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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
Join the Healing Story Alliance for a special gathering to share and explore stories of kindness in its many faces and forms. Through folk tales and personal stories, we will dive deeply into multiple experiences of kindness. What is it? How does it impact us and our relationships to ourselves, to each other, to the world? Come and listen to “kind stories” shared by both professional tellers and community members and see what memories of kindness emerge for you.
Date: Feb. 4, 2024
Time: 7:00pm-8:30pm EST
(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. During the second half of the gathering, audience members are invited to share a story, moment, or reflection about kindness that emerged for them as listeners.
Purpose: We all need a little more kindness 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
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. Both as a solo artist and a member of the acclaimed Folktellers duo, Connie has been featured on seven award-winning recordings – five audio and two videos produced by PBS. New Age Magazine, School Library Journal, and Southern Living have praised her work. She has been a guest on NPR’s All Things Considered, ABC Good Morning America and CNN.
Andy Offutt Irwin, with a silly putty voice, hilarious heart-filled stories, and amazing mouth noises (arguably, the greatest whistler in the world) is equal parts mischievous schoolboy and the Marx Brothers, peppered with a touch of the Southern balladeer. He has frequently been featured at the National Storytelling Festival and as a Teller in Residence at the International Storytelling Center. Among other gigs, Andy has been a Guest Artist at La Guardia High School of Art, Music, and Performing Arts in New York (The “FAME!” School); he has been a Keynote Speaker/Performer at the Library of Congress-Virburnum Foundation Conference on Family Literacy; a Guest Writer Performer with the Georgia Tech Glee Club; and a guest composer with the Amherst College Men’s Double Quartet. Andy has held a few almost-real-jobs that include: Artist-In-Residence in Theatre at Emory University’s Oxford College from 1991 to 2007. (He continues serving at Oxford from time-to-time as Artist-in-Just-Passing-Through). A very long time ago Andy spent five years as a performer, writer, and director for SAK Theatre at Walt Disney World.
Gauri Raje is a storyteller, educator and workshop facilitator working with adolescents and adults from multilingual, multicultural and disadvantaged backgrounds. She works with different genres: folk tales, fairy tales, epics and myths, mainly from non-European regions, and autobiographical storytelling. She tells stories in various languages including Urdu, Hindi, English and other Indian languages such as Gujarati and Marathi. Gauri formally trained in telling stories with the School of Storytelling, Sussex and then with Jan Blake. She incorporates her training in Indian classical music and dance in her storytelling. She believes storytelling to be a community art form and trained in Theatre of the Oppressed and witness-based work, which enables those with no performance background to tell their stories. She has performed and told stories at several venues in the UK, Greece, Estonia, Norway, Sweden, Germany and India. She tells stories in schools, in barns, by rivers, on the land and in ruins of heritage buildings.
Emcee
Megan Wells is nationally-respected professional storyteller who has enthralled audiences for more than 40 years. She holds a BA in theatre from Illinois Wesleyan and an MFA in Directing from Illinois State University. She has appeared in theatres, with symphonies, and in cultural arts venues throughout the USA. Her extensive performance repertoire includes myths, folklore, persona, and literary tales. She is highly respected for her directing of contemporary storytellers and is a recipient of the National Storytelling Network’s Circle of Excellence Award.
Community Tellers
The Turtle Rescue League is a non-profit or ganization founded in 2010 that has four main programs, rehabilitation, incubation, conservation, and education. Every year they admit hundreds of injured and sick native turtles. They provide medical treatment and prepare them for release back in their homes in the wild. They also incubate eggs recovered from dangerous locations or departed mothers. By ushering healthy hatchlings into the wetlands, they can preserve and carry forth the next generation of turtles. Their facility in Southbridge MA, which includes a clinic, and sanctuary provides for over 200 turtles, and they have a second building under construction for the permanent residents. They are open 24/7 for injured turtles, and Monday through Friday for pet turtle assistance. Please visit the website www.turtlerescueleague.org
Ellie Sarty is an animal advocate, ordained animal chaplain, and an animal chaplain in residence for Unity of Central MA for 2024. She is also the founder/director of Compassion Arts, an all-volunteer arts and education initiative for inspiring a deeper understanding of and compassion for other animals and the Earth we share. Compassion Arts dedicates its work to holistic non-violence towards all species (humans and animals) and holds that the animals of this world co-exist on the earth with us, not for us. A former NY based music artist and published songwriter for many years, Ellie now uses her artistry for developing creative humane education programs with a wide range of organizations helping animals and others, and is currently an advisory board member of the Culture and Animals Foundation. https://www.compassionarts.org
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