Story time

Anyone who has heard one of comedian Bill Cosby's monologues -- perhaps at his performance a few years ago at the Show Me Center in Cape Girardeau -- has heard a master storyteller. Anyone who has heard Aunt Emma tell -- again -- about the time when she was a girl and the family was swept away while fording a rain-swollen creek in a haywagon, floating into a neighbor's muddy alfalfa field, has heard a master storyteller.

Four national storytellers and five storytellers from the Midwest will weave their tales today through Sunday during the first-ever Cape Girardeau Storytelling Festival. The storytellers will engage audiences at three tents set up in the downtown area beginning at 9 a.m. today. and at 10 a.m. Saturday and Sunday plus evening performances at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday at the tent on the River Campus.

The event is modeled after the National Storytelling Festival in Tennessee, which has generated quite a following. Those who have heard some of the storytellers are eager to come back for more.

While in Cape Girardeau for the festival, visitors might want to visit some other downtown attractions that will be open, including the Glenn House, Old St. Vincent's Church and art galleries.