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Featured Tellers

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Shelia Arnold

Sheila Arnold has a talent for storytelling, a passion for history, and compassion for people. She provides Storytelling, Historic Character Presentations, Christian Monologues, and Professional Development for schools, festivals, churches, and organizations nationally and internationally. She is co-founder and Artistic Director of Artists Standing Strong Together (ASST) a source of inspiration, strength and action in the storytelling and artists world. Sheila has been honored as a 2021 MacDowell Artist Fellow, a 2020 Mt. Vernon Research Fellow, and a 2019 Hewnoaks Artist Colony summer residence Noted Artist. Sheila lives in Hampton, Virginia near her son, grandsons, and parents. 

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Kim Weitkamp

Kim Weitkamp grew up in Amish Country as the middle child of exhausted parents. Labeled by teachers as high-spirited, uncooperative and too talkative, Kim took those comments and channeled them into a lifetime of high-energy, heartfelt and hilarious artistry. We are better for it. 
She is an award winning storyteller, author, singer-songwriter, and humorist. After using applied storytelling in her work with adjudicated and at-risk youth for 12 years, Kim took a turn onto a different avenue of story and song which led her down the path of full-time touring for the last 15 years where she gathered an armload of awards.
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he performs regularly at festivals and theaters around the country, has written a well-received folk operetta and has been a guest editor and contributor for various publications. Kim's material gets regular airplay on Sirius XM and NPR Affiliate Stations.

Management & Booking

Email: Annie Laughman

office@treehouseartists.biz      Phone: 540.254.0246

Kim's website

Profitablestory

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Charmaine Crowell-White

Charmaine is a graduate of San Jose State University in San Jose, California and has performed and directed for many theater companies across the United States. Her extensive theatre and film credits include Peggy Sue Got Married, Major Payne, Hannibal, Thomas Jefferson, An American Scandal, and Spielberg’s Lincoln. 
Theater credits include major roles in For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow is Enuf, God’s Trombones, A Raisin In The Sun, Home, Death and the Maiden, North Star, and the list goes on. Film credits include, Peggy Sue Got Married, Major Payne, Hannibal, Thomas Jefferson, An American Scandal, a worshiper in the PBS mini-series the Abolitionists, the role of Minerva in The Spielberg Lincoln Film, a free slave woman in Killing Lincoln, and a laundry servant in the AMC television series Turn. Charmaine was a background player in a pilot episode in The Kevin Durant T.V. Series. She also played several background roles in Ethan Hawke's Showtime series Good Lord Bird. Charmaine is a living History Interpreter. Her presentations celebrate the lives of Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, and Sukey, Dolly Madison’s personal servant. As a modern day griot, she tells stories and dramatizes tales from various African tribes.

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Kemi Abifarin

LaShaunda Craddock (aka Kemi) is an arts, culture, and education specialist who has led numerous
workshops/classes/performances in schools and community centers throughout the East Coast.
During the calabash storytelling session on June 10, we will explore folktales from all over Africa and beyond. By using storytelling as a method to keep culture alive, everyone in the audience will have a chance to experience call and response, musical joy and motivational fun.
Kemi is the Director of Yeye's Academy and the Executive Director of Culture4MyKids, Inc. She is a teaching artist with Wolf Trap Richmond and is also on the VA Commission for the Arts artist roster.
With 20 years of experience teaching students of all ages, Kemi brings rejuvenating passion and tradition into any workshop or class session she leads. Her arts-infused sessions are embedded with cultural enlightenment, exuberant energy, and pure joy. Kemi’s teaching style is deeply rooted in a Zimbabwe (Shona) proverb, "If you can walk, you can dance. If you can talk, you can sing." She is
excited about engaging in the work to develop membership benefits that will support, uplift, and
empower teaching artists across the region.

Email: kemiabifarin@gmail.com

Phone: 804.362.7911

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Maria Chavalan

Maria is a gifted storyteller steeped in her indigenous Mayan culture. A native of Guatemala, Maria has been living in Charlottesville as she navigates her immigration status. Maria weaves stories from her Mayan heritage, including the Mayan epic, the Popol Vuh. During the Celebration of Tales, Maria will sample cautionary tales that are used in Guatemala to guide emerging adults to be better and more responsible human beings.

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