About: Dianewilliams7
Full Name
Diane Williams
Website
Details
Diane Williams is a storyweaver, keeper of treasured tales, collector of phrases, and a griot. As a griot, she shares stories from books, history, myths, legends, and folktales. Many of her stories are original. Diane Williams has traveled to Africa, Germany, Hawaii, and throughout the United States to tell stories, and she has visited such far away places as Switzerland, Belgium, France, England, and Canada. • In 1999, Diane Williams was a finalist in the National Storytelling Awards Contest. In 2002, she received a storytelling research grant from the National Storytelling Network. That same year, she received the National Storytelling Network's Oracle Award for Regional Leadership and Service. • Diane Williams founded the Mississippi Storyweavers Guild in 1994. She is a member of the National Association of Black Storytellers, the Network of Biblical Storytellers, and the Poplarville Storytelling Guild. She was board chair for the National Storytelling Network in 2005. • Diane's poetry has been published in a poetry book entitled Seasons to come. Her name and biography appears in a book entitled, Storytellers -- A Biographical Sketch of 120 English Speaking Tellers from around the World. Her story, The Gift, was published in "Today in Mississippi.” Diane Williams book, Annie Mae Jumps the Broom, can be ordered from this website. She has two audiocassettes: Mississippi Storytelling - A Heap of Comfort, and Rabbits, Raccoons, Frogs and More. Her newest release is The Storytelling Classroom – Applications Across the Curriculum with co-authors Sherry Norfolk and Jane Stenson and many wonderful contributors. • Diane Williams has appeared on Conversations with Gene Edwards on ETV, Channel 29. She has been a featured teller for the National Association of Black Storytellers; Bok Tower Gardens in Lake Wales, Florida; the Lake Charles, Louisiana Storytelling Festival; Strawberry Storytelling Festival at Southeastern Louisiana University; Montgomery CityFest, AL; Mountain Echoes Festival UNC-Asheville, NC; African American Heritage Festival, Pensacola, FL; JubileeJam, Jackson, MS; the Blue Bluff Festival, Aberdeen, MS; Dumpling Days Festival in Decatur, AL, Juke Joint Festival, Clarksdale. She was featured at the Young Author's Day in Worms, Germany. Diane has performed at over 20 schools throughout Germany for DODDS (Department of Defense Dependent Schools). She has performed storytelling with the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra, and in schools, libraries, festivals, churches, organizations, museums, radio, TV, throughout the U.S. • Diane Williams is currently the Arts Industry director for the Mississippi Arts Commission.
