PTW Community Presents: "Let Me Tell You a Story" International Storytelling Circle (Nov 2026)

Let Me Tell You a Story... 

Since May, there have been three Zoom enabled International Storytelling Circles as part of the growing array of “Performing the World Presents” activities.

They have been led by Gwen Johnson of the Letcher County (Kentucky) Culture Hub and Performing Our Future, along with Dan Friedman of the East Side Institute.  Based on and inspired by community storytelling circles developed by June Bug Productions, based in Louisiana and the Roadside Theatre based in Eastern Kentucky, the International Storytelling Circles have brought together people from Greece, India, Ireland, Romania, South Africa, and United States to share intimate stories about when they first realized they could impact on the world, how they became activists, and the impact that their grandmothers or others in their family or community have had on their development.  After participating in two circles, members of the Pandees Theatre in Delhi have adopted the storytelling circle for their own development.

As Gwen Johnson puts it, “When people from different cultures with widely divergent experiences come together to tell stories, some beautiful things can emerge.”  Sharing true stories about their lives is proving to be powerful means of connecting across borders and cultures and finding ways to move forward together. 

Join us. The next Performing the World International Storytelling Circle will take place on Thursday, November 19 at 10:00 am Eastern U.S. Time (Click the date and time to the left to see the time in your part of the world).

Leader Biographies

Gwen Johnson, a self-described hillbilly woman from the coal camp of Hemphill, Kentucky, is founder of Black Sheep Bakery and Catering and Co-Director of Hemphill Community Center. Gwen is the daughter and granddaughter of coal miners. She graduated high school unable to read beyond a second-grade level; she learned to read while reading to her children and went to college the same year as her oldest daughter, receiving a BS at the University of Pikeville and an MA at Goddard College in health arts and sciences. She has worked as an administrator in the University of Kentucky’s Early Childhood Development program since 2003. Gwen has been facilitating story circles for 10 years using Appalshop’s Road Side Theater methodology.

Dan Friedman is a playwright, director, theatre historian and life-long grassroots educator and activist.  He is a founder of the Castillo Theatre and a co-convener of Performing the World.  His book, Performance Activism: Precursors and Contemporary Pioneers, the first book-length study of performance activism, was published by Palgrave in 2021.  He currently is on the faculty of the East Side Institute, managing producer of Institute’s podcast, All Power to the Developing, and project manager of Let’s Learn! a  global community-engaged educational project of Lloyd International Honors College of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in collaboration with the  East Side Institute.  www.danfriedmannyc.org