Real-time event on festival day with pre-registration required. You can find the registration link near the top of the program page when the link is ready.
Storytelling events are presented by the Storytelling Association of California (SAC).
Last year we launched a pilot storytelling program sponsored by the Jenny Fund. This fund was created to honor Jenny Makofsky, a talented young teacher and storyteller who left us in 2004. In keeping with her vision to take storytelling into schools, we came up with a plan to introduce virtual storytelling sessions to an underserved Title 9 public school in San Jose, California. The fifth grade had never experienced formal storytelling and the lead teacher was excited to work with us to structure this program.
This year, the Storytelling in Schools program served over five hundred students! In January, SAC produced three third-grade assemblies at Glenview Elementary School in Oakland, and, in February, six assemblies at Pomerado Elementary in San Diego. Roopa and her team hope to continue to introduce the gift of story to young people throughout the state!
This year’s festival program will feature two of the storytellers from the 2021 SIS program in San Jose, and two of the tellers from the 2022 programs in San Diego and Oakland.
Roopa Mohan is an Asian American who migrated to the US from India in the early 1980s. She moved with her family all over the country before settling in the Bay Area and now calls Walnut Creek, CA her home. After retiring from her domestic violence advocacy career, Roopa trained at the Asian Art Museum as a storyteller and docent for school groups. She is now busy with virtual school tours and enjoys sharing stories with PreK- 6th grade students. She also tells personal and immigrant stories to adults, often tapping into her childhood in Chennai. Roopa is on the board of SAC, and is helping introduce storytelling into underserved public schools via the Jenny Fund. She strongly believes that stories help build bridges and unite us, regardless of our race or ethnicity!