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For those who would like to download Toni's biography document and images, please use the following "Download" links.
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Toni Simmons, author and storyteller, graduated from Fisk University, where she majored in speech and drama. After receiving a Master��s degree in Library Science, she began working as a children��s librarian combing her knowledge of children��s literature and creative drama in storytelling sessions. She continued this activity while working for public libraries in Miami, Des Moines, and Minneapolis. Now a professional storyteller, she brings to the stories, new life with the use of rhythms, songs, and audience participation, which places them in the story. Her work appeals to audiences of all ages, young and old, and includes a wide variety of literature from different cultures.
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Toni has conducted storytelling, creative dramatic and movement workshops in schools, community centers, churches, and parks and has worked with teachers helping them to incorporate the arts into their curricula. Toni also served as a Storyteller in Residence for the Ouachita Parish and Monroe City Schools in Northeast Louisiana.
She has been featured at the Corn Island Storytelling Festival in Kentucky; the National Black Storytelling Festival, the Strawberry Storytelling Festival in Hammond, LA; the Border Book Festival in Las Cruces, NM; the Haunting in the Hills Storytelling Festival, Knoxville, TN; the Signifying and Testifying Storytelling Festival in Minneapolis, MN; the Miami Book Fair International (Fl) and the American Library Association Convention in New Orleans ,LA.
While living in Dallas, she taught drama at The Hockaday School. She is a Texas Commission on the Arts Touring Artist. She has been featured on Good Morning Texas, at the Texas Library Association Convention, Texas Storytelling Festival and at the Exchange Place of the International Storytelling Festival. Her talents have reached audiences in schools and libraries from Germany to South Africa and the Bahamas.
The Cheese Chase: Why Dogs Chase Cats, an I-Parenting Media Award winner, is Toni��s first book and a new book is due in 2009 by August House Publishers. Her video recording, Stories Alive: African and African-American Folktales won the Parents�� Choice and Parent Council Awards. |
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