Historic Elsah Foundation Talk: “The Stories That Shape Us”

ELSAH - The Historic Elsah Foundation Talks continue with author, artist, and storyteller, Janet Riehl, coming to Farley Music Hall this April.

"We listen with interest and amusement when our parents tell us stories about our grandparents, and also when grandparents inform us of great grandparents. These intergenerational accounts—some yarns, some legends—create our personal histories; they confirm who we are."

Janet Grace Riehl is heir to over 150 years of tales that the Riehl-Thompsons have swapped. These stories have shaped six generations of working and living atop the bluffs above the Mississippi in Jersey County.

In “The Stories that Shape Us,” (to be presented April 28, 2022, at 7:30 p.m., at Farley Music Hall, Elsah, Illinois) Janet will tell about the power of stories and how her family’s narrative is woven into the life of our community.

Janet is a country girl who roamed the world and then followed her heart back home to Riverbend. She is the great-granddaughter of E. A. Riehl who founded the family home place—Evergreen Heights—in the 1860s, where she lives today. She is an award-winning author of “Sightlines: A Poet’s Diary,” and the companion audio book “Sightlines: A Family Love Story in Poetry and Music.” Her artwork has been shown internationally.

This program is one of this year’s Hosmer-Williams Lectures sponsored by Historic Elsah Foundation and underwritten by Liberty Bank: A United Community Bank.

This program is free and open to the public. Attendance may be in-person or virtually. Please register your attendance preference at Historic Elsah Foundation’s website, historicelsah.org, by April 27. Parking is available.

For additional information, contact George Provenzano, at gprovenzano@lc.edu.

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