Kind Stories in Concert: The Power of Community
October 5. 2025
7:00 pm-8:30 pm EDT
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‘Kindness is having the ability to speak with love, listen with patience, and act with compassion.” –Random Acts of Kindness Foundation
Human beings are essentially social creatures and we need community to survive and thrive. For some, communities can be made of like-minded souls, families, co-workers, or neighbors. In these challenging times, the power of community will help us find ways to resist unacceptable changes and threats. Join us for traditional and contemporary stories about successful and kind communities shared by both professional tellers and community tellers and see what memories of community emerge for you.
Date: October 5, 2025
Time: 7:00pm-8:30pm EDT
(Open Mic Story Share and Reflection: last half hour)
Format: The story session opens with a concert of seasoned tellers and community tellers sharing stories with themes of kindness and the Power of Community. During the second half of the gathering, audience members are invited to share a story, moment, or reflection about kindness or community that emerged for them as listeners.
Purpose: We all need a little more kindness and community in our lives. Perhaps a story can take us there.
“When you are kind to others, it not only changes you, it changes the world.” — Harold Kushner
ABOUT the STORYTELLERS
Jessica Piscitelli is the founder of Better Said Than Done, a live audience format celebrating seven years of true, personal storytelling in Northern Virginia. She has performed for Story District, Tales in the Village, The Grapevine, Stories in the Round, Perfect Liars Club, George Mason University, and multiple other venues. She is author of the urban fantasy novel Caged and her short stories have been published in the anthologies Sucker for Love and Roar: True Tales of Women Warriors. A former “second second assistant director” in the feature film industry, Robinson runs Capture Video, Inc., a video production company, and has been a regular commentator on WAMU, Washington, DC’s NPR station. www.bettersaidthandone.com
Jim Brulé is a transformational storyteller, death doula, teacher, and mentor. He teaches spiritual storytelling for healing and growth. His workshops address multicultural wisdom and end-of-life themes. Co-authored with Rebecca Lemaire, his book ‘Stories of the Heart’ presents 18 global tales for navigating life and death. He is one of the co-producers, along with lead producer Peter Blum, of the Woodstock Story Festival in October, 2025
Elisa Pearmain has been telling stories professionally since 1987, and always with a penchant for the many healing benefits of story. She is the award-winning author of 52 Wisdom Tales from Around The World, Once Upon a Time: Storytelling to Teach Character and Prevent Bullying, and the double CD Forgiveness: Telling Our Stories in New Ways. Elisa is also a Psychotherapist in private practice, is on the Advisory Board of the Healing Story Alliance and is chair of the HSA Programming Committee.
Rishi Nixon is a Maryland spoken-word storyteller and performing artist. For over ten years, he has performed for audiences from the Washington Folk Festival and National Parks Service to Artists Standing Strong Together and Irvington Peace Park’s annual summer camp for West Baltimore city youth. He was a performing member of award-winning youth touring group The Twinbrook Tellers from 2016 to 2020, after which he became an independent professional storyteller. Since then, he has been inducted a lifetime member of regional storytelling guild Voices in the Glen, served on its board, co-chaired the 2025 National Storytelling Conference, and is the incumbent president of the National Storytelling Network—the youngest person to hold that office.
Emcee
Lee-Ellen Marvin has explored storytelling as a performer, audio producer, educator, folklorist, and community advocate. She has told and taught storytelling to thousands in colleges and universities, developed and published Story Shifters, a non-competitive game, and holds a PhD in Folklore and Folklife. Lee-Ellen lives in Eco Village at Ithaca, New York. 607-229-8429