Converging Stories, the live storytelling series from Raleigh Convergence x Transfer Company, is hosting another evening of connection and community on Monday, Aug. 10, at 7 p.m.!
Join us for interactive night of community storytelling, around the theme of “Coming Home,” from your own home.
Community storytellers — your neighbors — have been coached to share their true, first-person story on the theme.
Buy your tickets now at Eventbrite.
Join Converging Stories at 7 p.m. and hear a selection of tracks and tunes hand-picked by Transfer Company’s director – and former Hopscotch DJ – Nick Neptune!
This evening’s theme of Coming Home will be interpreted by Neptune through his selection of arrival songs and stories.
Meet the storytellers:
Johnny Lee Chapman, III, is an interdisciplinary artist from Fuquay-Varina. He started writing as a “Tumblr poet” in 2010 during his first-year at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as a student in the Dental Hygiene program.
In 2014, he made the leap from the page to the stage beginning his career as a spoken word artist. Since then, he has performed both regionally and nationally and is an active voice within his Triangle community.
His professional range has expanded to include facilitation of poetry showcases, workshops, and keynote speaking; he has worked with the Black Poetry Theater as both a playwright and actor. Lee also operates as a visual artist under the name The Golden Moment utilizing the mediums of film and photography to convey emotion without explanation.
Dakota Batch was raised in Texas, in a household whose foundation was built on the family’s matriarch. By observing her mother’s ability to lead and connect with others, Dakota herself became interested in understanding people’s lives through listening to their stories.
To this day, Dakota strives to better empathize with others by placing herself in their shoes and seeing the world through their vantage point. Dakota is a Ph.D. student at NC State’s Wilson College of Textiles studying entrepreneurial ecosystems within the North Carolina Textile industry.
As the project manager for an NC State group called Advancement of Women Entrepreneurs, she organized events where people connected by telling stories about lived experiences. Dakota is currently teaching design and business management summer camps to students and will lead her first product development course in the fall of 2020. In her spare time, she enjoys naturally dyeing textiles, quilting, and designing apparel for children.
Originally from Raleigh, Lee Pike attended East Carolina University where she earned her BA in Psychology with a minor in dance, the latter motivating her to relocate to Chicago shortly after graduation. It was there she discovered—and fell in love with— Chicago’s burgeoning coffee industry.
Soon she embarked on her own coffee career, eventually joining Larry’s Coffee, a certified B Corporation. Currently she is the Development and Outreach Coordinator with Activate Good and studies Non-Profit Management at NC State University, while continuing her work as a board member for the International Women’s Coffee Alliance and the North Carolina Specialty Foods Association.
She also co-founded the Raleigh Chapter of The Handsome Ladies, a 501(c)3 supporting women in bluegrass and participates in monthly bluegrass jams (while attempting to sing as little as possible). Lee also enjoys practicing yoga, and she still dances.
Buy your tickets now at Eventbrite.
Meet the emcee:
Charles Phaneuf will be our special guest emcee on Monday, sharing the virtual stage with Converging Stories’ producer, Raleigh Convergence editor and publisher Sarah Day Owen Wiskirchen, in support of local community storytellers.
Charles will also share a short story around the theme of Coming Home.
About Charles: Charles Phaenuf is the President of the United Arts Council, a local arts agency that has worked for more than 30 years to build a better Raleigh and Wake County through support of and advocacy for the arts.
His career started at UNC-Chapel Hill where he served as president of the student union, and continued in New York and Washington, DC. His previous leadership roles include Associate Managing Director of Shakespeare Theatre Company and Executive Director of Raleigh Little Theatre. Charles has been named Tar Heel of the Week by the News and Observer (2018) and 40 Under 40 by the Triangle Business Journal (2014), and he was selected as one of 19 People for 2019 by the INDY Week.
He enjoys biking, golf and playing music, often with his wife Emily, who is also a musician and teaches in Wake County Public Schools.
The ticketed live storytelling event will be at 7 p.m. Monday. Buy tickets on Eventbrite.
PREVIOUSLY: Converging Stories live storytelling series
MAY EVENT: Meet the storytellers for “What If?”
FEB EVENT: Stories of love and a sold-out crowd at Transfer Company
