For more information:
Rob Price, Director of Marketing (Media calls) 602.243.8030
“AFRICAN STORYTELLING TRADITION” OFFERED THIS SPRING AT SMCC
WHAT:
The award-winning South Mountain Community College Storytelling Institute will offer a brand new storytelling class this spring, focusing on traditional African folklore.
The class, entitled “The African Storytelling Tradition” (STO283) will focus on the history and practice of storytelling in Africa. Students will explore African myths, legends and folktales, and also research, develop and craft African stories for their own telling.
The SMCC Storytelling Institute is one of only a handful of academic programs in the nation to focus on this ancient art form, and is the only Arizona institution to offer an Academic Certificate in Storytelling.
WHO:
Class instructor is Marilyn Omifunke Torres, an SMCC adjunct faculty member. Ms. Torres has been an ordained West African traditional storyteller for more than 30 years, and has received two chieftaincies. (See below for additional information on Ms. Torres.)
WHEN:
The class will take place Thursday evenings, from 6:00 to 9:05 p.m., beginning January 25, and runs for 16 weeks.
WHERE:
The class will be held in Room PAC-739 on the SMCC Main Campus, 7050 S. 24th Street in Phoenix, just north of Baseline Road.
FEE:
Tuition for the three-credit course is $213, plus a $15 registration fee.
Registration is now underway. To enroll or get additional details, visit http://my.maricopa.edu or call 602.243.8026.
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR
Marilyn Omifunke Torres is known throughout the Phoenix metro area as “The WestWinds Storyteller.” She has been an ordained West African traditional storyteller for more than 30 years and received two chieftaincies in 1984 in the village of Imota, West Africa, Nigeria, as a descendent of the “children of slavery from the island of Puerto Rico.” She was given a naming ceremony and renamed “Omifunke” in honor of her return to her ancestral land of Africa.
Ms. Torres was born in New York City and raised on both the islands of Puerto Rico and New York. She relocated to the northwest region of the United States in 1995, and migrated to the southwest in 2000. She is an adjunct faculty member for the South Mountain Community College Storytelling Institute and a consultant for the college’s ACE (Achieving a College Education) program.
She is devoted to incorporating storytelling into all forms of academic achievement, literacy and college-bound leadership among youth. In addition to “The African Storytelling Tradition,” she also teaches “The Art of Storytelling” and “Multicultural Folktales, and leads seminars on “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens” by Sean Covey, blending the world of traditional stories into literary form and academic achievement.