Carmen Agra Deedy was born in Havana, Cuba, and immigrated to the United States with her family in 1963 during the aftermath of the Cuban Revolution. She grew up in Decatur, Georgia. The combination of her Latin American and Southern heritage has had a rich influence upon her work.
"She has charmed and mesmerized thousands of adults and children with her performances as a storyteller at schools, conferences, bookstores, and museums across the country and in Canada. She has performed at the Disney Institute, on Broadway at the New Victory Theater, at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, and the Kennedy Center, as well as many other storytelling festivals nationwide.
John McCutcheon has "the charisma of Pete Seeger, the eloquence of a poet, the repertoire of a library, and the virtuosity of an orchestra." His performances are legendary events that reach into human doings and find strings that tie all of us together. Numerous reviewers have called him one of the most versatile and powerful songwriters of the 1990's, and his more than twenty record albums have been greeted with critical and popular acclaim. John is also performing with symphony orchestras to audiences of all ages. A multi-instrumentalist wonder, John is a master at leading into a song with a story.
Fusing music, poetry and her intoxicating gift for storytelling, wildly original spoken word artist Minton Sparks releases her latest triumph, Open Casket. Her debut live show DVD is yet another ground breaking performance that further proves Sparks is in a category all her own. Sparks peeks over the edge into the warm spot where most would prefer sleeping relatives lie. Open Casket is a raucous, provocative, brilliant one-woman show featuring Minton alongside world-class musicians.
Sparks graduated from the University of the South with a BA in Psychology and then from Vanderbilt University in 1991 with a Master's of Education in Human Development Counseling. Awarded the "Leonard Bernstein Fellowship" in 1998, Sparks soon began to teach poetry within the Tennessee high school system offering classes that were funded by the fellowship. Sparks serves as adjunct professor of Psychology at Tennessee State University for the past 13 years in addition to teaching several classes in Women's Psychology at Middle Tennessee State University in 1994. She resides in Nashville with her husband and two children.
A native of Covington, GA, Andy started out in comedy, but added music and storytelling because he had a lot more to say. In storytelling circles,he is especially known for relating the adventures of his eighty-five-year-old aunt, Marguerite Van Camp, M.D.
He has been a Teller in Residence at International Storytelling Center; a Guest Artist at La Guardia High School of Art, Music, and Performing Arts in New York (The “FAME!” School); and he has been a Keynote Speaker/Performer at the Library of Congress-Virburnum Foundation Conference on Family Literacy.
He is an award winning recording artist with five titles and growing.
Andy used to have real jobs: from 1991 to 2007 he was Artist-In-Residence in Theatre at Oxford College of Emory University. He spent five years writing, directing and performing with the comedy improv troupe, SAK Theatre at Walt Disney World. But he’s had lots of more interesting life experience-type employment, including – but not limited to – actor, camp counselor, political satirist, youth director, janitor, deputy voter registrar, theatre orchestra conductor, garbage man, teacher, carpenter’s flunky,and bullfrog tadpole catcher (Honest).
Kathryn Windham
There is no other place where Southern culture is more evident than in the state of Alabama. Well known for being home to a rich musical and social history, it has also become home to Kathryn Windham, a master storyteller, author of over 20 books, playwright, photographer, and popular public television and radio personality. She is best known for her ghost tales and has published several of them. Her honesty and simple delivery amuses audiences no matter what kind of story she is telling. A true Southern treasure, she proudly claims to not have anything in her home that was invented after 1960!
Click here for more information on Kathryn Windham.
This performance is funded, in part, by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the Southern Arts Federation and the Tennessee Art Agency.
