Storytelling for Children, a one-day festival celebrating oral traditions, gateways to literacy, universal human expression, and new tales to tell. Hosted at the MOST and led by Congregation Beth Sholom-Chevra Shas, this event will showcase storytellers of multiple cultural traditions, and a live-taping and video recording of a new Grimm Fairy tale led by master storyteller and popular children’s podcast host of Grim, Grimmer, Grimmest, Adam Gidwitz. Adam Gidwitz is a Jewish author and storyteller who has a modern take on retelling classic fairy tales. This includes the removal of anti-semitic tropes. He is also the author of a book about a young Jewish boy named Max in 1940’s London who is accompanied by kobold and a dybbuk. Bringing Gidwitz to Syracuse and creating a storytelling festival around his work displays the very best of the evolving cultural framework of fairy tales and folk lore. He upholds the universality of oral storytelling for children of all cultural and ethnic backgrounds, and is inspired by the use of storytelling to propel literacy. Adam will be joined at this event by 4-6 other storytellers and artists; Jewish maggids, African folk storyists, refugees, and illustrators. These professionals will be joined by volunteers who will host art activity stations at the MOST throughout the day.

Adult and children’s tickets will be sold to be part of the live audience retelling of a classic Grimm Brothers Fairytale. VIP tickets will be available to a select 26 participants for an author meet & greet before the live taping. WCNY will be engaged to produce the podcast segment and create a video segment on the storytelling itself. The author agrees to allow free licensing usage of the podcast episode for all sponsors to use in their literacy, education, and media roles.