Performances

Jenifer connects to her audiences with enthusiasm, warmth and joy.

Choosing from a large and ever-growing repertoire, Jen tells heart-felt and humorous personal stories, and her own uniquely adapted and “contemporized” traditional tales.

Jenifer believes that stories are more impacting when listeners become an integral part of the telling, and so her performances are an energy-injected, joint-adventure between the story she is sharing and the members of her audience.

With over 16 years of experience, Jenifer will design a Storytelling Performance for your group, starting with her signature story, The Story Lamp, and drawing from a large repertoire of material (over 265 stories) to create a storytelling experience that will meet the needs of your event, or you can choose one of the following Performance options.

Performance Options

If You Can Tell It…You Can Write It

Focusing on the Story Telling-to-Story Writing Connection, Jenifer guides her audience members through a series of Personal Tales and a Process, from telling to writing.
Post-visit materials for teacher and students are available. Adaptable to all ages, school settings, and grade levels. Great for Young Author’s!

Characters With Character

A performance using stories that support Character Education, focused on messages about honesty, integrity, humility, respect and friendship!

Michigan Legends and Lore: Stories from Shore to Shore

Stories from the Great Lake State about our history, animals, land formations, and Tall Tale heroes! CD Available.

Tales from the Haunted Shores

Tales of strange occurrences, sightings, and unsolved events from our own Great Lake State of Michigan.

Multicultural Tales to Tell Together

Traditional Tales from around the globe, told with Jen’s special participatory spin.

Stories from the Melting Pot: A Journey Through American Folklore

Stories big, bold and full of humor, exploring and celebrating America!

It Happened to a Friend of a Friend of Mine! Urban Legends and Other Chilling Tales

Stories for teens and tweens, but not for the weak of heart!

Tales to Tickle Your Funny Bone

Silly stories and songs filled with participation and movement for young ones. Did you know that Storytelling is a powerful tool for language development and early childhood literacy?

Paws, Claws, Scales and Tales

Sniffing, crawling, swimming, stinging and wagging our way through stories that will spotlight the wonderful furry, scaly, “antennaed” and feathered friends that share this planet with us!

Teddy Bear Picnic

“If you go out in the woods today, you’re in for a big surprise!” We will be singing about bears….telling stories about bears…rapping about bears…even hunting for bears!

Women: The True Keepers of the Oral Tradition

A storytelling performance designed for women’s groups and events, infused with heart, soul, and humor. Great for Women’s clubs, conferences, and professional organizations.

A Bounty of Autumn Tales

When the colors begin to change, and there is a hint of a chill in the air, gather with family and friends, to lend a listening ear! My favorite time of the year offers a plethora of wonderful stories for autumn. Great for field trips, farm markets and family literacy nights!

Hey…Ho…It’s Halloween

Traditional (and harmless) tales that will make you shiver a little, giggle a lot, and grab your best friend! Appropriate for all ages.

Winter Tales to Warm Your Toes

Meet all the characters that nap in a mitten, see how Rabbit tricks Fox, Learn how Bear got his stumpy tail, and how a whole family can live in a snow flake house!!!!!

Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire

Sleigh bells, and a fiddle-playing cricket…A rose that blooms in the snow and a donkey named Ruby are all a part of the heart-warming traditional stories and songs Jen shares for the Holidays.

Tales to Tell Together: An Evening of Story for Families

Fly with Buzzard, sing to the Sunman, run from a giant pumpkin, and dance like a lark in the back of a snakes throat! Re-awaken the storytelling tradition in your family, and go home with a storytelling handbook, and tales to tell again!!! Great for Family Literacy Nights.

In Celebration of the Hans Christian Anderson

A variety of Anderson’s most famous and little known tales, Jenifer adds her unique Storytelling style to what Anderson himself described as, “My gift to the world”…his wonderful tales.

What’s Love Got to Do With It?

Is it the battle of the sexes or the balances of the sexes? Jen will share stories about love found and lost, and all the lessons learned along the way.

Stories Harvested from Life’s Garden

A variety of carefully crafted, thought provoking, and humorous stories for adult audiences.

Library Summer Reading Programs

Since 1993, Jenifer has designed theme based Storytelling Performances for the Summer Reading Programs. For 2010, Jenifer will be presenting "Michigan Legends and Lore: Stories from Shore to Shore" with programs adapted to kids, teens and adults.

Funding is available for Jen's programs through the

Michigan Touring Arts Directory

For application go to: www.michiganhumanities.org