Priscilla Howe
February 14 - 15, 2023

presented by John Deupree & Sally Reynolds, Producing Donors

Priscilla Howe has a gift for sizing up audiences and delivering a whopping good time. A former librarian, she has been a full-time storyteller since 1993. She tells a mix of stories from books, folktales and original tales, most with a generous dollop of humor. She tailors her performances to the audience, so children get participatory tales and puppets while adults get more sophisticated (and still often funny) fare. Priscilla travels the world—fourteen countries and counting—with a bagful of puppets and a head full of stories. In 2015, Howe spent five months on a Fulbright scholarship in Bulgaria collecting folktales, resulting in her book Clever, Kind, Tricky, and Sly: A Bulgarian Folktale Sampler. She lives in Lawrence KS with her ginger cat Pippin. Priscilla is also searching for the best restaurant pie on earth (fruit, not cream).

Tuesday’s program was The Story of Tristan and Iseult: A Medieval Classic (85 minutes plus intermission). Perfect for Valentine's Day! Come hear an epic tale of good luck, bad choices, giants, dragons, fools, betrayal and, of course, romance.

Wednesday’s program was The Trickster Show: A Mishmash of Bulgarian Stories. In 2015, Priscilla went to Bulgaria on a Fulbright Scholarship, intending to search for trickster tales and animal stories. She came home with so much more! She'll tell her favorite stories mixed with jokes, sly commentary and travelogue.

Connie Regan-Blake
March 14 - 15, 2023

Connie Regan-Blake is one of America’s most celebrated storytellers. She has captivated the hearts and imaginations of people around the globe with her powerful performances and workshops. Entertaining audiences in 47 states, 18 countries, and 6 continents she brings the wisdom, humor, and drama of stories to main stage concert halls, libraries, and into the corporate world. She holds the unique position of being featured as a storyteller or emcee at all fifty years of the National Storytelling Festival.

Tuesday’s program will be From Another Time: Celebrating the Legacy of Ray Hicks. We have been looking up to him from the beginning . . . the lanky 6’ 7’’ man of the mountains, who came out bearing old-world gifts that have enriched modern lives beyond measure.  Connie Regan-Blake first met Ray Hicks on October 14, 1973 in Jonesborough, Tennessee. It was an afternoon that changed her life . . . and the course of storytelling in the United States. The setting was the first National Storytelling Festival. Come listen to stories of how Ray became the face of traditional Appalachian Mountain storytelling along with reflections on Connie’s long friendship with the Hicks family and her own personal storytelling journey. 

Carmen Deedy
April 11 - 12, 2023

Presented by Carolyn Rodis, Producing Donor.

Carmen Agra Deedy is an award-winning author of fifteen books for young readers, including The Rooster Who Would Not Be Quiet!, Martina the Beautiful Cockroach, Rita and Ralph’s Rotten Day, and 14 Cows for America, a New York Times Bestseller. Her latest book, Wombat Said Come In, was released in October 2022. Deedy is also an accomplished lecturer, having been a guest speaker for the Library of Congress, Columbia University, and the Kennedy Center, among other distinguished venues. An editor, and life-long advocate for libraries, she has served on the Advisory Board of Smithsonian Libraries and Archives, and will do so again, as of January 2023. 

Tuesday’s program will be Dill and Corky: Tales of a Feral Childhood - audiences are introduced to the time when a Cuban refugee kid meets a Tennessee refugee kid, in small town Georgia, in the days before bicycle helmets and hand sanitizer.

Andrew Aghapour
May 9 - 10, 2023

Presented by Kathy Buchanan and Dan Shelton, Producing Donors

Andrew Ali Aghapour is a storyteller and scholar of religion who lives in Durham, North Carolina. Andrew was born and raised in Charleston, South Carolina by a Muslim, Iranian father and a Christian, British mother. This diverse upbringing eventually led him to study religion and science. His stories look back at those humorous, mundane moments in life that are actually endowed with cosmic significance. His program Zara won the Durham Arts Council’s Catalyst Grant, a program supported by their Annual Arts Fund and the N.C. Arts Council, a division of the Department of Natural & Cultural Resources, and received grants from both the Performing Arts Special Activities Fund and the Humanities for the Public Good Initiative.

April Armstrong
June 13 - 14, 2023

With special guest Don Oehser
Note: as of June 12, Reverend Robert Jones is unable to join us.

This concert was presented by Dan & Jackie Thomas, Producing Donors.

April Armstrong was awarded the 2020 J.J. Reneaux Emerging Artist Award from the National Storytelling Network.  She won the 2015 BRIO Award for Storytelling from the Bronx Council for the Arts. Her debut CD, The Cat Came Back won a Parent’s Choice Award (Silver).  She and her jazz trio have performed her concert, Stories and Songs with a Jazzy Twist at the legendary Apollo Theater in Harlem, Flushing Town Hall and The Abroms Art Center Theater (NYC) and toured for the Kravis Center throughout West Palm Beach.  April performed as featured teller for the 2020 National Association of Black Storytellers’ (NABS) Conference, The National Storytelling Network Conference; The Grapevine, Beaver Tales Storytelling Festival, Connecticut Storytelling Festival, Hudson River Clearwater, The Mohegan, The Logan Center/University of Chicago, Rockland County Storytelling Festival, Rowayton’s 2015 Tellabration and the Story Space.

Adam Booth
July 11 - 12, 2023

To view the recording, please purchase a ticket here. We will send the recording link within 24 hours.

This concert was presented by Carolyn Rodis, Producing Donor.

