The kickoff of the 2022 Women’s Storytelling Festival is less than a week away! The festival organizers are working diligently on the final preparations, dotting every “i” and crossing every “t” to make sure all is ready so the world can watch these women shine.
While we attend to that, why don’t you take a moment to get familiar with a few more of the wonderful tellers we have lined up?
Sheila Arnold (Hampton, Virginia) has been gifted by God with performance skills; using this talent since she was eight years old. Since 2003 she has been a full-time Storyteller traveling through the United States and sharing a variety of stories, as well as doing Historic Character Presentations, Christian Monologues, Coaching and Workshops. She is the co-Founder of Artists Standing Strong Together (ASST).
Vijai Nathan‘s (Alexandria, Virginia) humor springs from her experiences of growing up as a “foreigner” in America- despite the fact she was born and raised here. She hilariously tells about growing up as an Indian in America, dating, cultural clashes, and the racism she dealt with as a child and now as a comedian. You can catch her on an episode of Netflix’s “Lady Dynamite, ” starring Maria Bamford, and in the film “Meet the Patels,” an Oprah Magazine pick.
Jessica Robinson (Fairfax, Virginia), Founder of Better Said Than Done, has performed at Exchange Place at the International Storytelling Festival, on PBS’ “Stories from the Stage,” in the National Storytelling Network’s Conference, and as a 2021 Stone Soup and Forest Storytelling Festival New Voice. Jessica is co-author Roar: True Tales of Women Warriors.
Diana Veiga (Washington, D.C.) is a writer, storyteller and comedienne who has performed throughout the DC area from the Lincoln Theatre to the DC Improv. She is the founder and curator of, Telling Stories, a virtual series for African American storytellers. Diana is a Spelman woman, a DC resident, and DC Public Library employee. She loves eating tacos, quoting Outkast lyrics and drinking Stoli Blueberry and Sprite.
“If we are talking Rock ‘n Roll, Tina Turner was a national treasure; country has Dolly Parton and in the world of storytelling we have Kim Weitkamp.” (Mount Vernon, Ohio)
Steve Perry, Highway 89- SiriusXM
Kim grew up as the red headed middle child of exhausted parents.
Kim carved out her role as the class comedian at a young age; writing plays and skits and sharing stories that exasperated her parents while thrilling her high school theater teacher.
The results of these influences show up in her work time and time again.
Cyndi Wish (Kingston, New Jersey) was born in Virginia and grew up in New Jersey. At a young age she realized her inherent love of adventure, talent for packing, and general dislike of commitment. Cyndi has lived in Washington DC., Portland (Oregon), San Francisco, Chicago, upstate New York, Sydney, Adelaide, Cape Cod, North Dakota, the Boston area, New Bedford, Virginia again, Baltimore, and once again resides in New Jersey. Lots of moves lead to lots of stories. She holds a Master of Visual Arts degree, works in non-profit administration, and is currently lazily training to do the Chesapeake Bay Swim, but not for a few more years.
(If you’d like to peruse the bios of our other wonderful 2022 festival storytellers, you can find them here.)
We’re in the home stretch and the festival is almost here – GRAB YOUR TICKETS NOW! We look forward to having you in our audience, either IRL in Fairfax, or via the miracle of the internet! Join us!
