Ottawa StoryTellers presents Stories to the Sound of the Drum, with Robert Seven Crows

At the NAC’s 4th STAGE (53 Elgin Street) on Thursday, January 16, 7:30 p.m., doors open at 7:00 Ages 12 and up Tickets: $20, $17 for seniors, Live Rush available, subscription available Singer/songwriter, musician, and award winning First Nations storyteller, Robert Seven Crows invites you on a métissage of contemporary and historic Native American stories. Join him on his journey into a powerful and important world. He says, “It is essential that we do not lose the sacred stories because they are the only freedom we have left”. Experience the Loon Woman, the beaver that lives in Montreal, Moshquashis, the moose with the orange head, the trail of tears, and laughter on the trap line. Robert Seven-Crows will accompany his tales with the guitar, hand drum, guiguamakuan, and traditional songs. For more information, contact: Caitlyn Paxson, Managing Artistic Director mad@ottawastorytellers.ca, 613-322-8336, www.ottawastorytellers.caPerformer Robert Seven-Crows, a mixed blood storyteller of the Métis/Mi’kmag people, was born in Lachine, Québec, “the departure site”, he notes, “of the great Voyageur canoes”. He is a gifted musician, having been a musical director of a sixty voice choir at age 17, the same age he made his first recording. In addition to traditional music, Robert loves Motown and the blues. For many years he has been travelling throughout the world as a singer, songwriter, performer and storyteller. His words and music have taken him through Europe, the Middle East, Australia, French Guyana, Brazil, the USA, and Canada. Robert has also given storytelling workshops in many countries in French and in English. In his words: “I seem to have been playing music for ever. When I was young in Gaspé, my uncles used to empty the big room and put all the furniture out on the gallery to make place for the dancers. The violins and the guitars would come out of their hiding places and the party began. When I was eight years old they invited me to play ‘'Walk the line'' by Johnny Cash. For me it was the start, I wanted to play like them. In winter, with the mouth organ cupped in his hands, my grand-father told stories sitting in his rocking chair by the wood stove. I wanted to make people travel like he did. Today my music is a ‘métissage', a mix of my Métis/Mi'kmag roots, country, old school R&B, and swamp from the southern States. I like to call my music ‘swamp folk'! The stories that I carry are also a mix. They are traditional stories of my nation and contemporary stories that touch the values that I hold so dearly.” Robert is an elder and a traditional resource person for First Nations men in the Canadian and Québec prison systems and has worked with youth in social reinsertion. He is a member of the Kumik Council of Elders, an organization that advises and guides Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada. Currently, he lives in the Laurentian Mountains on the shores of the Lièvre River in north-west Québec. WEBSITE and hi-res publicity photos: http://robertsevencrows.com Patrick Holloway Coordinator, Publicity and Marketing Ottawa StoryTellers 179 Murray Street, Ottawa ON K1N 5M7 Office: 613-322-8336 Home: 613-731-1047 Cell: 613-296-1030 PR@ottawastorytellers.ca or patrick.holloway@sympatico.ca