Brighten a winter night by experiencing a powerful, dynamic one-woman tour de force when”Ilene Evans, the Storyteller,”comes to WVU Jackson’s Mill for a Wednesday, Feb. 7, performance in the West Virginia Building. The free public event begins at 7 p.m. and is sponsored by WVU Elderhostel.

Evans is a storyteller whose African, Celtic and Native American heritage enrich her stories, poems and music, according to organizers. She sings, speaks and dances through performances that crisscross and bridge cultures. Her approach has been called”embracingweaving together that which has been torn apart and rejoining it through imagination, setting the heart dreaming and the mind working to rebuild a common ground.”

She has been telling her stories for 25 yearsfirst in the Chicago area and now in West Virginia. Making a conscious choice to settle with her family in an area that allows her to face east toward her heritage and west to the ageless mountains, Evans has been able to maintain a cultural integrity, a crossroads in which she has settled and nurtured deep and lasting roots. Her new homeplace at the headwaters of the Potomac on the West Virginia/Maryland border, has provided a wealthy and continuing source for her work. Her storytelling has emerged from the mountains and mingles the pathos, joy and humanity of this joining of cultures.

A featured artist at the Voices in the Mountains, West Virginia Storytelling Festival, Evans captivated audiences young and young at heart.

For more information on this and future Mill events, call Franny Mams at 1-800-287-8206.