Misha Safran has been singing and creating songs since she was five years young—that’s 50 years! Growing up, Misha also spent a lot of time listening to folk songs, classic rock, and the blues. Today, Misha is a social justice song writer and sings about topics that are sometimes uncomfortable but thought-provoking and relatable to many. Check out Misha’s YouTube channel.

Eleanor Clement Glass delights children with folktales from around the world as a Volunteer Storyteller at the Asian Art Museum. She also tells personal family stories from her Black and Filipino cultures. Eleanor contributes to Asian American Storytopia, a YouTube channel offering Asian folktales and cultural activities by Asian American Storytellers for young children (K-5), as a way to combat Asian hate. As a cultural ambassador with Eth-Noh-Tec, she has exchanged stories with storytellers in China and South Korea. 

Magda Peck has been known throughout her career for weaving powerful personal stories into leadership practice for the public’s health and equity. About 10 years ago, she took a deeper dive into the art and science of storytelling for social change, first as an Urban StoryTelling Fellow with Ex Fabula in Milwaukee, then with StoryCenter and StageBridge, in Oakland.  Her latest intergenerational collaboration, SquareRoot Stories, builds storytelling skills and strategies in communities across the country for healthier women, children and families. Magda loves how a light cracks through when our hardest stories are honed and heard from the inside out.

Gerry Keenan has been telling stories for many years as a writer and fine art photographer. Ten years ago she decided to add spoken word telling to her lexicon of written word stories and the stories her photos evoke. She thinks stories may be in her DNA as she grew up intrigued by her Irish father’s ‘gift of gab’ and her Polish mother’s family tales of ‘the old country’ and credits Stagebridge and its EPIC program for giving her the tools to take her stories on-stage.

Melinda Ginne, Ph.D., is a psychologist with over 40 years of experience in geriatrics and treating the psychological aspects of major medical illnesses. She draws inspiration from Glinda the Good Witch (Billie Burke), Oliver Sacks, Sid Caesar, and Imogene Coca. For generations, her family lived in Boyle Heights, the Jewish-Latino comunidad of East Los Angeles where tacos were kosher and the Shul was directly across the street from the Catholic Church. She is a graduate of the EPIC storytelling program at Stagebridge in Oakland and has been telling stories on Bay Area stages for many years.

Lois Kincy has been a clown and is now a writer and teller. A wellness facilitator to a wellness circle of kinship caregivers called I Take Care of Me Too, she has focused on the importance of keeping a life for ourselves as we care for others. As a graduate of the Stagebrige’s EPIC program, she has come to know that any story is a personal story when you find yourself in it.

Rose Owens is a storyteller, writer, artist, mother to seven children, and grandmother to twenty-five grandchildren. She tells family stories, original stories, and her own adaptations of folk and fairy tales, has published the Maryalise Trilogy (three middle grade fantasy novels) and has a master’s degree in Special Education.

Sally Holzman has had many titles in her lifetime—daughter, wife, teacher, mother, storyteller. Tonight you will hear of others, from the world of make believe to today’s reality.

Claire Isaacs Wahrhaftig, after retiring from a career in arts administration, started studying storytelling at Stagebridge. Just when she thinks she is out of stories, one pops up in her subconscious and it is a thrill to share.

Stories

• Shirley Smallwood, “DWAB (Driving While Almost Black)”
• Claire Wahrhaftig, “White Like Me”
• Ida Johnson, “Weave of Wonders – An Armenian Tale”
• Ben Tucker, “Play Ball!”
• Kiran Rana, “Nasruddin Visits the City” 
• Albertina Zarazúa Padilla, “How? ¿Como?”

Music

Bunny Numpkins and the Kill Blow Up Reaction: Little Johnny Bowling Ball (vocals and guitar), Miles Steuding (drums), Kelsey Ahern (accordion), Lady Mondegreen (vocals) and Leslie Outhier (bass)

Bunny Numpkins is from Oakland, California. They started around 2005 as a backup band for a puppet and continued on to play quirky pop with songs about months, board games, and geographic musings.

