10-12-09

WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. – The Lycoming College Women’s and Gender Studies Program will present storyteller Fiona Siobhan Powell in a program titled “Spinning Tales: Folklore as Real Women’s History,” Oct. 14 at 5:30 p.m. in the Lycoming College Archives, located in the lower level of the Academic Center. The program is free and open to the public.

Powell, whose ancestors were from Wales, specializes in the folklore and stories of her people, as well as the history and stories of Welsh immigration into Pennsylvania. During the program, she will recount some of her favorite stories that capture the world of Welsh women and their work.

Powell spent her childhood wandering around Europe when she wasn’t ensconced in a very proper school in England, learning Latin, history and how to speak like the announcers on the BBC. Her ancestors were from Brecon, and it was to Wales that she returned in her early teens. After attending an agricultural college, Powell worked as a shepherd before moving to the United States in 1988 with her four children. She accidentally fell into storytelling and turned her lifelong passion for Celtic folklore into a career. She has researched the lives of the great, such as Joseph Parry, and also those unsung heroes—coal miners and ironworkers—and countless women who lived their lives in obscurity.

Powell is an artist with the Pennsylvania Council of the Arts. Specializing in early childhood education, she takes her stories to schools and Head Start programs. Powell also works for WVIA radio as a producer and on-air host. She returns to her native Wales almost every year to continue her studies in folklore and history.

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