fESTIVAL agENDA and tickets
Schedule of events
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
12:30 Doors Open
1:00 Welcome
1:10 – 1:40 – Regional Tellers – Mike Tomson and Meghna Bhat
1:40 – 2:25 – Workshop -Roopa Mohan
2:25 – 2:35 – BREAK
2:35 – 3:20 – Regional Tellers – Tom Wade, Anne Rutherford and Norm Brecke
3:20 – 3:30 – BREAK
3:30 – 4:15 – Open Mic
4:15 – 4:45 – Featured Speaker – Roopa Mohan
4:45 – 5:00 – Closing Remarks
more about our Regional Tellers
Anne Rutherford. Award-winning storyteller Anne Rutherford appears regularly in storytelling festivals across the nation, including the 2025 National Storytelling Festival in Tennessee, where she returns for her fourth appearance as Teller in Residence at the International Storytelling Center this summer. Anne has earned Storytelling World Awards for five of her eight recordings, and produces the popular online show The Good Liars Club with her husband, storyteller Norm Brecke.. A champion liar, she is five-time winner of the Northwest Folklife Festival's Liar's Contest — but her tales ring true even when they’re full of malarkey. Find more at www.anne-norm.com/annerutherford.
Dr. Meghna Bhat (she/her) is a first‑generation South Asian immigrant, award‑winning storyteller, and creative disruptor using narrative to advance gender and social justice. Through trauma‑informed storytelling, she sparks dialogue, challenges cultural norms, and nurtures intergenerational healing. As the founder of Gulabi Stories, her initiative amplifies South Asian voices with intention, joy, and compassion. As a 2025 ORACLE Award recipient for regional service and leadership, Meghna lights up stages from the NSN Oracle Award concert to Capital Storytelling’s Immigrant Stories, MN StoryFest, Berkeley’s First Person Story, Sacramento Storytelling Guild, and the Women's Storytelling Festival.
Mike Tomson captivates his audiences with his life stories and indigenous lore.
Raised in an oral island tradition, he remembers histories,carved in the rafters, shared in the fire light.
Mike understands the power words have to shape our perceptions and our experiences.
In navigation he was taught how our stories pull everything in the world to us.
Mike invites us to travel in our imagination knowing that whatever we can imagine we can have. He also reminds us that stories nourish our soul.
Prepare to suspend your attachment to time and space as we journey with him to places far and near, past and present.
Norm Brecke started telling stories seriously in 2002, and has subsequently grown to be a national storyteller. Since 2012, Norm Brecke has performed in over a dozen festivals around the country. Recently, he performed at the Haunting in the Hills in Tennessee, Sept. 2025, and Amelia Island Festival of Story & Song, Florida, Jan. 2026. He’s also been a weeklong Teller in Residence at the International Storytelling Center. Norm has written three books and has an award-winning CD. www.normbrecke.com
Tom Wade. An energetic teller of mostly-true tales, Tom Wade's stories engage people of all ages. Tom grew up as one of 10 kids in Michigan, has worked in mental hospitals, travelled widely, and now lives as a gardener and homestead dairyman in California. His stories draw from all of this experience with the aim of inspiring others. Tom is also a 6-time winner of the Sierra Story Slam.