K through L

Erin Kahoa

Erin Kahoa has been living life backwards. Salaried job before part time minimum wage work. Marriage before casual dating. Home owner before grungy bug infested apartments. Director of a university theatre program before big city auditions. But, since resetting and moving to Chicago, he’s never been happier.

Jackie Kaplan-Perkins

Jackie has been a leader in Chicago’s philanthropic and political communities for over two decades. She has worked as senior staff at the Chicago Foundation for Women, the National Center on Poverty Law, as the finance director for Jan Schakowsky’s successful bid for United States Congress. Currently, Jackie spends her days as Director of Midwest Human Rights Watch. When not working, Jackie can be found walking her dog Floyd on the beach, binge watching Orange is the New Blackand Transparent with her wife, Ann, and managing the championship-winning parent/child fantasy football team with her fourteen-year-old son David.

M.J. Kang

M.J. Kang is an award winning playwright, actor, and improviser, born in Seoul, Korea, raised in Toronto and currently based in Los Angeles. She has appeared on film, television and theaters across Canada, the US and London and worked with Philip Seymour Hoffman in the film, Owning Mahoney. She can be currently seen on the house team for The Nursery Theater (London, UK) as well as Don't Mess, Sonic Boom-Boom, and others. She won 3 Moth slams and a bunch of other story slams and will be part of The Women's Storytelling Show and Tejas Storytelling Festivals in March.

Diane Kastiel

Diane Kastiel is a writer and storyteller from Chicago. She’s a three-time Moth StorySLAM winner whose work has been featured on NPR’s Moth Radio Hour and its podcast. Diane has told stories at the Park West, Victory Gardens, Mayne Stage and Lifeline theaters, and with numerous Chicago storytelling groups, including Story Sessions, Story Club, That’s All She Wrote, and Do Not Submit. In 2015, Diane told stories in Chicago’s Filet of Solo festival and at WBEZ’s inaugural New Year’s Eve party. She’s thrilled to be part of Story Collector’s Live Lit Showdown. Diane is a freelancer writer specializing in nonprofits and an alumna of The Second City Conservatory, the University of Chicago's Great Books program, and Northwestern University.

Erica Katz

Erica may be a professor at Northwestern College, but is a perpetual student of life always learning, growing. She is always ready for new adventures. Erica finds herself wearing many hats that dictate her day. Ultimately her friends, family including her two kiddos, and community are all her muse and provide her with material as well as my comfort. Erica is reasonably comfortable in her own skin loves to share stories.

Carol Kaufman-Kerman

Carol Kaufman-Kerman is the Drama Specialist at selected Jewish Community Centers in Chicagoland. Her stories spark the imagination for little listeners (and big ones too!) Full of energy, she engages the audience to participate through chants and movement. From preschool classes, storytelling festivals, corporate events, college guest speaker, to Caroline’s on Broadway, Carol’s stories range from folktales to her New York roots. Her personal stories remind us of our own life and family and the anecdotes that have shaped us. She believes that we keep our loved ones alive through story.

Lauren Kee

Lauren is a Boston native but has been calling Chicago home for the past seven years. She entered the world of storytelling in 2021 because she wanted to learn how to put her voice out into the world and because she was amazed by how storytelling can normalize the human experience. Lauren works for a nonprofit that empowers low-income college students to land strong jobs and achieve economic mobility. In her work, Lauren designs programming that helps young people tell their stories and find fulfilling career paths. Lauren loves to play soccer, practice yoga, have long talks with her cat, and explore the city with her friends.

Jason Kelleher

Jason P. Kelleher moved from Ireland to Chicago 14 years ago. Graduated from UIC with a degree in architecture. He is perusing a masters of psychology this fall. Writing has become his new passion, and loves the support Chicago writers have given him.

Lauren Kelliher

Lauren Kelliher spent the last 15 years realizing the similarities between rescuing dogs and teaching English to high school and college students. She has taken photos of thousands of dogs and is now writing/editing for an educational psychology firm. Lauren got into storytelling in 2017 when she started writing down the crazy adventures from dog rescue. She has told stories at The Moth, First Person Live, and Do Not Submit, and her 40th birthday party featured an open mic for her friends and family to tell stories. Lauren lives in the burbs with her husband of 17 years, their three rescued dogs, and at least one foster dog.

