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What Other People
Have Said . . .
"Michael Parent
is a unique blend of consummate professional, yet wonderfully
approachable artist. Audiences of all ages loved him, as was evidenced
by the standing ovation! Distractions fall away as Michael
lures listeners into his tales and heart. Pure joy was the outcome of
Michael's visit to our festival."
-- Teresa Clark, Director, Snake River
Storytelling Festival in Idaho
"[He] was almost a festival in himself. He
played, sang in French and English, and juggled balls, rods, and
what-nots as he simultaneously told the story of a down-and-out
juggler. A magnificent voice, an inexhaustible fund of stories, wit,
charm, a gift of mimicry..."
-- Layna Verin, U.C. Berkeley Daily Californian “Although Michael Parent is
alone on stage, the characters he creates through his stories fill the
room.”
-- Kristin
Langellier, University of Maine, author of “Storytelling
in Daily Life”
"The storyteller, in the fullness of his craft, has
struck, and the spell is on, as surely as it was when Homer conjured
up a fleet of ships on a wine-dark sea bound for the walls of
Troy."
-- Melvin Maddocks, TIME
Magazine
(To view the article, please click
here.)
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Michael, age
3 |
"The
storyteller of the underdog."
-- Ed Stivender
"Audience members regularly listed
you as one of the most enjoyable parts of the festival. You are a
treat to work with and a wonderful storyteller who can combine
humor, music, and thoughtfulness in the same story. "
-- Mary Morgan Smith, producer, Three Rivers
Storytelling Festival in Pittsburgh
"That was
a good story. I couldn't take my ears off it."
-- Gabriel, age 6
"Humor, reality,
imagination and wisdom all bumped up against each other in the form
of your sensational tale, 'The King of the Playground' and the
Ashland audience was enthralled."
-- Perii Owen, Ashland (Oregon) Library |
About Michael's
Book "Of Kings and
Fools"
"For many years, as a member of a minority group in a larger
Anglo-American culture, I felt as though Franco-Americans had somehow
crawled out from under a rock … without any past, any history, or any
larger traditions from France and the rest of Europe … Of
Kings and Fools is a most welcome reminder that Franco-Americans do
indeed have a history beyond Maine and North America." --
Laurie Meunier-Graves, Wolf Moon Journal [link here to read more about the
book]
About Michael's
Bilingual
Programs
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"He brings to his
audiences a unique blend of storytelling and song, in both
English and French. His French-Canadian heritage, bilingual
upbringing and creative abilities enable him to bring to life
a facet of North American culture that has been all but lost
to many first and second generation
Franco-Americans."
-- Martha Pellerin-Drury
"As I watched the audience, consisting
largely of the descendants of French-Canadian immigrants,
respond to Michael's program, I felt that I was witnessing a
true folk art. He created characters they knew, sang songs
they could remember and gave new life to traditional forms of
entertainment."
-- Madge Manfred, Mohegan
College, Norwich, Ct. |
Stephanie Fournier,
Michael's Grandmaman
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