2019 Noche de Cuentos Mini-Grants Winners
Council Bluffs Public Library
With the grant provided by REFORMA, the Council Bluffs Public Library hosted Linda Garcia-Perez, a local Chicana artist and storyteller, for a program that exhibited Mexican/Latino folk and indigenous arts and traditional culture. The program Cuento artístico de mi cultura was comprised of two components. For the first portion, Linda Garcia-Perez performed an oral story time. Following the oral storytelling, Garcia-Perez led an art activity, where participants made papel picado banderitas.
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Denver Public Library, Rodolfo "Corky" Gonzales Branch
Museo de las Americas joined us to present a workshop on Carmen Lomas Garza’s storytelling in Family Pictures/Cuadros de Familia. After learning about her narrative style, participants created watercolor paintings illustrating one of their personal stories. Noche de Cuentos: Illustrating Your Story brought together library customers of all ages, offering a welcoming space in which they could reflect on past experiences and share them with each other.
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Fresno County Public Library, Bette Rodriguez Branch
A packed house. The program brought together all ages and a diverse community for a bilingual storytime led by Aideed Medina from Reforma and James Tyner, our cluster's Adult Services Librarian. There was a craft and coloring sheets and snacks and community. A success all around.
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Garfield County Libraries, Glenwood Springs Branch
Noches de Cuentos was one of the most amazing programs we have had at the Glenwood Springs Branch Library period, not just the Spanish language programs we've held. Over 75 individuals came to hear the powerful life stories of their neighbors, meet with their community, and, if they were kids, enjoy a pajama party.
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Los Angeles Public Library
The first-ever Los Angeles Libros Festival was a celebration of youth literature and bilingualism in Los Angeles. It featured local and international authors and storytellers, musical performances, workshops, a Spanish/bilingual book fair, and many other activities for families. The theme was "oral traditions". The festival closed with a special Noche de Cuentos featuring Julio Serrano from Guatemala, Yesika Salgado from El Salvador/USA, and Honorio Robledo from Mexico.
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Metropolitan Library System, Capitol Hill Library
Noche de Cuentos: Storytelling with Xavier Garza and Mariana Llanos was a two-part author series celebrating storytelling for Hispanic Heritage Month held at Capitol Hill Library in south Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
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Siouxland Libraries, Oak View Branch
17 people (seven children and ten adults) attended Journey through Memories/Viaje a través de los recuerdos. Presenters created a book with stories from their country. They shared their stories on how they or their families came to be in Sioux Falls, SD. We successfully made community connections, and the presenters appreciated being asked to share their stories. One family in attendance checked out Spanish Language items because of this program. They did not know about that the library had Spanish Language materials prior to attending.
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St. Helena Public Library
St. Helena Public Library was not able to proceed with planning of the program and declined the award.
2019 Noche de Cuentos Mini-Grants Program Selection Committee
- Ana-Elba Pavon, Branch Manager, Oakland Public Library - Elmhurst Branch, REFORMA President 2005-06
- Esmeralda Majors, Librarian, Creighton Elementary, Conroe Independent School District
- Lettycia Terrones, MLIS, PhD Student, School of Information Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- Lucia M. Gonzalez, Library Director, North Miami Public Library, REFORMA President 2010-11, Noche de Cuentos Founder
- Maria F. Estrella, Chair of REFORMA’s Children’s and Young Adult Services Committee (CAYASC), Cleveland Public Library
- Sandra Rios Balderrama, REFORMA President 1997-98, Pura Belpré Award Co-Founder
- Sylmarí Burgos Ramírez, Librarian, Denver Public Library, PhD Student at Simmons University
2019 Noche de Cuentos Mini-Grants Program Sponsors
- ALA Past-President Loida Garía Febo
- Cinco Books
2019 Noche de Cuentos Mini-Grants Winning Submisions
Council Bluffs Public Library: Artistic Story of my Culture with Linda Garcia-Perez / Cuento artístico de mi cultura con Linda Garcia-Perez
We will host Linda Garcia-Perez, a Mexican-American Chicana artist and storyteller. Sra. Garcia-Perez focuses on Mexican/Latino folk and indigenous arts and traditional culture. Her program for the library will consist of two components, a storytelling component and an art education component. First, Sra. Garcia-Perez will perform a bilingual story time.Her method of storytelling incorporates the Spanish language and traditional folktales in such a way that one neither needs to fully understand Spanish or English to participate and enjoy the activity. The bilingual storytime will be followed by an art project. Integrating traditional Mexican folk art methodology with basic art instruction, Sra. Garcia-Perez will lead participants in the creation of papel picado banderitas.
Denver Public Library, Rodolfo "Corky" Gonzales Branch: Noche de Cuentos: Illustrating Your Story
With a focus on personal and family stories, participants will look at Carmen Lomas Garza’s storytelling in Family Pictures/Cuadros de Familia in a workshop led by Museo de las Américas. Everyone (children, teens, and adults) will create a watercolor painting based on a personal story they may share with the group if they wish. The goal of hosting this workshop at the Gonzales Library is to encourage participants to reflect on and share stories and memories of their personal upbringings, what makes their experiences unique, and what they share with others from different parts of the world.
