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| International Festival Day | ||||||||||||||||||
The festival highlights different cultural traditions through stories, music, food and arts & crafts which stimulate the imagination and leads to further interest in libraries and learning. It showcases the unique and rich culture of each year’s exchange partner, while at the same time exposing people to other cultures Similarities among traditions are emphasized. On Saturday, May 19, 2007, the Main Library was transformed into a global village filled with cultural programming as more than seven thousand children, parents and caregivers gathered for the Art of Storytelling International Festival The Main Library auditorium featured the giant puppets of the Bits ’N Pieces Puppet Theatre who danced and sang their way into everyone’s heart with the tale of Rip Van Winkle. Stories and songs from Mother Goose and the folk songs and lullabies of Jose Orozco resonated from the walls of the usually quiet Miami Art and Historical Museums. Children of all ages danced around the stilted legs of Mr. Funnybones who made his way around the cultural plaza. There was something for everyone - children sang with the Red Dog and got their faces painted inside a giant air conditioned tent; teens got hipper with new dance moves from the Hip Hop Kidz, and everyone enjoyed tales told by seniors, who shared stories from their past, and youths who shined on the stage telling traditional and new tales. The day ended with the customary Junkanoos’ West Indian parade who gathered participants for a march around the plaza. Mark your calendars for May 3, 2008 when Art of Storytelling hosts Park Libraries from Medellin, Colombia.
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The Art of Storytelling’s most public face is a daylong International Storytelling Festival which is free and open to the entire community. 
Day which was hosted in association with the Consulate General of France in Miami. Headlining the day-long event was French storyteller Theresa Amoon; Native American storyteller Gayle Ross, Japanese storyteller Kuniko Yamamoto; African American authors and storytellers Irene Smalls and Ras Mo; Iranian author and storyteller Fereydoun Kian and Mexican children’s author and recording artist José-Luis Orozco. The Haitian band Etincelle Twobadou and a Jamaican Revue provided musical entertainment. 