Shirley Smallwood is a vocalist, actor and voiceover talent, and finds it very important to know her family and not lose sight of family history, as she believes we must continue to teach and inform those who come after us.

Claire Wahrhaftig, a retired former arts administrator and  Director of the San Francisco Arts Commission, joined the Eth-Noh-Tec Nu Wa delegation to swap stories with Chinese villagers in 2018.

Ida Johnson loves sharing old tales at Stagebridge programs, school classrooms, and story swaps.  As a retired teacher and school librarian, she finds that a good story can be enjoyed whether you’re 7 or 87.

Ben Tucker (Brother Ben)’s stories includes personal and historical characters that touch on universal themes. His stories take you back to the front porch, kitchen table, or campfire. iambentucker.com

Kiran Rana was born and raised in India, but in 1973 he traveled to the West, where he joined a Sufi mystical school. In 2014, after many years as a publisher of self-help books, he gave up publishing and became a full-time teacher of Sufism. At the same time he started taking storytelling and playwriting classes at Stagebridge. His stories draw on Sufi sources, folk tales, personal stories and his own writing.

Albertina Zarazúa Padilla is Co-Founder of MiHistoria.net, curator for its online story archive, and workshop facilitator. Born to a farmworker family in Monterey, California, Albertina was the first in her family to attend college. Albertina’s storytelling work with farmworker women has led to public presentations before live audiences. 

Stories

• Jeff Byers, Bajan Budiman, Sharpshooter
• Melissa Hobbs, The Wife of Bath Tells the Truth
• Melinda Ginne, Sam Meets Pearl, Montreal 1916
• Dana Sherry, The City of Women (a Kazakh legend)
• Gerry Keenan, Counting by Sevens

Music

Kate Brubeck (vocals) and Geoff Van Linden (guitar)

Jeff Byers has appeared several times at Tell It on Tuesday over the years (Thank you Rebecca and Bridget!). He has also told at numerous other venues, but most often at the Asian Art Museum, where he is a storyteller and storytelling coach.

Melissa Hobbs is a graduate of the EPIC storytelling program at Stagebridge in Oakland, CA. She tells stories to children in spiritual virtues training, and tells uplifting stories in the Bay Area and Northern California. Her favorites are biographies of women of excellence. She also tells tales of her own life Ohio and Bodega.

Dr. Melinda Ginne grew up in the suburbs of Los Angeles, the granddaughter of four Russian emigres. All of whom had escaped the pogroms in Russia 105 years ago. This story is about her father’s family who emigrated to Montreal Quebec.

Dana Sherry was once a respectable historian of Russia until she turned to a life of storytelling. Today, she is the resident storyteller at the Silk Road House in Berkeley and produces “The Caravan of Stories,” a monthly storytelling series featuring the traditional tales of Central Asia.

According to her family, Gerry Keenan’s been ‘telling stories’ since she could talk. It’s only since taking her first storytelling class at Stagebridge that she realized what an art form a well-told story is. This is Gerry’s first theater performance. Her other life? Retired non-profit exec. Now? Photographer/writer/budding storyteller and proud mother of three adult children.

Kate Brubeck—no relation to Dave—is an editor, coach, and writing consultant with a stealth singing practice, with a range including classical music, traditional Irish music, show tunes, jazz standards, folk, Americana, country, and the odd original.

Geoff Van Lienden has been playing the guitar professionally since the 60’s. More recently he has been playing jazz as well as celtic/fusion music with Colm O’Riain. He has studied with teachers as diverse as rock guitarist Joe Satriani and jazz guitarist Brian Pardoe.

Music

Levona, ethnic fusion – a combination of Arabic, Jewish, and Flamenco music. Featuring Faisal Zedan (percussion, vocals(, Josh Mellinger (percussion), Patrick Kelly (Bass), David McLean (guitar), Asaf Ophir (woodwinds, vocals)

Tom Pulsifer has been taking storytelling classes at Stagebridge since his retirement in 2015, and continues to develop his skills as a participant in the EPIC Storytelling Program at Stagebridge. Tom volunteers as a history docent for the Oakland Museum of California, and is particularly interested in applying the craft of storytelling to making history come alive.