Adam Booth is the 2022 West Virginia Folk Artist of the Year, awarded at the Governor’s Arts Awards. His original stories blend traditional mountain folklore, music, and an awareness of contemporary Appalachia. As a nationally touring artist his professional telling appearances include premiere storytelling events across the United States, including the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage, the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival, the International Storytelling Center, the National Storytelling Festival, the Appalachian Studies Association Conference, the National Storytelling Conference, the National Academy of Medicine, and as a Spoken Word Resident at the Banff Centre (Alberta, Canada). He is a member of the Recording Academy and his recordings have received a Parents’ Choice Gold Award, two Parents’ Choice Silver Honors, and four Storytelling World Awards and Honors. He is a four-time champion of the West Virginia Liars' Contest. Adam is the inaugural Storyteller-In-Residence at Shepherd University.

The program for both nights will be The Heron’s Journey. The Heron's Journey uses spoken storytelling, quilting, and paper sculpture to tell an allegory filled with magic, challenges to opposition, and transformation. Meet the title character in various forms of self-discovery and take part in giving the story wings.

Dolores Hydock
August 8 - 9, 2023

please note: our originally-scheduled artist Elizabeth Rose is unable to join us.

Dolores Hydock’s one-woman shows and story performances have been featured at events throughout the United States, including the National Storytelling Festival and Teller-in-Residence at the International Storytelling Center. She has collaborated with the Alabama Symphony Orchestra and the Birmingham Museum of Art to blend stories with music and art, and her Christmas story special airs annually on NPR-affiliate WBHM in Birmingham. She is the 2023 recipient of the ORACLE Circle of Excellence Award from the National Storytelling Network. 

Tuesday’s program (at Reynolds Hall & on Zoom) was Tony Curtis Speaks Italian and All I Can Say is 'I Love You.'

Wednesday’s program (at the Shepherdstown Community Club) was Silence: The Adventure of a Medieval Warrior Woman.

Diane Macklin
September 12 - 13, 2023

Recipient: 2023 Speak Commission

Master Storyteller Diane Macklin has dedicated over two decades to the art of storytelling and listening. She engages audiences with a dynamic, theatrical style that blends her background as a certified educator, writer, and cultural mediator. She has performed from Massachusetts to California for venues such as the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Ojai Storytelling Festival, plus a host of schools, libraries, museums, and other venues. She is the 2018 winner of the Jackie Torrence Tall Tale Contest for the National Association of Black Storytellers’ Festival and Conference; the 2014 Maryland State Arts Council Apprenticeship Awardee with Mama Linda Goss, co-founder of NABS; plus the Taft Museum’s 2013 Robert S. Duncanson Artist-in-Residence. She is fully invested in the ancient power of storytelling to transform; heal; and explore the unique, yet universal, elements of humanity. In all aspects of living, Diane aims to “Make a Difference, One Story at a Time!”

Diane will premiere the program Zora Unveiled: Echoes of a Cultural Muse, commissioned by Speak Story Series, on Tuesday night and tell it again on Wednesday night. Zora Neale Hurston was a cultural visionary with a mission most other anthropologists and artists of the Harlem Renaissance did not recognize: an American treasure was in danger of being lost. Within each person - whether rich or poor, popular or despised, defamed or famous - there was a wondrously unique and at the same time universal story. She championed the elevation of humanity by including, not excluding. Zora was an artist born, wrapped in rainbows, searching beyond the horizon for stories that outnumbered the stars and shined no less brightly. Diane Macklin honors Zora as her ancestor and imaginative trailblazer. Her program aims to inspire and entertain... that's Zora's legacy to storytelling.

Lyn Ford
October 10 - 11, 2023

This concert is presented by Jackie & Dan Thomas, Producing Donors.

Lyn Ford is a nationally recognized, fourth-generation Affrilachian storyteller, author and workshop presenter. Lyn's folktale adaptations and original stories are rooted in her family’s multicultural Black Appalachian (or Affrilachian) heritage. Lyn's work has taken her to major storytelling festivals and literacy and storytelling conferences across the country, as well as in Australia and Ireland. Lyn is an Ohio teaching artist with the Ohio Teaching Artists rosters, and a Thurber House mentor for young authors, with more than thirty years of experience and several award-winning publications. Lyn is a two-time recipient of the National Storytelling Network's ORACLE Circle of Excellence award.
“An exceptional artist.” – Jim Arter, Greater Columbus Arts Council

Bill Harley
November 14 - 15, 2023

This concert was presented by Marianne Alexander, Producing Donor.

Bill Harley is well-traveled, well-read, well-educated, well-spoken and well-loved. Accompanied by his guitar, his narrative songs and stories, both original and traditional, are a celebration of our common humanity. Best known for his work with children and families, his ability to navigate through a confusing world with humor and wisdom is evident in his masterful storytelling as well as his numerous award-winning recordings and books. A two-time Grammy winner, he is vibrant, outrageous, unpredictable and genuine with songs and stories about growing up, schooling and what it is to be human—our connections with one another and with the planet we share. Recognized by audiences and peers as one of the finest performing storytellers in the country, his work has influenced a generation of children, parents, performing artists and educators. Bill tours internationally as a performing artist, author and keynote speaker from his home in Seekonk, Massachusetts.

Tuesday’s concert will be Build Me Up, Buttercup. The greatest Top 40 song ever? Yes. Bill explains why, and how it got him through adolescence. 

Wednesday’s concert will be An Iliad by Lisa Peterson and Denis O’Hare. AN ILIAD is a modern-day retelling of Homer’s classic. Poetry and humor, the ancient tale of the Trojan War and the modern world collide in this captivating theatrical experience. The setting is simple: the empty theater. The time is now: the present moment. The lone figure onstage is a storyteller—possibly Homer, possibly one of the many bards who followed in his footsteps. He is fated to tell this story throughout history. An Iliad is presented by special arrangement with Dramatists Play Service, Inc., New York.