When Jessica Piscitelli Robinson called me to say that she was thinking of organizing this “Women’s Storytelling Festival”, my first thought was “of course you are.” Jessica is an impressive storyteller. As Co-Author and promoter of “Roar: True Tales of Women Warriors,” she has already demonstrated a commitment to elevating the female voice. (Proceeds from the sale of the book go to the National Network to End Domestic Violence, by the way.)
Since meeting Jessica I have heard her tell about her struggles with fertility, rape, mansplaining, and what she has sacrificed in the name of “love.” Stories about these topics could go several directions, right? Jessica does not glamorize, dramatize, ask for pity, or make herself a hero in her storytelling. She takes difficult topics and makes them somehow universal; she’ll make you see things from her point of view – which can be very uncomfortable (she makes people cry), but then you realize that she’s right there in front of you, and if she’s a survivor, that means that you are one too.
Watch Jessica’s Roar story here. Trigger warning – rape.
Jessica would be intimidating if she wasn’t so kind and authentic. Not only is she the founder of “Better Said Than Done,” which produces at least 12 storytelling shows per year, she also owns and runs a full-time videography business, Capture Video, Inc. She has performed for The Moth, Story District, Stories from the Stage, The Grapevine, Stories in the Round, Perfect Liars Club, George Mason University’s Fall for the Book Festival, and multiple other venues. In 2018 she performed on the Exchange Place Stage at the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, TN. She was recently was chosen to be a “New Voice” in the Stone Soup Storytelling Festival in April, in South Carolina.
Jessica will be performing at Old Town Hall, Fairfax at the Women’s Storytelling Festival on March 14th. Go. It will be worth it.
Come see Jessica perform, along with 17 other female storytellers, at the Women’s Storytelling Festival in the City of Fairfax, March 13 and 14, 2020. Details here.
