Healing Story Alliance is a not-for-profit, educational, arts organization which provides online resources and concert, workshop, and community programming in support of storytelling as a healing art.
Description
Laughter is good for your mental, physical, and emotional health! Join us for an evening of levity with eleven extraordinary tellers! This fundraiser will help Healing Story Alliance continue to offer high quality free and ticketed programming in support of storytelling as a healing art. Our diverse programs focus on the healing of self, community, society and the earth. We are grateful for the artistic generosity of the storytellers featured in the 2026 Midwinter Mirth Concert
Featured Storytellers
Laura Simms is an internationally acclaimed storyteller, writer, teacher and humanitarian. She combines traditional stories with personal narrative. She is artistic Director of the Hans Christian Andersen Storytelling Center in NYC and served as a Senior Research Fellow for Rutgers University Peace Center under the auspices of UNESCO. She is a founding member of the Healing Story Alliance and serves on their programming committee. Laura saved a zoo in Romania, and won the Sesame Street SUNNY DAYS AWARD for work with children worldwide. She received the Hasbro September 11 Grant designing a manual and training for storytelling for children in crisis. Laura has worked in post conflict and climate disasters with International Medical Corps, and Mercy Corps, Inc. She is a certified dharma art teacher and a senior meditation instructor in mindfulness awareness practice. She has five books and many recordings. Recently Laura was story advisor for the Fetzer Foundation Sacred Story Project. She continues to work with The Constellation. www.laurasimms.com
Heather Forest, PhD, is an award-winning storyteller, author, musician, and organic farmer. A pioneer in the American storytelling renaissance, she has appeared in theatres, schools, literature conferences, and major storytelling festivals throughout the United States and abroad. She is the author of seventeen children’s books and recordings based on multicultural folktales. A modern-day bard, her dynamic fusion of original music, poetry, and the sung and spoken word brings multicultural folktales to life in the imagination of her listeners. She has been awarded both the NSN Circle of Excellence award for storytelling skill and the Talking Leaves Award for her contribution to storytelling literature. She is President of the Board of Healing Story Alliance, Inc. and views storytelling as both a fine art and a powerful tool for positive social change. www.heatherforest.com
Motoko is the recipient of the National Storytelling Network’s 2017 Circle of Excellence Award and has enchanted audiences of all ages at schools, community centers, and in major storytelling festivals nationally since 1993. An artist celebrated for her physical eloquence and poignant tales, she trained with master mime Tony Montanaro and renowned Appalachian storyteller Elizabeth Ellis. Motoko’s repertoire includes Asian folktales, Rakugo and Zen tales, ghost stories, mime vignettes, as well as oral memoirs from her childhood in Osaka and her life as an immigrant in the U.S. She has notably appeared on PBS’ Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood and has created numerous award- winning recordings. https://motoko.folktales.net/
Lynette (Lyn) Ford is a teller of folktales, haunted tales and personal stories rooted in her family's Black Appalachian storytelling traditions; an award-winning author and published poet; an Ohio Arts Council teaching artist and Creative Aging Project presenter; a certified laughter yoga teacher, a certified laughter wellness ambassador, a great-grandmother, and a collector of gargoyles. Lyn has shared her "Heartworks: Laughter, Breath, Joy" sessions and workshops at corporate retreats, education conferences, Mom groups, the Thurber Center, and storytelling gatherings in Australia, Hawaii, across the Midwest, and at the National Storytelling Network conferences and the National Storytelling Festival. Lyn’s poetry has appeared in “Callaloo: Black Appalachia Issue” and several Women Speak anthologies. Lyn is the recipient of two NSN ORACLE Awards, and a National Association of Black Storytellers Zora Neale Hurston Award. Lyn loves sharing stories, hugs and joy. friedtales2@gmail.com
Carol Birch is a recipient of an Oracle Award for Excellence from the National Storytelling Network. Her style revitalizes language; her art is an absence of artifice; and her stories offer memories worth keeping. Her two books and eight recordings received multiple awards. She’s taught storytelling on both coasts at Loyola, Wesleyan, and Southern Ct Universities, and received two grants from NEH. Featured repeatedly at the National Storytelling Festival, international performances took her to Australia and Singapore, as well as five storytelling tours through Ireland, Scotland and England. “[Her] voice is a magnet for ears… a warm and enchanting style.” – NUVO Weekly https://carolbirchstoryteller.com/
