The Citi Center connects communities with arts festival in Dudley

Storytelling with Valerie Stephens Introduces storytelling through movement, character development and laughter. (Photo: Courtesy of Citi Performing Arts Center)

The Dudley Branch Library will transform into an art center during Citi Performing Arts Center’s free arts festival.

From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday Nov. 2, students and parents can enjoy roving entertainment, have his/her faces painted, participate in scavenger hunts throughout the library, watch performances by the Citi Performing Arts teen council and get hands-on in arts through poetry, dance and theatre workshops for all ages.

The Citi Performing Arts Center was formerly the Wang Theatre and is now the guardian of the Wang, Shubert and Emerson Colonial theatres.

The community event will feature Citi’s 2012-2013 Art Fellow Toni Bee who lead poetry workshops.

Bee is a Boston-grown, writer, poet and photographer who specialize in poetry workshops for teens and adults, according to cambridgema.org.

In 2011, Bee was elected as poet populist in Cambridge and charged with leading the arts in the municipality.

Actress and musician Valerie Stephens will head storytelling workshops during the event.

A Boston native, Stephens has taken her talents across the world performing nationally and internationally.

Stephens received the 2011 NAACP Image Award, according to valeriestephens.com.

As a storyteller, Stephens who is passionate about history has performed during history-based events at a number of venues in Massachusetts including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston’s Children Museum and the Museum of Science.

The event is being sponsored in part by the Fellowes Athenaeum Fund, named after former Roxbury resident Caleb Fellowes who died in 1852 and created the trust to build a library branch in Roxbury.

The goal is to connect communities through arts.

“We hope this family festival crosses generations in highlighting various aspects of performance arts and bridges cultures and communities through shared experiences,” Citi Center education director Corey Evans said.

To RSVP for the art festival, call the Citi Center’s education department at 617-532-1256 or email eintern@citicenter.org.

For information on other art events, visit citicenter.org and click the “Education” tab.