Gary Carden
Featured storyteller
“Preaching to the Chickens”
“I told my first stories to my grandfather’s chickens in a dark chicken-house when I was six years old. My audience wasn’t attentive and tended to get hysterical during the dramatic parts.”
Raised by his grandparents, Gary Carden grew up listening to Appalachian and Cherokee folktales. A graduate of Western Carolina University, he taught English and drama there for 15 years and spent the next 15 years working for the Cherokee tribal government. He became a full-time storyteller in 1984. Carden has written books and plays that also in audio and video formats.
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Cynthia Moore Brown
“Folktales & Ghost Stories of Piedmont N.C”
Cynthia Moore Brown has been an acclaimed performer and educator for over three decades in North Carolina, the South, and Europe. She is the star of stage, television, &radio. Her stories are frequently on NPR WFDD. She retired after 30 years of being a librarian, then a K-5 Art Specialist and now uses her many talents to bring texture to her down home Southern style. She is co-founder of the NC Storytelling Guild and a festival organizer. |
Ramona Moore Big Eagle
Ramona Moore Big Eagle travels throughout the United States and Canada as a Motivational Speaker, Cultural Educator, Consultant, Workshop Facilitator and Storyteller. Her workshops and programs of American Indian culture and history delivered through the art of Storytelling, authentic artifacts, music, drumming, dance, and crafts have been educating and empowering audiences of all ages since 1976.
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Dorothy Morrison
My story, "Short'nin' Bread," addresses the pains and pleasures of cotton mill life and race relations in Statesville, North Carolina in the 1950's. This performance highlights the rich musical heritage of this region, including country, blue grass and African-American spirituals. My nephew Ray Morrison, is my accompanist, and demonstrates his skill on the guitar, banjo, mandolin and harmonica, a tradition passed down in our family for generations. The Morrison family story transports the audience from the small and sad struggles of the day to the great and glad celebration of Southern life.
Ray Morrison is local musican residing in the Charlotte area. He provides vocals and mandolin for the Charlotte-based band, "The Masonboro Boys." The band's first full-length album, "Steady on a Tight Wire," was completed in the Fall of 2008.
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Anthony S. Abbott is the author of two novels and six books of poetry, including the Pulitzer nominated The Girl in the Yellow Raincoat. His awards include the Novello Literary Award for Leaving Maggie Hope (2003), and the Oscar Arnold Young Award for The Man Who (2005).
Margaret Maron is the author of twenty-six novels and two collections of short stories. Winner of several major American awards for mysteries (Edgar, Agatha, Anthony, Macavity), her works are on the reading lists of various courses in contemporary Southern literature and have been translated into 16 languages. She has served as president of Sisters in Crime, the American Crime Writers League, and Mystery Writers of America.