Bygone St. John’s with Karen Carroll, Bernice & Jennifer Morgan

Wednesday, February 17
7:00 – 8:30 pm
Due to the recent spike in Covid-19 cases in St. John’s, this event will now be virtual!

Tune in to our YouTube channel to enjoy these fabulous tales! No need to register, just head over to YouTube at 7:00pm NST on Wednesday, Feb. 17

Join St. John’s Storytelling for a captivating view on Newfoundland life in the early 1900s. Recitationist Karen Carroll shines a light on the past of her through stories of her family in rural Newfoundland told with humour and heart. Celebrated local author Bernice Morgan is joined by her daughter Jennifer Morgan. They will share stories from their family heritage of growing up in the St. John’s of yesteryear, and Bernice will share readings from her recent memoir Seasons Before the War.

Karen Carroll was born and raised in Carbonear, on the north shore of Conception Bay. She enjoys writing and performing recitations and stories, usually in some kind of costume. She is a playwright, author and poet who prefers to focus on stories based on real events and and family history, but she has been known to create works of fiction. A retired Registered Nurse, Karen lives in Logy Bay with her husband.  She is a proud and fierce mother and grandmother.

Photo of Jennifer at the Quidi Vidi Village Plantation, 2020

Jennifer Morgan

“Our child doesn’t lie, she romances,” that’s what my father used to say about my stories. I found a larger audience when, as a teenager, I was asked to tell the children’s story in church. When teaching junior high, like Scheherazade, I survived by promising story-telling days as a treat for good behavior. In the last ten years, I’ve had the opportunity to cross this province from Rigolet to Port aux Basques and back to St. John’s telling stories. Most of them come from my Nanny Morgan whose tales were as true as she told them…with a little romancing to pull things together.

Bernice Morgan

Bernice Morgan was born in pre-Confederation Newfoundland. She worked for many years in public relations, first with Memorial University of Newfoundland, and later with Newfoundland Teachers’ Association. Many of her short stories have been published in small magazines, anthologies and school textbooks. She is author of the acclaimed novel Random Passage, which was filmed as a four-part television series, and its award-winning sequel Waiting for Time. Her other work includes the collection of short stories, The Topography of Love, and the novel Cloud of Bone.

Her novella The Dragon’s Song, which was designed and illustrated by her daughter Jennifer Morgan, was published by Running the Goat in October 2015 as a limited-edition, letterpress-printed book.

A slightly fictionalized remembrance of her childhood days in St. John’s, Seasons Before the War was published in October of 2018, with illustrations by Brita Granstrom.

[biography from Running the Goat Books & Broadsides]