Noa Baum is described by the Washington Post as someone who "spreads cultural truths that eclipse geopolitical boundaries...". Born and raised in Israel, Noa is an award-winning storyteller, author and coach focusing on the power of narrative to heal across divides of identity and build bridges of peace. She was an actress at Jerusalem Khan Theater, studied with Uta Hagen in NYC and holds an M.A. from NYU in drama therapy. Noa presented at The World Bank; Mayo Clinic; NSA; National storytelling Festival, Kennedy Center; USDA, and Stanford University. Noa’s memoir A Land Twice Promised won several awards including the Anne Izard Storytellers Choice Award. How the Birds Became Friends is her newest children’s book. https://www.noabaum.com/
Donna Washington is an internationally known, multiple award-winning storyteller, spoken word recording artist, and author of numerous children’s picture books. A highly animated performer, she has been entertaining, educating, and inspiring audiences with her vocal pyrotechnics, elastic face, and deep characterizations that bring folklore, literary tales, and personal narratives to life for over thirty years. Donna has been called a “Walking Disney Movie”, and told she was "better than television". https://dlwstoryteller.com/
Ed Stivender is a self-described “full-time daydreamer who moonlights as a storyteller,” He has toured the world since 1981 presenting his one-man shows in Austria, Ireland, New Zealand, Indonesia, and in festivals across the U.S. Known for his delightful mixture of whimsy, wit and wisdom, he invites his audience into an interactive dance of the imagination. The author of two books of coming-of-age stories, his writing has appeared in Reader’s Digest, Catholic Digest, and Chicken Soup for the Romantic Soul. Stivender, an NSN ORACLE Circle of Excellence award recipient, is also an award-winning Philadelphia Mummer. The Miami Herald calls him “The Robin Williams of Storytelling.” https://patchworkstorytelling.org/ed-stivender
Andy Offutt Irwin, with a silly putty voice, hilarious heart-filled stories, and amazing mouth noises (arguably, the greatest whistler in the world) is equal parts mischievous schoolboy and the Marx Brothers, peppered with a touch of the Southern balladeer. He has performed at Walt Disney World and LaGuardia High School of Performing Arts in New York. He has been a Keynote Speaker/Performer at the Library of Congress-Viburnum Foundation Conference on Family Literacy, and he has appeared numerous times at the National Storytelling Festival. Andy is the recipient of multiple awards, including the NSN Oracle Circle of Excellence, and a Special Congressional Recognition – for outstanding and invaluable service to the community – from Rep. John Lewis. Andy lives in Covington, Georgia. He thinks he is funny. https://andyirwin.com/
Paul Strickland is a full-time professional storyteller and coach who lives in Covington, KY. He was a Featured Teller at the National Storytelling Festival in 2023 and a Teller-in-Residence at the International Storytelling Center in 2024. 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. He has won “Best of Fest” numerous times at Fringe Theatre Festivals in the US and Canada, and selections from some of his funny-forward performances can be heard on Sirius/XM Radio. The Cincinnati Enquirer says, “An hour spent with master storyteller Paul Strickland is an hour well spent”. https://www.ainttrue.com/
Robert Kikuchi-Yngojo, is an interdisciplinary story theater artist who is a founding member of the world renown performance troupe, Eth-Noh-Tec. His work offers precision choreography, music and lyrical word-weaving. He performs ancient Asian mythologies, folktales and urban legends along with contemporary Asian American inspiring stories. With Eth-Noh-Tec he has performed nationally and internationally, has appeared on NPR’s All Things Considered and PBS, and is proud to have performed in President Clinton’s and Obama’s Inaugural Celebrations. Eth-Noh-Tec is a recipient of the NSN’s ORACLE Circle of Excellence and International StoryBridge awards. https://www.ethnohtec.org/
EMCEE
Lani Peterson, PsyD, known for telling and encouraging personal stories, has a specialty in story exploration as a healing art and change agent. Her background includes over 25 years as a professional storyteller and story coach combined with a doctorate in psychology from William James College, a master's in counseling psychology from Lesley University and an undergraduate degree in literature from Smith College. She has taught Effective Organizational Communications Skills for Non-Profit Leaders in the master's program at Wheelock College as well as Healing through our Stories in the Expressive Therapies master's track at Lesley University. From CEO's to scientists, doctors, mental health providers, ministers and the homeless, Lani has worked with individuals, groups and organizations to help people find their stories, share their stories, and come together with a deeper level of connection and understanding. Her ongoing mission is to bring to light and share the stories that will open doors within and between storytellers and listeners alike. https://lanipeterson.com/
Date & Time
Sun, Jan 11, 2026 8:00 PM - 10:00 PM