Nebraska Storytelling Festival

(KFOR NEWS October 14, 2022) Ten storytellers step to the microphone Saturday evening November 12th to share a personal story with an audience at The Lincoln Community Playhouse. Storytellers come from across Nebraska and some even have international roots in Nigeria and Ukraine. Their stories can all be considered a slice of life as they’ve observed or lived it.

“Lincoln has such a rich cultural scene, but one thing we were missing was an opportunity for people to share stories,” said Mary Kay Roth, co-founder of The Nebraska Storytelling Festival. “And one of the reasons that stories are such a valuable cultural activity is that when stories are shared, we connect with one another on so many levels.”

Following several months of planning, Roth and co-founder Randy Bretz issued a call for storytellers which resulted in the ten selected for the November event. “As we read through the applications, we became more and more excited,” noted Roth. “One person will be talking about something that impacted her life nearly 15 years ago. Another will be sharing what she’s observed in war torn Ukraine.”

The list of storytellers includes Jenny Okoliko, a Nigerian living in Lincoln and attending UNL, Milan Wall, a North Platte native and long-time resident of Lincoln, Jackie Ostrowicki an Associate Vice President of the University of Nebraska and Toni Heimes who teaches at Southwest High School. Following their selection, they gathered for a storytelling workshop recently to help prepare them for the event.

“I love stories,” said Bretz. “I love to hear them, I love to read the, I even love to write them.” Bretz invited Roth to coffee and recruited her to help plan the event. The two of them have recruited others including Jan Bretz along with Nebraska Poet Twyla Hansen who are working with Roth to help prepare the storytellers. Others involved in the event include Pat Leach, retired Director of Lincoln Public Libraries, Jodene Glaesemann with the City Libraries, Morrie Enters of the Lincoln Community Playhouse, Doug Dickeson, a local musician and media producer, William Anderson of Nebraska Public Media, Mark Stephens of Bob Stephen Associates and Rich Claussen of Olsson and Associates.

Other storytellers include Marcia White, Madison Hager, Craig Larson, Barb Schmidt, Jennifer Pool and Teiana Symnia. Emcee for the event is a fellow with his own interesting story, TV and radio host, public speaker, beatboxer, and TEDxLincoln speaker D-Wayne Taylor. A limited number of tickets are available by searching for Nebraska Storytelling at Eventbrite.com.