Priscilla Best, known as the Heart to Heart Storyteller, will present a free performance at 7 p.m. Thursday in the auditorium of Edgecombe Community College’s Rocky Mount campus.

Her program on “Stories for Family, Friends, Community” will include stories for all ages. The public is invited to attend.

“Storytelling allows the sharing of messages without the element of preaching,” Best said. “It creates a bond between the teller, the story, and the audience. Story listening can be a life-changing experience.”

The public performance will cap Best’s visit to Edgecombe Community College and Bulluck Elementary School to share contemporary stories and folktales of African Americans and other cultures.

She will discuss the art of storytelling with ECC students in Drama 126 - Storytelling. She also will talk about the oral tradition with ECC students in Humanities 120 - Cultural Studies. She also will perform Thursday for K-3 students at Bulluck Elementary School.

A native of Wayne County, Best worked for more than 30 years as a teacher and library media coordinator, retiring in 2001. She uses her training and educational experiences to produce storytelling programs that are both enriching and entertaining.

“I thought I was going to be bored. I was wrong. You were great,” a sixth-grader said at a recent storytelling performance by Best. A first grade teacher also noted “Amazing how you managed to keep more than 200 first graders quiet and focused after lunch.”

She has performed at the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, SC; the East Carolina Youth Arts Festival; and the North Carolina Storytelling Guild. In 2011, she received the N.C. Arts Council’s Regional Arts Grant. She also has received the Competency Toastmasters Award.

Best said her public performance Thursday evening will “have stories for school-age children, adults, and senior adults. Stories from various cultures will be shared through fables, chants, contemporary stories, participatory stories, and call and response from the African tradition.”

“The focus of the program will be on creating unity and having fun,” she said.

Best’s visit to Edgecombe County is made possible through generous financial support from RBC Bank, the ECC Foundation and the Edgecombe County Cultural Arts Council with funds from the Grassroots Arts Program of the N.C. Arts Council, a state agency.

For more information on Best’s performance, contact Johanna Owens at 823-5166, ext. 178, or owensj@edgecombe.edu.