Claire Isaacs Wahrhaftig is a retired arts administrator who, thanks to Stagebridge, at last gets to practice an art! She appeared in Tell it on Tuesday in April this year and has told at the Frank Bette Center for the Arts for three years, at the Piedmont Center for the Arts, and for Story Corps.
                   
Ellen Kaufman is grateful for the stories that she has to tell. Even the painful ones mellow out over time.

Bill Zarchy circumnavigated the globe many times during his 40 years as a cinematographer. Now he likes to write novels and tell tales about his work and travels across six continents.

Ben Tucker loves a good story, well told. He says it nourishes his mind and soul.

Levonah is a cross-cultural celebration that combines music from around the world with the age-old tradition of storytelling. The ensemble rose out of the highly acclaimed Bay Area musical Love Sick, and is currently nominated for Best Ensemble at the Theatre Bay Area Awards in October 2017. Master musicians from Syria, Israel, and the United States come together to weave a rich tapestry of sounds that is at once a taste of the orient, and a new creation all on its own – the kind of energy that only comes when distant cultures overlap, and celebrate their differences.

Stories

• Elana Levy, Sacred Connections to Auschwitz
• Jan M. Goodman, Angel
• Ellen Kaufman, LA to EL-E:  Destiny’s Calling
• Ellen Sprecher, The Past is Present
• BevieJean, Imitation of Life
• Sally Holzman, Urban Equestrian

Music

Karen Sellinger, acoustic guitar

Elana Levy has appeared as a featured poet in several venues in the Bay Area. She produced her own weekly radio show, worked within a women’s radio collective, as well as a video collective in Syracuse, NY. Elana has breathed in Auschwitz Concentration Camp six times on meditation retreats. 

Jan M. Goodman recently retired after four decades of service as a teacher, principal and curriculum specialist in public education. Her storytelling is inspired by thousands of students, families, educators and others whose lives fortunately intersected with hers while working to create a better world for children.

Ellen Kaufman, having spent 40 years in the healthcare industry, is currently “rewired”. She has been exploring storytelling and improvisation at Stagebridge since the spring of 2014, and finds it thrilling to revisit her past through a creative lens.

Ellen Sprecher’s inaugural experience with taking her story into “prime time” is happening tonight. Her wish is that those who don’t believe in the mysteries of life will think again. 

BevieJean is a writer, adventurist and storyteller who officially debuted her work bWonderfilled at San Francisco’s Roots Gallery in April 2014. BevieJean has traveled and lived and worked abroad for many years. She enjoys sharing her rich repertoire of insights and perspectives. 

Sally Holzman went from horse crazy teenager to storyteller in one fabulous summer month. Now as a senior she loves to share stories of the gentle time of her youth to inspire others to join the fun and tell their stories.

Karen Sellinger is a local classical guitarist who loves to offer her music to add a touch of warmth and elegance to any gathering.

Stories

• Terry Stokes, Tour de France with Chris
• Ann Riley, California or Bust
• Micki Cooper, Driving History
• Jenn Biehn, Why Do Salmon Leap?
• Cynthia Cudaback, Emerald City
• Vivien Cook, Sabbatical Year and Survivor Guilt Oakland Fire Storm

Music

Ariel: JJ Jenkins & George Petersen, vocals, acoustic guitar & hand drum

Terry Stokes is a retired Film Editor-turned-storyteller, singer and actor performing in a variety of productions since moving to the Bay Area in ‘06. Personal adventures and tragedies, fables and fairy tales, and literary stories are his favorites. 

Ann Riley has been telling stories since the first time she needed an alibi.

Micki Cooper launched her career starring as Puck in Hilltop Elementary School’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. After a 48-year hiatus from the stage, she found Stagebridge and rekindled her love for performing.

