Meet three of Kansas City's most beloved storytellers and puppeteers!
Jo Ho the Storyteller
Without hopping on a plane or boat, children can travel to places far from home and distant in time, thanks to Kansas City’s beloved storyteller, Jo Ho.
You can find Jo at the library, local schools or museums. With fun hats and simple props she encourages children to act out characters, create sounds and imitate animals. Jo has developed more than 100 thematic programs in over 20 years.
“Although I’ve lived many places, there is something special about the Midwest. The people are friendly, it is family-oriented and you build relationships with community and neighbors,” she says. “Dorothy was right, ‘There’s no place like home.’”
Nancy Clark: Puppetry Arts Institute
Once upon a time, a 7-year-old girl named Nancy received a very special Christmas gift: a Hazelle marionette puppet named Dwarf. She loved puppets and grew up dreaming of becoming a full-time puppeteer. Throughout her life, Nancy has used puppets as a tool in children’s speech pathology and now is executive director at the Puppetry Arts Institute
The PAI is a charming museum in Independence featuring puppets from around the world and from America’s first puppet factory, Hazelle, established in Kansas City during the Great Depression. The Institute now owns the remainder of the factory collection and its molds.
In a world where children grow up “plugged in,” Nancy enjoys taking children on an imaginative journey with the simplicity of puppets.
For $5 each, visitors can attend a workshop and paint molded Hazelle, Inc., puppets, attach bodies and perform a show on a professional puppet stage. PAI also hosts monthly puppet shows ($5) and museum tours ($3/adults, $1.50/children under 16).
Anitra Steele: Children’s Services Manager, Mid-Continent Public Libraries
Kansas City is rich with wonderful libraries, among them the Mid-Continent Public Libraries where Anitra Steele is behind the success of the children’s programs. It’s been 34 years since Anitra was hired as the first children’s services manager in the library system, and she still holds the job!
Her interest in libraries began on a high school tour of the Library of Congress. She studied library science in college and graduated in 1972 from the University of Oklahoma with a Master’s, back when libraries used actual card catalogs. She took her first library job at the Livingston County Library in Chillicothe.
Anitra organizes and leads the children’s programs at 29 branches across the metro, including 106 weekly story times, Discovery Clubs for school age children, puppet shows and family programs at each branch.
“I have the best job in the library,” Anitra says. “I get a lot of thanks and knee hugs. No one knee hugs the Reference Librarian.”