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Americana Music Festival Favorite “The Jakob’s Ferry Stragglers” at Stifel

WHEELING, W.Va. (February 23, 2016)- Mountain Moon Coffeehouse returns to Wheeling, bringing some of the best bluegrass and Americana music the region has to offer. The venue will once again be Oglebay Institute’s Stifel Fine Arts Center, located at 1330 National Road, Wheeling. The next show takes place at 7 p.m. Saturday, March 5 and features The Jakob’s Ferry Stragglers with Justin Rector opening in support.

The Jakob’s Ferry Stragglers draw freely from old-time, bluegrass, country, jazz, rockabilly and swing styles to create their tight, high-energy string band music. Well-crafted original songs with emotional depth, masterful picking and resonant vocal harmonies combine to forge new territories and a fresh take on Appalachian Americana music.

Band members Gary Antol, Libby Eddy, Mitch Hall and Ed Croft hail from the mountains and river towns of southwestern Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio.

Well known in the Americana music circuit throughout the mid-Atlantic region, The Jakob’s Ferry Stragglers are big crowd-pleasers at The Great Blue Heron, The Three Rivers Arts Festival, Flood City Music Festival, Whiskey Rebellion Festival, Hickory Fest, Smoked Country Jam and others.  The band recently showcased their unique and innovative style of Appalachian roots music on a national tour, winning over new fans from Colorado to California, Arizona to Oklahoma. Their recording of “Mannington #9,” a searing tale of lives lost in a mining disaster written by West Virginia native Keith McManus, was included in Relix Magazine’s 2015 Summer CD Sampler.

The Jakob’s Ferry Stragglers have opened for The Steeldrivers, The Carolina Chocolate Drops, The Black Lillies, Town Mountain, David Davis and The Warrior River Boys, Larry Keel, The Felice Brothers, Mike Compton, Drymill Road, The Rumpke Mountain Boys, The Hillbilly Gypsies and Frank Solivan and The Dirty Kitchen.

Opening for The Jakob’s Ferry Stragglers is local musician Justin Rector, member of Zane Run and New American Groove.

Doors open at 7:00pm with music beginning at 7:30. Admission is $15/$12.50 (OI Members) and includes non-alcoholic beverages and light snacks. Beer and wine will be available for purchase. Tickets are available by calling (304) 242-6855 or visiting www.oionline.com.

Other upcoming Mountain Moon performances include: Herb & Hanson April 2 and Marsh Wheeling String Band May 7.

Shakespeare’s First Folio: Teacher Workshops at OI

WHEELING, W.Va. (February 22, 2016)- – Oglebay Institute invites schoolteachers and aspiring teachers from the tri-state area to attend free professional development workshops that explore various ways to engage students in the study of Shakespeare.

Prepared by the Folger Shakespeare Library, the workshop titled The First Folio Teaches Teachers: Shakespeare’s Text Demystified gives teachers a better understanding of what the First Folio is and why it is important to the study of Shakespeare’s plays. The first half of the workshop focuses on the Folio itself with hands on activities that can be taken into classrooms. The second half delves into the language of William Shakespeare using the text from the First Folio and introduces teachers to interactive techniques designed to connect all types of students with Shakespeare’s language.

Two-hour and four hour sessions are available March 5 and March 19 at Oglebay Institute’s Mansion Museum.
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The curriculum is designed by Folger Education and has been tested with all kinds of teachers who teach all kinds of students in all kinds of schools across the country. Dr. Robert Harrison, West Virginia Reading Association immediate past president, and District 1 director Mary Kay Wensyel will instruct the workshops.

Harrison is a retired West Virginia educator with 46 years of service to the education profession. He participated in the Teaching Shakespeare Institute, sponsored by the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington DC and the National Endowment for the Humanities. His doctoral dissertation was titled “The Recurring Author: William Shakespeare-A Case Study through Content Analysis.” His study systematically described Shakespeare units in public school textbooks, and he presented his findings at an International Reading Research Symposium.

These professional development opportunities are offered in preparation for the Folger’s nationally touring exhibit First Folio! The Book that Gave Us Shakespeare, which will be on display at Oglebay Institute’s Mansion Museum May 9-June 12.

This special Folger exhibition is sending a First Folio—the first collection of Shakespeare’s plays, printed in 1623—to all 50 states, Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico. Oglebay Institute was selected as the First Folio! host site for West Virginia and is the only venue in the Mountain State to display this rare book and exhibit.  A wide range of public humanities programs to complement the exhibit will also take place.

Professional development workshops are free. Advance registration is required. A box lunch is available for a $10. For more information and to register, visit www.oionline.com or call Oglebay Institute at 304-242-7272.