Jenn Biehn loves weaving stories that strengthen our experience of wonder and possibility.  She is passionate about building community, practicing restorative justice, and exploring wilderness. 

Cynthia Cudaback is an Oakland native, an oceanographer, a physics teacher, a mother, wife and storyteller. She loves to tie her interests together in mythic tales of the ocean that also teach science, but tonight she’s doing something different.

Vivien Cook is a storytelling poet currently working on twenty poems for performance. She is also hard at work editing her first novel.

Stories

Where Have All the Flowers Gone: Stories of the 60’s

• Jim Barnard, “Thou Shalt Not Kill”
• Susan Goldstein, “Interludes of the 60’s”
• Janet Griffith, “Paul is Dead”
• Edward Hamilton,” White Flower Day”
• Hilary Kaiser, “Paris, 1968”
• Ann Riley, “Mario Savio Speech”
• Linda Wright, “Voter Registration”

Music

ARIEL: JJ Jenkins & George Petersen, vocals, acoustic guitar & hand drum
Music of the 60’s

Jim Barnard opposed the Vietnam War, and came to believe that war, under any circumstances, could never be morally justified.  There must be better ways to solve our conflicts.

Susan Goldstein is a retired college teacher who is delighted to find a way to have an audience without having to grade papers. She rejects the idea that “if you remember the 60’s, you weren’t really there.”

Since her retirement as a psychologist in 2010, Janet Griffith has enjoyed exploring new worlds, sometimes by creating stories about old times.

Edward Hamilton, since retiring from his position as Chair of the City College of San Francisco’s Culinary Arts and Hospitality Studies Department, has found a new creative passion in storytelling.

Hilary Kaiser, like Josephine Baker (who once sang “I have two loves, my country and Paris”), is an American who has been living in Paris for some 40 years.

Ann Riley became a storyteller the first time she got in trouble and needed a good ‘story’. She has been telling stories ever since. She is on the board of the Storytelling Association of California, and enjoys telling at the Asian Art Museum.

Linda Wright is a passionate and talented storyteller who brings history to life.  Linda has been telling stories around the Bay Area and conducts workshops for children and adults.

ARIEL features award-winning songwriters JJ Jenkins & George Petersen, and has been a Bay area music staple for over 30 years, sharing the bill with such luminaries as Santana, Starship, John Lee Hooker and Metallica to name a few.

Stories

• Susan Goldstein, My Trip to California
• Karin Werner, The Tell Tale Heart
• Abe Bernstein, The Discourager of Hesitancy
• Cynthia Cudaback, Hard Shells
• Ann Riley, The Story Spirits

Music

Freddy and the Freeloaders
(Way Better then Your Average Jazz Band)

Susan Goldstein moved to Los Angeles to go to college. When she came to Berkeley, she felt she was, at last, where she belonged. She has found another home at Stagebridge.

Karin Werner began a lifelong love affair with stories when she received her first library card in Cody, Wyoming. Many library cards later, she reaches back into myth and memory to create her own personal style. She is active with Pilgrim Tellers who tell epics and has appeared as Featured Teller in local swaps as well as many school and community venues.

Abe Bernstein is a writer, teacher, actor, and geezer who tells stories from time to time. Some are old, but unfamiliar, folk tales and ghost stories. Some are made up on the spur of the moment. Some are drawn from his life; of those, a few represent wishful thinking, a few are true, and a few, he hopes, are true stories that simply haven’t happened yet.

After operating research vessels, getting a PhD in oceanography and teaching college for seven years, Cynthia Cudaback decided to combine her passions for science, exploration, teaching and storytelling. Her stories combine the mystery and myth of the ocean with personal experiences and real science. From gentle tales of love and longing to tall tales salted with sea spray, prepare to experience the ocean in all its moods.

Ann Riley has been telling stories ever since she needed her first alibi. She tells for Stagebridge, in schools, at the Asian Art Museum, and is on the board of the Storytelling Association of California.

Freddy and the Freeloaders has been playing around the Bay Area for three years, with the majority of the gigs played in Marin County, Richmond, and the City.