2025 LINEUP
Paul Strickland (Artistic Director)
Paul Strickland is a full-time professional storyteller and musician who lives in Covington, Kentucky. Paul was a Featured Teller at the National Storytelling Festival in 2023 and a Teller-in-Residence at the International Storytelling Center in 2024.
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"An hour spent with master storyteller Paul Strickland is an hour well-spent, and one you should not miss." - Cincinnati Enquirer
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"Touches the heart and excites the imagination" - Orlando Weekly
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Paul's heartfelt and hilarious original tall-tales, reupholstered folk tales and thought-provoking songs have been performed in virtually every imaginable environment, from Off-Broadway to elementary and middle schools, libraries, corporate events and even two prisons - where he was NOT an inmate at the time. AintTrue.com
Charlotte Blake Alston
For over 30 years, Charlotte Blake Alston has graced stages in venues throughout North America and abroad. Venues are wide and include the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Smithsonian Institution, the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, Symphony Orchestra Narrations and at regional, national and international Storytelling Festivals. She is a frequent guest artist in universities, grade schools, museums and cultural arts institutions around the country but this former elementary school teacher also presents in Day Care Centers, for Special Needs populations as well as prisons and youth detention centers.
Charlotte breathes life into traditional and contemporary stories from African and African American oral and cultural traditions. charlotteblakealston.com
Bil Lepp
Bil Lepp is an award-winning storyteller, author, and recording artist.
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He’s the host of the History Channel’s Man Vs History series, the occasional host of NPR’s internationally syndicated Mountain Stage, and a contributing columnist to the West Virginia Gazette-Mail.
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Bil’s humorous, family friendly tall-tales and stories have earned the appreciation of listeners of all ages and from all walks of life. Though a five time champion of the WV Liars’s Contest, Lepp’s stories often contain morsels of truth which present universal themes in clever and witty ways. Audiences all across the country, from grade schools to corporate execs to the Comedy Central’s Hudson stage, have been delighted by Bil’s hilarious tales and delightful insights into everyday life. leppstorytelling.com