El Rito Library Presents:

Music and Stories of Northern New Mexico
Come and bring your family to a fund raising afternoon

Sunday, April 26, 2009 from 1-4pm

by renowned storytellers:
Leah Alexander
Joe Hayes
Larry Torres

and renowned musicians
Dr. Marcos Cavalcante
Cipriano Vigil


$10 Donation Suggested

Leah Alexander

Leah AlexanderLeah Alexander has been telling stories professionally for more than 30 years, but the magic of stories has been part of her life as far as she can remember. She began telling Jewish folk tales she heard as a child, and expanded to tell stories from many different cultures. Stories reflect our common humanity. She especially enjoys telling stories about qualities we all share: our wisdom, and our foolishness.

Before her current retirement Leah was a social worker with abused children in California, and a licensed Marriage, Family and Child Therapist. Since retirement she has returned to her home in New Mexico, where she is active in the world of storytelling. She has been President of the Board of Storytellers of New Mexico. She served as Artistic Director of the Taos Storytelling Festival in Taos, NM for three years.

Leah has told stories at schools, libraries, civic centers, campgrounds and living rooms, for men's and women's civic organizations, alumni luncheons and foster parent groups, and to one child who wants a story. Stories, she believes, are food for our hungry minds and hearts.

Joe Hayes

Leah AlexanderJoe Hayes is an award winning author and the Southwest’s premier storyteller, a nationally recognized teller of tales from the Hispanic, Native American and Anglo cultures. His bilingual Spanish-English tellings have earned him a distinctive place among America's story-tellers. His bilingual books are used in schools all over the United States.

Joe’s most recent awards are the 2007 Texas Bluebonnet Award for Ghost Fever, the 2005 Land of Enchantment Award for El Cucuy, the 2005 Latino Family Literacy Award for the hardback edition of La Llorona, the 2005 Talking Leaves Oracle Award from the National Storytelling Network for continued contribution to the literature of storytelling, and the 2005 Storyteller of the Year IPPY Award from the Independent Publishers’ Association for Ghost Fever

Joe was designated a New Mexico Eminent Scholar by the New Mexico Commission on Higher Education and in 1995 received the New Mexico Governor's Award for Excellence and Achievement in the Arts, the highest honor accorded by the state for accomplishment in the arts

For twentysix summers Joe has been the resident storyteller at the Wheelwright Museum of the Amer-ican Indian in Santa Fe.  He has shared stories in over 3,000 schools and spoken at educational conferences throughout the country. He has appeared- at the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, TN, and one of his tales was chosen for the book Best Loved Stories Told At The National Storytelling Festival.

His first book, The Day It Snowed Tortillas, was published in 1982.  It is a collection of some of Joe's favorite Hispanic stories from New Mexico, and has become a regional classic.  His most recent books is Dance, Nana, Dance/Baila, Nana, Baila, a collection of Cuban folktales in Spanish and English.