Mama Edie Armstrong

Edith McLoud Armstrong was born on June 2, 1951, in Chicago, Illinois. Over time, she earned degrees in speech-language pathology and in communication disorders.  She began working with the Chicago Public School (CPS) system in the late 1970s as a speech therapy assistant.  During this time, she provided services for students with multiple disabilities and taught deaf students to speak.  This population of young people inspired her to create lesson plans that incorporated science, technology, engineering, the arts and math (an educational approach now popularly referred to as STEAM).  From 1989 to 2014, she worked for various organizations as an independent consultant as a speech and language pathologist.

In 2014, Armstrong became a full-time Spanish/English bilingual spoken word artist, percussionist, author, motivational speaker, educational consultant, and voice-over artist under the culturally given name of Mama Edie.  She created storytelling performances and workshops for parents, educators, children, social workers, attorneys and other professionals.  These programs were specially designed to promote diversity training, to increase cultural appreciation, to foster interpersonal communication skills, to facilitate personal empowerment and to further social justice.  In 1998, she co-founded ASE’: the Chicago Association of Black Storytellers.

Mama Edie McCloud Armstrong, a master storyteller, presents stories and songs reflective of her own blended family of West African, Native American and Latina cultures. She specializes in interactive stories and songs mingling Spanish, English, Yoruba and Cherokee which celebrate the joys of family, and the willingness to help each other to survive.  She has performed in Ghana, Togo, Benin, Mexico, India, Trinidad, and South Africa, and has been a guest on various PBS and other television and radio programs.  In addition, she has written numerous articles on self-empowerment through cultural knowledge and pride; countering violence through effective communication, storytelling, music and movement; and language and literacy development through the arts.

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