Ilene Evans in Concert
November 2003

Ilene Evans weaves a tapestry of stories, songs and poems into a rapturous evening concert at the Ice House on Thursday, November 13 at 7:30pm($4 Members, $5 Non-Members, $3 Students). Evans is accompanied in her performance by poet Greg Smith. The storytelling concert is produced by the Morgan Arts Council.

As a dramatist, dancer and musician, Evans uses her rich voice, graceful body and expressive face to sweep the audience into strange and wonderful places, drawing lessons from harrowing tales of survival and challenge.

Evans serves up her material from a rich multi-cultural stew that includes fables, fairy tales and songs from Russia, Spain and Ireland; brer tales from slave times, mountain stories and poems she dubs Afrolachian and healing wisdom from Africa; and native legends from the Inuit peoples of the Arctic. "My favorite tales come from all over the world," said Evans. "I like to find out how other people think and live and what pathways they find through their troubles. Stories connect us to our personal and cultural past." Her own Celtic, African and Native American blood lines serve Evans well in building cultural bridges through her art.

Evans has been telling her stories through dance, music and the spoken-word for more than 25 years from the heart of West Virginia and streets of Chicago to Scottish festivals. She holds degrees from Trinity College and the University of Wisconsin and has studied under a wide range of dancers and actors. She portrays slave heroine Harriet Tubman in the History Alive! series and has worked with countless children in schools, camps and special workshops. Evans lives in Tucker County, West Virginia. This is her third visit to Morgan County. Ilene Evans in concert is the publlic aspect of the Morgan Arts Council's noted Adopt-a-School program which has presented more than 850 artists in all nine Morgan County schools since 1978. Ice House concerts and the Adopt-a-School program are supported by the West Virginia Commission on the Arts, local hotel/motel tax funds, the Morgan County School Board and local donors. For more information, call 304-258-2300.