Fresno County Public Library, Bette Rodriguez Branch: Noche de Cuentos y Calaveras
A night with families of storytelling, calaveras and mini paper altars. We will be hosting a calavera story time that will be connected to the tradition of altar making and writing calaveritas. We will also read aloud the story, I Remember Abuelito. We will be telling traditional calavera stories as well as describing the altar and everything it symbolizes. As part of an activity, families will be guided through writing their own calaveritas and making their own paper mini-alter.
Garfield County Libraries, Glenwood Springs Branch: Noches de Cuentos
The Garfield County Libraries will partner with individuals from Vision Latina program to present our first ever Noche de Cuentos at the Glenwood Springs Branch Library. Local bilingual storyteller Iliana Rentería will serve as a Master of Ceremonies, leading the Latinx/Hispanic community to share stories from their lives or their heritage. The MC will tell her own short stories and create an environment that welcomes the community. Children will play games, share stories, and create crafts in another part of the library so that adults can fully participate without worrying about their kids.
Los Angeles Public Library: Noche de Cuentos @ LA Libros Fest
The first-ever Los Angeles Libros Festival will be a celebration of youth literature and bilingualism in Los Angeles. It will feature local and international authors and storytellers, musical performances, workshops, a Spanish/bilingual book fair, and many other activities for families. This year's theme is "oral traditions". The festival will close with a special Noche de Cuentos featuring Julio Serrano from Guatemala, Yesika Salgado from El Salvador/USA, and Honorio Robledo from Mexico. This is the first time Los Angeles Public Library - and the city! - is hosting this type of event.
Metropolitan Library System, Capitol Hill Library: Storytelling with Xavier Garza
Widely acclaimed and award-winning author and storyteller Xavier Garza will present a storytelling program at Capitol Hill Library featuring traditional stories about La Llorona, El Cucuy and El Chupacabra. The program will be one piece of a two-part series of Noche de Cuentos programs planned for Capitol Hill Library which will also include local Peruvian author Mariana Llanos on another date. Xavier’s program will be aimed at families and children in our mostly Latino service area. The program is being planned collaboratively between Capitol Hill Library staff members and Metropolitan Library’s Education & Programming Department and coincides with Xavier’s appearance at the Oklahoma Book Festival on September 21.
Siouxland Libraries, Oak View Branch: Journey through Memories / Viaje a través de los recuerdos
We will have five people from Puerto Rico, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras speak. They will tell their personal stories about how they came to live in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Then, they will share a legend or traditional tale from their country. Before the event, we will create a book of these stories. Program attendees will then be able to take them home. The book will be written in both English and Spanish. We will have decorations featuring the five countries’ flags. We will provide free refreshments that are traditional to the featured countries; one of those refreshments will be common to all five countries to show that while they have different stories, they are still united.
St. Helena Public Library: Una Noche de Cuentos: A Latinx Heritage Month Celebration
Multiple latinx storytellers will read, re-enact books told from the immigrant, indigenous and/or latinx perspectives. Presenters will be members of our community, artists, performers and staff. We will make the stories come to life before the audience, whether by art or performance. The central theme would be based around works like Yuyi Morales' Dreamers/Soñadores or the Moon Within by Aida Salazar.
2019 Noche de Cuentos Mini-Grants Program
REFORMA will award 8 mini-grants of $300 to support a Noche de Cuentos program during Latino Heritage Month, September 15 - October 15, 2019.Eligibility Criteria
- Public libraries, academic libraries, school libraries, and community organizations in the United States including Puerto Rico are eligible to apply.
- The library or the person submitting the application must be a current member of REFORMA.
- The program must celebrate Latino culture. Proposed programs must focus on oral traditions and be storytelling based, with an emphasis on cultural literacy activities.
- Funds will be provided to pay for promotional materials, decorations, hired storyteller/performer, and other related expenses as specified in your proposal. Only 10% of monies can be spent on refreshments.
- The program must take place during Latino Heritage Month, Sep. 15 - Oct. 15, 2019.
- Winners must agree that publicity for their event will identify REFORMA as sponsor/partial sponsor. Winners agree to use the Noche de Cuentos program logo and flyer/poster templates provided by REFORMA.
- Winners must submit a final report by October 25, 2019.
- Winners must be willing to have their program featured on the REFORMA website, listserv, social media accounts, and Newsletter both in written and photographic detail.
- Applications must be received by 5:00 PM (PST) on July 19, 2019.
Application
Selection criteria will be based on:- Creativity of the program
- Level of community involvement
- Publicity
- Impact of the project
- Photos of the event to post on the website/newsletter
- Number of participants
- Ages of participants
- List and description of activities
- List of other pertinent information that you would like to share about your program
- June 19 - July 19, 2019 - Submit proposals
- July 19 - July 31 - Proposals will be reviewed
- August 1 - 9 - Winners will be announced and monies disbursed
- September 15 - October 15 - Libraries host Noche de Cuentos
- October 25 - Reports due to the REFORMA