Mary Edwards

For the 34th year, the University of Missouri – St. Louis School of Professional and Continuing Studies presents a four-day festival highlighting the art of storytelling.  From May 1 – 4, six featured storytellers from across the nation join fifty storytellers from the St. Louis region to present more than one hundred events  in a host of locations including the Gateway Arch, the Missouri History Museum and numerous libraries, parks and bookstores in St. Louis and St. Charles Counties.

In the late 1990’s Eastman School of Music students Gavin Chuck and Alan Pierson saw the need for a top notch ensemble to perform their compositions and other contemporary music.  They set to work and formed the student ensemble Ossia.  One of their more notable concerts was one in 1999 that featured music by Steve Reich which the composer attended. After the concert, Reich expressed to the group his desire for an American new music ensemble that would be equivalent to England’s London Sinfonietta or Germany’s Ensemble Modern.

A few years ago a St. Louis non-profit organization, Beloved Streets of America, conducted a study about streets throughout the country which bear the name of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The study found the majority of MLK streets are unsafe and crime-ridden.  Many are “located in distressed neighborhoods, considered areas where predominately poor blacks live, and viewed as places where whites and non-blacks seldom travel,” according to the organization.