2011 Featured Storytellers for the Gala

	Willy Claflin		Diane Ferlatte
	Willy Claflin brings an extensive repertoire of Scottish ballads and a love for rubber squeaky toys to performances that range from personal experience to personal nonsense. With an astute eye for the real as well as the absurd, Willy closely observes the vagaries of growing up and then takes a left turn into wild parody. Willy will be joined by his long time associate Maynard Moose, teller of ancient tales. Warning: performances may contain music and silliness. www.willyclaflin.com		Visiting her grandparent's in Louisiana, Diane found a home on the front porch where she spent evenings surrounded by family, neighbors, story and song. You can still hear those rhythms in her animated characterizations and lively audience interaction. And those stories of good times and hard times--whether from the bayou or Africa or right next door--arrive wrapped in song or carried along on the thumping pulse of her staff, finding "that little moment that lasts forever in one's memory." www.dianeferlatte.com
	Eth Noh Tec		Dovie Thomason
	San Francisco-based Eth-Noh-Tec offers their kinetic story theater built of precision choreography, lyrical word-weaving, and playful, poetic stories drawn from Asian cultures. Eth-Noh-Tec combines the rhythmic interplay of Nancy Wang and Robert Kikuchi Ynogojo as they layer myth, folklore and urban legends with Asian American sensibilities and music to create a storytelling blend in motion. www.ethnohtec.org		Dovie Thomason first heard the voices of the Animal People in the stories of her Lakota and Kiowa Apache relatives. With understanding and sly humor, she has joined those voices to share wise, boisterous teaching tales. Adding stories from her own life and from her people's experience, she shares a contemporary vision of the rich cultures of the First Nations of North America told with elegance, wit and passion. www.doviethomason.org