Valentina Ortiz is a storyteller, musician, writer, recording artist, teacher and humanitarian. She considers herself a citizen of the world, as she tells her stories in English, Spanish or French. Valentina is the magic of Mexican traditions, with their music, native languages and stories. She is also the flavors of the Caribbean drums; she is the union of the different cultures from the tropics to the mountains. She speaks words of hope, of song and music, of strong women, of responsibility towards Mother Nature and community. She is well known for promoting collaborative projects that pursue the healing of social issues through storytelling specifically and art in general, as she is the founder and director of the nonprofit association Zazanilli Cuentos.
She has produced four records with her music and stories and published four books of her stories.
Rona Leventhal, who hails for Massachusetts, has been sharing her passion for the power of story for twenty-seven years, touching the minds and imaginations of listeners. Her performances – dynamic, evocative, often funny – have taken her from the stages of National Storytelling Network to the National Yiddish Book Center, international venues, festival, conferences, schools and libraries. With roots in education, she calls storytelling “Living Literacy”(c), which develops what she calls “The Imagination Muscle”(c). Rona is a Teller of Tales, a Workshop Leader, Improv Specialist, Coach, Teaching Artist, Consultant and by all accounts, a mensch! Her first CD is “Into the Dark: Stories From the Shadows” (Creepy Stories for Adults and Fearless Teens). Her family CD, “Raps, Rhythms and Rhymes: Stories to Tap, Rap, Shake and Sing” will be out early 2019! Coeditor: Spinning tales, Weaving Hope: Stories of Peace, Justice and the Environment.
Music By Kai Engel.
Alton performs at storytelling festivals internationally, sharing stories and legends from Hawaii and spreading aloha. He also tells stories from the Hawaiian Monarchy and the Plantation Days as well as Asian folk tales from all around the Pacific Rim. Alton is also passionate about sharing stories of the Japanese American Experience of WWII. In 2005, Alton was awarded the first J.J. Reneaux Emerging Artist Award by the National Storytelling Network. He has performed at the Congress of Asian Storytellers in Singapore, the International Gimme Story Storytelling Festival in the Cayman Islands, as well as venues in India, China, and Okinawa. He has also performed at the Talk Story Festival, the Bay Area Storytelling Festival, the Four Corners Storytelling Festival, the Oklahoma City Storytelling Festival, and has been a New Voice Teller at the National Storytelling Festival.
Papa Joe’s living folktales have engaged over 6,000 audiences. Papa Joe captured family audiences from Cow Head, Newfoundland to Austin, Texas, from the beaches in Florida to the mountains of Washington State. What makes Papa Joe so special? His love of good stories? His passion for telling? His devotion to his audiences? This Master Storyteller designs every show to meet your needs and it’s the audience that leaves feeling special. Step Into A Story is designed to nurture self esteem. Papa Joe listens to each child’s needs and gives to each child’s heart. They experience stories with the opportunity to share with the group. They learn to tell their own stories and they know they can do it.
Laura Packer has been telling stories her whole life – her mother reports she was born talking. The daughter of a children’s librarian and a writer, it seems inevitable that she become a storyteller and writer herself, since her childhood was steeped in narrative. By second grade, Laura was telling stories to her classmates, creating her own magazines and writing letters to the editor of her hometown newspaper; her deep love of fairytales and mythology eventually led her to obtain a degree in Folklore and Mythology from Boston University. Imagine her surprise when she discovered, upon graduating, that there isn’t a crying need for folklorists!
Whether she is performing, teaching, facilitating or consulting, Cindy Rivka Marshall is guided by her value of respect for all.
The stories Richard Martin tells are the folk tales which have been told for hundreds, indeed thousands, of years. With over 300 stories in his repertoire, they reflect the full range of human experience: the comic, the bawdy, the profound, the divine. Far from being for little children (although he does tell for children, too), these powerful and deep tales offer unforgettable listening for adults. If you like theatre, you’ll definitely love storytelling. It combines the intensity of a play by a solo performer with the intimacy of a one-to-one conversation. Richard tells stories throughout Europe and as far away as India, Singapore, Hong Kong and America – in theatres, universities, schools, for corporate events or private parties. He usually tells in English, although having lived in Germany since 1976, he is sometimes asked to tell in German.
“I live in my head. A lot. I make stuff up, I borrow from old tales, I reinterpret new stories. As a storyteller, I’m a tour guide to that space in my brain. I work without a script, without costumes, without props. When I’m doing it right, listeners laugh, smile, sigh and breathe together, connected in the space of stories. I perform at schools, libraries, festivals, special events, and in my own backyard, literally. My mouthy hand puppets come along to shows for young children. I tell more grownup stories to, well, grownups and older kids. We play together. Apart from being the oldest educational method in the world, storytelling is just plain fun.”
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