The Bedford Council on Aging will celebrate harvest time, Halloween, and the diverse cultural heritage of the New England Region by presenting a performance by Parents’ Choice Award winning performer Davis Bates. Entitled Halloween Harvest, the program includes harvest stories and songs from the past and present, songs of the supernatural, Native American stories, ghost stories and family tales. There will also be plenty of sing-alongs, a short lesson in how to play music with spoons from a kitchen drawer and an appearance by a dancing wooden dog named Bingo.

Pete Seeger has called Davis “thoughtful, creative, human, and a fantastic storyteller.” Davis’s traditional and participatory style of telling empowers and encourages audiences of all ages to join in the fun, and to take the stories home with them to share with others. He also encourages listeners to remember and tell stories from their own family and cultural traditions.

Davis Bates has been telling stories for over forty years, in schools, libraries, colleges and community settings around New England and across the country. His recording of Family Stories won a Parent’s Choice Gold Award and was named one of the year’s best Audio Recordings by Booklist Magazine. Davis has also served as director and consultant for several local and regional oral history and folk arts projects. Davis lives in the village of Shelburne Falls, MA, and when he isn’t collecting or learning stories, he spends his time working with the Hampshire College Alumni Advisory Group and gardening on the Hampshire campus and at home, planting to encourage pollinator species.

The performance will take place at the Bedford Senior Center starting at 1:00 pm on Tuesday, October 25^th. Be sure not to miss this wonderful program of traditional interactive seasonal entertainment. For more information please call (781) 275-6825. This performance funded, in part, by a grant from the Bedford Cultural Council, a local agency supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council.