Kim Lehman

Kim the Storyteller and Musician

Kim Lehman has been telling tales for many years, first as a way to entertain younger cousins and now as a professional storyteller and musician. Kim has performed at hundreds of festivals, schools, libraries, and museums including being a featured teller at the Texas Storytelling Festival. Each fun and educational program includes a variety of stories, songs, props, puppets and participation that can be tailored to specific age groups. While growing up in rural Pennsylvania, Kim taught herslf to play guitar so she could join her uncles in playing music around the campfire on frequent family outings. Throughout the years Kim has collected 150 instruments, 400 hats, many books, rocks, stories and songs - some of which she would love to share with you!

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Kim the Honey Bee Educator

Children have gained a greater understanding of honey bees, nature’s tiny treasures, through the hundreds of programs and workshops Kim, a hobby beekeeper, has presented at schools, libraries, museums, nature centers, and festivals. Her fun, educational honey bee programs include music, participation and hands-on activities. As part of her children’s column for Bee Culture Magazine, Kim began the Bee Buddies Club which now has members in every state. She founded the American Beekeeping Federation Kids and Bees Event and directed this educational program about honey bees for the public at their annual conferences in 15 states.

 

She is the author of Beekeeper’s Lab: 52 Family-Friendly Activities and Experiments Exploring the Life of the Hive.

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Kim the Workshop Presenter

Kim is a well-known educator best known for her dynamic, idea packed workshops featuring easy to implement activities for librarians, teachers and parents. She has presented workshops from El Paso to Houston and Dallas to the Rio Grande Valley. Some popular topics include using music, storytelling, puppets, art, poetry, and literature with children. Over the years, Kim has worked with the Texas State Library and Archives Commission presenting workshops and webinars, producing forty videos with ideas for the Summer Reading Program and writing a number of chapters for past Texas Summer Reading Program Manuals.

 

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Kim Lehman the Human Being

Kim grew up in a rural Mennonite community in the mountains of western Pennsylvania. The exact location was a little known valley named Soap Hollow, right down the road from Gobbler’s Hollow and up the road from Moonshine Hollow. Many days were spent making up plays, exploring the creek, hunting mushrooms, swinging on grapevines, walking barefoot through the woods, picking berries and making maple syrup.

 

These adventures and teaching experiences in the Appalachian Mountains have inspired a life-long interest in folk traditions including storytelling, music, dance, oral histories, herbal remedies, crafts, ceramics, found object art, and beekeeping. If the truth be known, Kim is interested in most everything except mud wrestling, team sports and reading technical manuals.

 

She lives by her mother’s philosophy,

“If you are having company, it is better to read a good book than to have a clean oven.”

 

Kim now lives in Austin, Texas.

 

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Kim’s Fun Facts

• Collected and compiled recipes and stories for her book “Ruth Cooks”

• Hat collector with over 400 hats

• Musician with over 150 instruments

• Welded a huge bottle tree out of rebar

• Made a hammered dulcimer

• Jumped out of an airplane

• Traveled to over 16 countries

• Is a consummate doodler

• Memorable experiences in all 50 states and the District of Columbia

• Sings jazz favorites in nursing and retirement centers

• Worked as a camp counselor, nurse’s aid, grocery store’s bakery department and a sample potato chip person.

• Collected and recorded hours of stories from family members and residents of Conemaugh Township in PA.

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