian, and naturalist. He has worked with The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, The Field Museum, and dozens of other museums nationwide. Fox is a highly sought keynote speaker at regional and international conferences including the International Wetlands Conservation Conference, National Science Teachers Association Conference, and the North American Prairie Conservation Conference. Fox is also the Artistic Director for Prairie Folklore Theatre a unique theatre company that celebrates ecology and history through original musical theatre productions. He is the author of 16 books including the critically acclaimed Learning From the Land: Teaching Ecology Through Stories and Activities, (Libraries Unlimited, 2011), the award-winning children’s picture book The Web at Dragonfly Pond, (DAWN Publications, 2006), and Content Area Reading, Writing and Storytelling (Teacher Ideas Press 2010). Many of his stories are available on CDs. He and his wife run The Twinflower Inn, a Bed and Breakfast in Bishop Hill, Illinois.

About Barbara Lawhorn

Barbara Lawhorn teaches Basic Writing, College Composition, and Creative Writing at Western Illinois University. She writes poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction, and her most recent publications can be found in Dunes Literary Review, Flash Fiction Magazine, The Long Leaf Pine, Iron Horse Literary Review, and Poetry South. She’s the faculty advisor for Unity, WIU’s LGBTQA+ student organization and facilitates the Reading Room Series. Her community-based literacy work includes a summer writing workshop series, and book donations to an Illinois youth detention facility and numerous donations to prison libraries across Illinois. She co-organized grant-funded literacy-centered events for grade and middle schoolers in both Illinois and Iowa, facilitated multiple service-learning projects that integrate adopting second-grade classrooms and creating writing partnerships between second graders and Basic Writers. She’s led, with Dr. Rebekah Buchanan, a Creative Writing Club for 4th-6th graders at Edison School. SITREP: Veteran Perspectives on Combat and Peace, a literary magazine she edited with Dr. Jacque Wilson dedicated to the creative work of military service members ran for five years, and is Barb’s proudest undertaking. She writes, reads, bakes and eats pies, seeks the wild within and outside of herself, runs and lifts weights, walks the best-dog-in-the-history-of-the-universe Banjo, and lives joyfully with her favorite creative endeavors ever, her sons, Mars and Jack.

About the One Book One Community Festival

The One Book One Community idea comes from the American Library Association, and cities and towns across the USA have been adopting—and adapting–the program for more than two decades. Every year participating communities invite residents to read a specific book and gather in small or large groups to discuss it.

To engage children, adolescents, and adults, the Macomb’s OBOC Committee chooses three books on a particular theme and schedules conversations, concerts, and other activities to bring different age groups together around the theme. Events are scheduled by a variety of organizations throughout a given month and offer residents multiple opportunities to get involved. 

Some of the organizations participating in the OBOC Festival, besides the Western Illinois Museum, are the Macomb Public Library, the YMCA, the University of Illinois Extension, area Book Clubs, Macomb schools, the WIU Community Music School String Ensemble, and Prairie View Apartments.

The books chosen for the 2024 OBOC Festival are: This Raindrop Has a Billion Stories to Tell by Linda Ragsdale, an illustrated children’s book; A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park, a short novel for young adults; and What the Eyes Don’t See: A Story of Crisis, Resistance, and Hope in an American City by Mona Hanna-Attisha, an analysis of the Flint, Michigan, water crisis written for adults.

About the Shared Community Action Group

The Shared Community Action (SCA) Group is composed of leaders of civic and religious organizations who first came together as the Moving Macomb Forward Committee. 

The SCA’s goal is to strengthen long-term dialogue and cooperation among the diverse members of the Macomb community. It seeks to develop ways individuals and organizations can contribute to an equitable, just, healthy, and strong community, and to confront barriers that keep community members apart and undermine community-building.

The SCA is committed to working with everyone in Macomb who supports its goals, recognizes the human dignity of each of its residents and visitors, and wants to take up the challenge of an ever-deepening dedication to justice and equity.

This program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency through federal funds provided by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Two Rivers Arts Council.