Storyteller and puppeteer Don Kirk will enthrall audiences of all ages in Stories and Puppets to Grow By at 6 p.m. Wednesday, July 6, in the Main Gallery of the Cortez Cultural Center, 25 N. Market St.
Kirk and his puppets have performed across the continental United States, including performances at the Cortez Public Library. Kirk works in a ventriloquial style to present stories with morals, including The Empty Pot, of Asian origin, and Lisa Roses Bicycle, an original story. Kirk has dozens of puppets for whom he is the prop, and whose personalities range from cooperative to stubborn. The charge for Stories and Puppets to Grow By is $5 for Cortez Cultural Center members and $7 for nonmembers; children younger than 12 get in free.
Kirk, a storyteller since the late 1960s, says that he loves teaching kids and adults, and that his stories evolve, and are never told the same way twice. Rather than telling the stories from memory, he tells them from the heart. In addition to his talents as a storyteller, Kirk is also a poet and photographer; his black-and-white photography exhibit Healing Hands will be displayed at the Spruce Tree Coffeehouse in September.
For more information, call the Cortez Cultural Center at 565-1151 or visit www.cortezculturalcenter.org.