Josh grew up in Madison County, North Carolina surrounded by the music and stories of his ancestors. He is a highly accomplished storyteller and oldtime, bluegrass, and swing musician playing close to 20 instruments. His fiddling was featured in the movie Songcatcher, both onscreen and on the soundtrack. He has performed in all 50 states, throughout […]
Catherine Conant grew up in a large Italian family living in industrial New Jersey where stories were the currency of everyday life. She stitched together what she heard, and her imagination, to create powerful and entertaining stories about her world living in the shadow of the New Jersey Turnpike. For more than 25 years she […]
“Storytelling is the coming together of everybody, the first art,” Aoki says. “It’s what shamans did, connecting heaven and Earth, and weaving the collective unconscious into a community.” Combining numerous elements of art into a communicative whole is Brenda Wong Aoki’s gift. Swirling Japanese Noh and Kyogen theater with contemporary stories, adding a healthy helping […]
There is no one-word description for award-winning singer, songwriter, comedian, author, and storyteller Don White. He has brought audiences to laughter and tears for thirty years, released nine CDs, three live DVDs, and a book, Memoirs of a C Student. White has opened for Arlo Guthrie and shared a bill with Janis Ian and Lyle […]
Anne grew up in a little Pennsylvania town along the Susquehanna River, in a house with a graveyard on one side and a cow pasture on the other. She first took the stage in at age 7, as a singing cow in the Holy Trinity Elementary Christmas pageant. During that debut she tripped over the […]
Sheila Starks Phillips now resides in Sugar Land, Texas. Her career has ranged from first grade teacher to zookeeper at the Houston Zoo. Since 1990, she has mesmerized audiences as a master storyteller, weaving tales of wit and wisdom to all types of audiences, young and old. Often combining music with her stories, Sheila draws […]
The recipient of the National Storytelling Network’s 2017 Circle of Excellence Award, Motoko enchants audiences of every age with traditional Asian tales and oral memoirs from her childhood in Osaka and her life as an immigrant in the U.S. Motoko has appeared on Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood, and has been featured in festivals and theaters across […]
Barbara McBride Smith’s life tapestry sparkles with more variety than Grandma’s button box. From Texas to Boston, Massachusetts, from the New Jersey shore, through Oklahoma, and back to Texas again, she has picked up wit, wonder, and wisdom from the most unlikely places and strings those gems of life together into a diadem of diversity. […]
The course of Tim’s life was pretty much set at six years of age when his parents took him to see Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Ever since that glittering introduction to show business, Tim’s life has been a series of colorful acts, featuring a wide variety of stories that include personal narratives, […]
Bil Lepp is an award-winning storyteller, author, and recording artist. He’s the host of the History Channel’s Man vs History series, the occasional host of NPR’s internationally syndicated Mountain Stage, and a contributing columnist to the West Virginia Gazette-Mail. Bil’s humorous, family friendly tall-tales and stories have earned the appreciation of listeners of all ages […]
No one plays with an audience like Carmen Deedy. Regardless of the number of people in the venue, Carmen shares every story from her heart to your heart, individually and personally. She possesses the unique gift of not only speaking to all people, but to each person, simultaneously. She once said, “Great story is the […]
Donald was born in a Southern Appalachian mountain world rich in stories. While he heard many traditional stories about Jack and other heroic characters, he was most attracted to the stories of his own family and places of origin. Donald begin retelling the stories he heard and then adding his own new stories to them […]
Enter the world of Simon Brooks’ folk and fairy tales, myths and legends where adults huddle around the fireside to hear of strange folk, long journeys, and surprising rewards, and where children peer down from their sleeping loft to listen to tale after tale. “Stories keep us human,” Simon tells us. Come share with him […]
Andy Hedges is a songster, reciter, storyteller, guitarist, and collector of cowboy songs and poems. The son of a schoolteacher and a rodeo cowboy turned preacher, Andy was born in Lubbock, Texas. He grew up in the small community of Tokio, Texas, where his family paid rent on an old farmhouse by looking after a […]
Adam Booth is the 2022 West Virginia Folk Artist of the Year, awarded at the Governor’s Arts Awards. Adam blends traditional mountain folklore, music, and an awareness of contemporary Appalachia to create original, forward-thinking story artistry. Adam’s new multidisciplinary program The Heron’s Journey has been selected for the 2024-2025 Mid Atlantic Arts Touring Roster. As […]
Antonio Rocha, a native of Brazil, began his career in the performing arts in 1985. In 1988 he received a Partners of the Americas grant to come to the USA to perform and deepen his mime skills with Master Tony Montanaro. Since then he has earned a Summa Cum Laude Theater BA from USM (University […]
