The final Converging Stories event of the 2020 season is almost here!
The Raleigh live storytelling series from Raleigh Convergence with our partner Transfer Company will hold Converging Stories: Fear on Oct. 26.
On the Monday before Halloween, join us for Converging Stories and hear community storytellers share true, first-person stories on the night’s theme.
Our guest emcee for this event will be Carly Prentis Jones! Carly is a performing artist, community organizer, and arts administrator living and working in her home city of Raleigh.
Over the last decade, Carly has performed opera, musical theatre, classic and contemporary theatre on stages throughout the Triangle. She also enjoys bringing people together and has led community work for a variety of grassroots organizations around social justice, city planning, events, and policy.
When she is not on stage or out in the community, Carly works as the Program Director for Artists & Organizations at the NC Arts Council, where she enjoys supporting arts organizations and artists across the state. People and stories bring her pure joy, and she is excited to be a part of Converging Stories! You can read more about her latest personal projects at: www.carlyprentisjones.com.
Meet the storytellers:
Storyteller Robin Simonton has been the Executive Director of Historic Oakwood Cemetery since November of 2011. Robin holds a BA in US History from the University of Hawaii and an MA in Historical Administration from Eastern Illinois University. Previously, she was the Program and Volunteer Services Executive at Girl Scouts — North Carolina Coastal Pines. Robin served as the researcher of the book Oahu Cemetery: Burial Ground & Historic Site, written by Nanette Napoleon in 1997 and wrote a case study in the book Cemetery Tours and Programming in 2017 by Rachel Wolgemuth. She and the Cemetery’s Historian Bruce Miller wrote Images of America: Historic Oakwood Cemetery, published in 2017. Currently, Robin is a member of the Board of Directors of the Wake County Historical Society and the Association for Gravestone Studies. Robin and her husband Jeff live in Rolesville with their 10-year-old son, Cullen.
Storyteller Kaleah Smith lives in Apex with her husband, Kenny and 3 kids. She is a proud UNC alum and has an MBA from Duke’s Fuqua School of Business. She leads a sales team as a district business manager for a large health care company. The most effective sales people are story tellers at heart.
Kaleah believes that our stories are powerful gifts meant to be shared. She enjoys connecting with people through uncomfortable conversations and learning from differing perspectives. She’ll take a good story over small talk any day.
Kaleah enjoys playing with her kids, working out, reading and writing. A goal digger, Kaleah challenges herself to practice new skills — 2020 goals include sharing stories in a more public forum.
Storyteller Leah Finch is an old soul and a creative at heart. Her formal working hours are spent connecting with Etix clients all over the US, as she equips them with tools to most effectively use Etix’s proprietary ticketing platform. She delights in layering empathy and connection with teaching and technique to intersect with people representing diverse backgrounds. In her margin time, she oscillates between several creative pursuits.
Leah enjoys walking with her neighbors downtown, sketching the city before it awakens, joining poetry competitions, writing for her neighborhood newsletter, dancing her heart out at Zumba, and delivering fresh-baked concoctions to unsuspecting passersby. Ultimately, she finds the most solace in the deep and beautiful spaces of the human experience.
Storyteller Sadashiv Patil is now a resident of Raleigh, but also spent a good part of his life in New York.
“I hail from a small town of Bijapur from India. I’m working as a Senior Software engineer for little over a decade, for an investment bank here. I love to cook, garden and would love to share my life story with you all!”
Storyteller David Overton:
David Overton is a Raleigh native. One of his favorite things is to set up a couple of chairs, outside, somewhere nice, where the two of you can chat and laugh. He currently thinks perfection just might be found under an old oak tree in the fall, but that changes with the season.
PREVIOUSLY: Meet the storytellers for Converging Stories: Coming Home
ABOUT THE SERIES: Converging Stories, a new live storytelling series
