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Entertain Your Week With Storytelling, An Art Festival And The Cameraman

DDavisstoryteller.com

The Arts Council of Oklahoma City (ACOKC) entertains metro-area audiences for the 34th consecutive year with the Oklahoma City Storytelling Festival. The event runs from Thursday, August 21 through Saturday, August 23 at the Oklahoma History Center.

The weekend's agenda includes storytelling workshops, open mics and performances by nationally acclaimed professionalsDonald Davis, Bil Lepp, Lyn Ford and Elizabeth Ellis.

“These story tellers are the country’s best of the best,” ACOKC Communications Director Miranda Wilson said. “In fact, we had to book a couple of the performers up to three years in advance.”

The festival begins Thursday with music by local guitarist Greg Northwood before Ford, Ellis and Davis open storytelling with 15-minute performances starting at 7 p.m. Following a brief intermission, Bil Lepp performs the evening’s main event, a 45-minute routine called “Adverse Conditions”.

Friday and Saturday bring workshops from 10 a.m. until mid-afternoon where the artists teach guests how to craft a compelling narrative. Evening performances begin at 8 p.m. both nights, following the same format as the Thursday night schedule.

Lepp and Ford team up to perform the festival’s ‘Family Matinee’ Saturday at 4 p.m. The event then moves to the Urban Roots Cafe on NE 2nd Street for this year’s OKCStorySlam open mic, where attendees tell their own anecdotes under the theme “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Adulthood.”

Oklahoma City Storytelling Festival organizers anticipate 600 to 800  guests total. The event features clean humor, although many of the stories contain themes that appeal to adult life. Ticket prices range from $10 to $75 according to the number of events guests choose to partake in.

An even longer-standing community tradition returns to Norman this weekend with the 37th edition of the Midsummer Nights Art Festival presented by the Firehouse Art Center.

Credit NormanFirehouse.Com
Regional artist Kelli Folsom presents a live painting demonstration at Norman's Midsummer Nights Art Festival in 2012.

The complementary event gives visitors the opportunity to browse an abundance of work by regional artists in a diverse range media under the festival’s ‘Central Tent’.

Additionally, guests can enjoy continuous live music on two stages, children’s painting and sculpting activities, live sculpting and jewelry crafting demonstrations and printmaking.

The Midsummer Nights Art Festival takes place at Lions Park from 6 to 11 p.m. Friday, August 22 and Saturday, August 23.

The fall semester has dawned yet again, which means a fresh performing and visual arts season at the University of Oklahoma.

OU’s School of Music and the Boggess Organ Series present the 1928 silent film The Cameraman accompanied by live organ music.

Credit http://www.ou.edu/finearts/music/

Guest organist Peter Krasinski plays the Möller Opus 5819, an orchestral pipe organ, giving audiences the chance to experience the film the way it first hit the silver screen.

The Sharp Concert Hall of the Catlett Music Center hosts The Cameraman Friday, August 22 at 8 p.m. Tickets in advance cost $9 for Adults and $5 for OU Faculty and Staff with an ID or $10 at the door. Visit the School of Music’s website or call (405) 325-2081 for more information.

The OKC Urban Ag Coalition presents Symphony of the SoilFriday, August 22 at the Myriad Botanical Gardens. It’s the second part of the Urban Ag Film Series and screens at 6 p.m. in the Terrace Room.

Symphony of the Soil earned a positive review by TheNew York Times. The film incorporates both an ancient understanding and cutting edge science to document the intricate connections plants, animals, soil and people.

The Urban Ag Film Series concludes Thursday, September 4 with a showing of Growing Cities. Find more details at the OKC Urban Ag Coalition’s website.

For more ways to fill the 168 hours of your week, visit KGOU'sevent listings page.

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