Fourth Annual
Cincinnati Storytelling Festival
November 14-16, 2024
West Side Brewing
Westwood Town Hall
Special Thanks to our Presenting Sponsors
Jill & Paul Staubitz and Josh Wallace
NATIONAL TELLERS
LYN FORD
Lynette (Lyn) Ford is an internationally respected, fourth-generation Affrilachian storyteller, author, poet, and workshop presenter. Lyn's folktale adaptations and original stories are rooted in her family’s multicultural Black Appalachian (or Affrilachian) heritage. Lyn's work has taken her to major storytelling festivals and literacy and storytelling conferences across the country, as well as in Australia and Ireland, and, via the Zoomiverse, in Germany and for the Federation of Asian Storytellers story swaps. Lyn is an Ohio Arts Council Teaching Artist and a Thurber House mentor for young authors, with more than thirty years of experience and several award-winning publications. Lyn is a two-time recipient of the National Storytelling Network's ORACLE Circle of Excellence award, and a 2023 recipient of the National Association of Black Storytellers' Black Appalachian Storytelling Fellowship and NABS' prestigious Zora Neale Hurston Award. Lyn is a member of the Writers Council of the National Writing Project and the National Association of Black Storytellers’ Brother Blue Circle of Elders. Lyn is also a certified laughter yoga teacher and, occasionally, pretty weird. storytellerlynford.com/
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Andy Offutt Irwin
With a manic, Silly Putty voice, astonishing mouth noises, and heart-filled stories, Andy Offutt Irwin is equal parts mischievous schoolboy and the Marx Brothers, peppered with a touch of the Southern balladeer. He has been a Featured Teller at the National Storytelling Festival eleven times and is a perennial favorite at the International Storytelling Center’s Teller-in-Residence series.
A storyteller, theatre director, singer-songwriter, and Shakespearean actor, Andy was Artist-in-Residence at Emory University’s Oxford College from 1991 to 2007. He has performed at LaGuardia High School of Performing Arts in New York, The Library of Congress, Walt Disney World, and a whole mess of theatres, colleges, and festivals all over the United States
Andy lives in Covington, Georgia. He thinks he is funny. andyirwin.com/
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FESTIVAL ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Paul Strickland
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
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SPECIAL GUESTS
TRUE THEATRE
True Theatre is Cincinnati’s longest-running storytelling event, having just started its 15th season of building community through the sharing of true, personal stories. Each evening that they produce has a theme around which the stories focus. For example, themes from their last season included the neighborhoods of Cincinnati, money, hands, and scams. This year, as part of their annual contribution to the Cincinnati Storytelling Festival, they’ve asked one storyteller from each of these shows to reprise their story for you. We know you’ll love them (the stories and the tellers)!
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True Theatre is always looking for more storytellers and, of course, more audience members, so if you’d like to learn more about them and how you can be involved, visit their website at truetheatre.org .
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Storytellers: Leslie Mattie Rich, Curtis Shepard, Dawn Caudill, Steve Groh
ASL interpreters: Dawn Caudill and Jason Caudill
Host: David Levy
SPONSORS
Presenting Sponsors:
Josh Wallace and
Jill & Paul Staubitz
featured teller sponsors: Ellen & Garrett Jackson
housing sponsors: Mary Rita Dominic & Buddy Goose
communications sponsors: Joan Kaup & Rick Pender
preview night sponsor: West Side Brewing
program sponsors: Norah Mock and
Joe Mock of Cutler Real Estate
hospitality sponsor: Patrick Cusick
neighborhood sponsors: Jean & Bob Willis
staff sponsor: Mike Flanders
graphics sponsor: Jay Kalagayan
finale sponsor: Dawn Willis
FESTIVAL STAFF
Artistic Director: Paul Strickland
Managing Producer: Alice Flanders
Associate Producer: Erika MacDonald
Box Office Manager: Nicole Hershey
Social Media: Katie Hartman
Graphic Design: Cal harris
SPECIAL THANKS
West Side Brewing and their incredible staff
Westwood Works
Know Theatre of Cincinnati
The Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library
Mikki Schaffner Photography
our Wonderful Volunteers:
Alexx Rouse
Bridget Leak
Dania Smith
Karen DePinto
Katie Hartman
Katie Stewart
Lucía Duque
Melinda Grisco
Nicole Hershey
Paul Wilson
Ri Moodie
Rilla Foster
Robyn Novak
Rory Sheridan
Russell Bell
Trey Tatum
Zach Robinson