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WordStage

WordStage

  • "Russian Jews Move to Appalachia and the American South" is a story about a family’s struggles and triumphs in immigrating to America. Chuck has appeared in numerous shows throughout the Asheville area and Jonesborough TN, telling personal stories filled with angst, drama, and a healthy dose of humor. He teaches classes on creating and telling personal stories at an Asheville area learning-in-retirement center, OLLI UNC Asheville.
  • Ray escaped the urban slums of Richmond, VA by joining the United States Army at the age of 17. As an infantryman and paratrooper, he served around the world and was awarded The Bronze Star and Combat Infantryman’s Badge, among many other decorations for his service. After 20 years, he retired and went back to school, earning his BS in Liberal Arts, MA in Public History, and EdS/EdD in Education Leadership, researching the relationship between parental behavior and African American academic success for his dissertation. During his time as an adjunct professor at Appalachian State University, his most popular courses were “The Souls of Black Folks: An Examination of African American Social Culture” and “Storytelling: Life in the Narrative,” which explored historic and contemporary uses of storytelling and oral history in America.
  • A native of West Virginia, Donna Marie Todd trained in classical vocal performance at the renowned Peabody Conservatory of Music with Metropolitan opera soprano Marilyn Cotlow and now writes and performs a unique combination of original stories woven with artful songs. The combination of storytelling and singing has earned her the description of “The Singer of Stories.”
  • Amy Ammons Garza is a storyteller who tells tales of growing up in the North Carolina Mountains. As a child, she sat at the foot of her grandfather and listened to tales of how her ancestors, seven generations past, were a part of those who traveled to Western NC and settled in the isolated mountains. His stories intrigued her, and so she stored them away until she grew up and began to write about them.
  • Nancy Basket helped form the first modern basketry guild in Seattle in 1980, and moved to South Carolina ten years later. She makes pine needle and kudzu baskets — large and miniature, lamp shades, paper designs, kudzu cloth, and large 8-foot sculptures depicting Cherokee stories. In 2005 she received the prestigious South Carolina Jean Laney Harris Folk Heritage Award. Her work has received raving national reviews. She is a popular feature at powwows and Earthskills events.
  • Sheila Kay Adams is a seventh-generation ballad singer, musician, and storyteller. She was born and raised in Madison County, North Carolina, in a little place named Sodom. It's an area well-known for its a cappella ballad singing, a tradition that dates back to the early Scots/Irish and English settlers of the mid-17th century. Also known as Henry Lee, "Young Hunting" is an 18th-century murder ballad likely of Scottish origin.
  • Actor, salesman, entrepreneur, radio show host, author, minister, workshop facilitator, public speaker, trainer, Peace Corps Volunteer, storyteller, and pet-sitter. Larry has been all of these and found that the thing that ties them all together (yep – even petsitting!) is the importance of stories. Humor is a key ingredient, whether the story is for entertainment or a deeper purpose.
  • Bruce Greene is known worldwide for preserving and playing old-time Kentucky fiddle music. For much of his life, he has lived and worked among the people of Kentucky, Tennessee, and Western North Carolina researching and absorbing the music and folk traditions. This ballad, The Sweet Soldier Boy, was taken from the recording, River of Time: Traditional Songs and Fiddle Tunes from The Toe River Valley
  • Bruce Duncan “Utah” Phillips (May 15, 1935 – May 23, 2008) was born in Cleveland, Ohio. After serving in the United States Army for three years during the mid-1950s in post-war Korea, he began drifting around the mid-west riding the rails, writing songs, and eventually settling in Salt Lake, where he helped to establish a mission house of hospitality named after activist Joe Hill. Phillips worked as a labor organizer and activist, telling stories, and writing songs and poetry.
  • Amy Ammons Garza is a storyteller who tells tales of growing up in the North Carolina Mountains. As a child, she sat at the foot of her grandfather and listened to tales of how her ancestors, seven generations past, were a part of those who traveled to Western NC and settled in the isolated mountains. His stories intrigued her, and so she stored them away until she grew up and began to write about them. Now she has eleven books, three of which are a trilogy of her family's heritage. “All the stories are based on the experiences of our family," says Amy. “Grandpa said we are all carriers of our heritage. My goal is to instill in my audience the knowledge that we are all different, yet wonderful in our own way.
  • "Casey at the Bat" is perhaps the most well know sports poem of all time. It was written in 1883 by Ernest Lawrence Thayer (1863 – 1940) under the pen name Phin. The poem gained popularity after actor William DeWolf Hopper incorporated it into his radio performances.
  • Harold Wayne Turner is from Pickens, S.C. As a child, he spent much of his time as an apprentice in his father’s woodworking shop. His father, James “ Carolina ” Turner shared cotton mill tales and stories about the war. "Drive the Coon Dog" is one of his dad’s old-time mill stories. It beckons to the day when a man was measured by the dog he owned.