The eighth annual Garner Storytelling Festival will be Saturday, Mar. 12 at North Garner Middle School (720 Powell Drive, Garner). The free storytelling festival (at 1 p.m.) for the entire family is presented by the 11 GEF schools in collaboration with the Garner Educational Foundation and the Wake County Public Library—Southeast Regional Branch. The primary sponsor for the event is McDonalds, with additional sponsorship by the Wake County School System, the Town of Garner, The Garner Citizen, Chick-fil-A, and Barnes & Noble of Cary. The featured storyteller for the 2011 Festival will be Poetry Alive! from Asheville, N.C. Poets from Poetry Alive! will be joined by storytellers Fred Motley, Rebecca Tighe and Erik Sugg. More than 80 students from the 11 Garner area schools will be featured as storytellers and poets alongside these professionals. Further information on the festival and the free, registration-required morning educator workshop (at 8:15 a.m.) by Poetry Alive! is posted on www.garnernc.gov/GEF/storytellingfestival.htm and is available at each of the Garner schools and the Southeast Regional public library (662-2263). WCPSS personnel are to register on eSchools for either half-day (SRN 111071402) or full day (SRN 111071401).

As part of the Annual Garner Storytelling Festival this year, there will be two community events scheduled at the Southeast Regional Library in Garner, N.C. On Thursday night, Mar. 10, storyteller Fred Motley will entertain and involve attendees in well-known stories. The event will begin at 7 p.m. in the Southeast Regional Library multipurpose room. On Friday afternoon, Mar. 11, the performance poetry group from Asheville, N.C., Poetry Alive!, will turn poetry into a performance both delighting the audience and then involving those present as part of the poem. The Friday event will begin at 4 p.m. in the Southeast Regional Library multipurpose room. Sign-up sheets are available at the library or those interested are asked to call 919-662-2263.