Current Press Release

TOMS RIVER –  As part of its Black History Month celebration, the Ocean County Library is pleased to present Sankofa Stories by master African-American and multicultural storyteller Shirley Johnson, Saturday, February 4, at two branches:

• Point Pleasant Borough Branch – 11:30 AM, 834 Beaver Dam Road, (732) 295-1555. Sponsored by Friends of the Point Pleasant Borough Branch.
• Barnegat Branch – 2 PM, 112 Burr Street, (609) 698-3331.

Accompanied by instrumentalist Hollis Donaldson, Shirley Johnson will weave creative, energized, and spellbinding folk tales for everyone age 3 and up, highlighting well-known and obscure African-American inventors and trail blazers.

The interactive Sankofa Stories emphasize the value of the past to learn for the future. Group participation brings the time-honored tales to vivid life.

Shirley Johnson has become conversant with different cultures and folklore in travels to West Africa, Europe, Asia, Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, and many spots in the US. In 2020, she visited South Africa to entertain preschoolers in Soweto and at a women’s shelter in Cape Town.

Membership in organizations including Steeped in Stories, National Storytelling Network (NSN), National Association of Black Storytellers (NABS), New Jersey Storytelling Guild, and NJ Storynet has nurtured her love of story and led her to libraries, festivals, book fairs, and schools.

Among her most recent engagements are the East Orange Kwanzaa Festival, the Montclair performance of Christmas in King Arthur’s Court, and Tellebration at the Princeton Public Library.

Please register at www.theoceancountylibrary.org/events to attend either of these free programs. For more information, call the Point Pleasant Borough or Barnegat branches, or the Toms River Branch, (732) 349-6200.

Keep up with Library programs and events at www.theoceancountylibrary.org, and on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Spotify, and Pinterest.

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