Cathy Barton
Dave Para &
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Gladys Coggswell
Steve Gillette &
Cindy Mangsen
Paul & Win
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Violet Hensley
John McCutcheon
Comer Mullins
Peterson’s Original Ragtime Band
Volo Bogtrotters
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Big Muddy Folk Festival, Boonville, Missouri, April 7-8, 2000
A Storied Performance
Gladys Coggswell
Raised by her great-grandmother in New Jersey, master storyteller Gladys Coggswell moved to Missouri in 1974 and began researching and collecting oral narratives from the state's African American communities. Since then she has traveled nationally and internationally as a storyteller, a role she inherited from her grandmother. In Missouri, she says, she found a culture that made her want to know more about her own family as well as others, especially African American families. She discovered with surprise that traditions she assumed were unique to her family were just as prevalent in rural Missouri. Gladys has also incorporated some songs in her sessions to elicit audience participation; these include old gospel songs as well as a ditty or two of her own that are now audience favorites.
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