Please join us at the Freight & Salvage, one of Berkeley's oldest and most beloved music venues, for a special musical story time series with the Berkeley Public Library's Story Time Band. These FREE events will take place *every Thursday at 10:30 a.m. from November 2023 through March 2024. Each session will feature live music, movement activities, and read-aloud stories for children ages 2-7. See you there!

Band Bio

In 2013, children's librarian Michael Kwende, known to Berkeley youth as "Mr. Michael," and retired librarian and guitarist Tim DeWolf, began offering musical story time programs at the Berkeley Public Library's Claremont Branch Library. Their events soon became so popular with children and their caregivers that it outgrew the library's programming space, requiring them to secure a larger venue to accommodate their audiences. That place became Berkeley’s Bateman Mall park, and soon after, musicians and library specialists Juan Castille and Donovan Russell joined the effort and the Story Time Band was born.

They have since brought their musical story time to numerous elementary school classrooms and libraries, and have performed at public parks throughout the city where over 150 children and their caregivers regularly attend their weekly events. In January of 2023, they began an artist residency at Freight & Salvage and performed at both this year's Berkeley Bay Festival and Bay Area Book Festival.