Ben Kemper

Ben Kemper is a native of Boise, Idaho. He moved to Chicago three years ago to study at Northwestern University, and try his fortunes as an actor, playwright, dramatic critic, (in every sense of the word) and professional storyteller. He has been telling stories to friends and family and for self-defense since the second grade, and formally since the eighth grade and has told at Story Story Night in Boise, The Side Project Festival in Rodger's Park and the SCIS school system in Shanghai China. He loves the City of Big Shoulders but misses the mountains of Idaho where he hopes to take you tonight.

Andy Kerns

Andy Kerns is an up-and-coming young something or other, and a writer. He has written screenplays, social satire, sketch comedy and short fiction, but his preferred genre is emotionally exposed emails about the trials of modern manhood, sent to his two disapproving sisters. He lives in the suburbs of Chicago with his dream to one day live in the suburbs of Chicago with a dog.

Larry Kerns

Founding member of This Much Is True

Larry Kerns is a husband, father, grandfather, child psychiatrist and writer. Since last telling a story at TMIT he has been in and out of rehab multiple times. (For his legs.) But that’s a story for another time. Larry is honored and delighted to be back with his good friends for the 10th Anniversary show!

Todd Kiech

Todd Michael Kiech is an actor and performer and producer. He attended The School of The Steppenwolf and The Academy at Black Box, is the Burlesque Hall of Fame's 2009 King of Burlesque, and produces The Tease, an evening of Burlesque and Striptease for Chicago House. He also tends bar at Sidetrack, the biggest gay bar in Chicago.

Peter Kim

When not on the road with The Second City Touring Company, @peterkz can be found performing with Second City's Improv All Stars, Second City's Go Improv Go!, and at The Annoyance and iO theaters. His stand up and solo acts have been featured at The Laugh Factory, Zanies and the RISK! Podcast. He has very little patience for mean kids and unfriendly dogs.

Randy Kim

Randy Kim is a queer 2nd generation Viet-Khmer American from the Chicagoland area. Randy currently serves as a board member with the National Cambodian Heritage Museum (www.cambodianmuseum.org). He is the co-producer with founder Ada Cheng for TALK Stories: An Asian American / Asian Diaspora Storytelling Show in Chicago. He is the producer and host of “The Banh Mi Chronicles” podcast which can be on Spotify, iTunes / Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, iHeartRadio.

Oba-William King

Oba is an Illinois Arts Council Fellowship Award Recipient in Traditional Folk Arts, A Jewel/Osco Hidden Jewel of The Neighborhood, A Gwendolyn Brooks Hands on Stanza’s award recipient as well as other distinguished awards. He is a featured artist through Center Stage for WTTW television in Chicago; the Bermuda State Library; PBS radio station WBEZ FM program “So Many Ways To Tell A Story;” The Bronzeville Children’s Museum, the DuSable Museum, CPS Early Childhood Education, and The Sun Foundation’s Arts and Science in the Woods. Oba’s history of presenting programs for teen, adult and seasoned adult audiences dates back to 1994 “Breaking Chains” a one-man show at Beatrice Community College in Nebraska. In 1998 Oba received an award nomination for the lead role in Dracula at Lifeline Theatre, in Chicago. His trend-setting presentation of Sound of a Voice, by David Henry Hwang was presented at The Halsted Theatre in Pilsen, 2001.

Rebecca Kling

Rebecca Kling is a Chicago-based artist interested in exploring the performance of identity. Her multi-media productions – composed of storytelling, video, movement, playful skips and jumps, enlightening self-discovery, accusatory glances, awkward pauses, and more – question gender, self-expression, and what it means to be at home in one’s own body. Rebecca has performed her material at The Athenaeum Theatre with New Suit Theatre Company, Temple Gallery, Fringe Festivals in Chicago, Kansas City, and Indianapolis, at Links Hall, Roosevelt and Northwestern Universities, About Face Theatre, Center on Halsted, with Caffeine Theatre at the DCS Storefront Theatre, and elsewhere across the Midwest. She has been praised by The Chicago Tribune, TimeOut Chicago, Newcity Stage, and Centerstage Chicago, and more. Rebecca has been a recipient of the Chances Dances Critical Fierceness grant, and regularly speaks at high schools and universities across Chicago. A graduate from Northwestern University’s Department of Performance Studies with an Adjunct Major in Animate Arts, Rebecca Kling is also an instructor at The Piven Theatre Workshop, on the Pride Films and Plays board of director, and a syndicated blogger with BlogHer.

Christina Kolski

Christina is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and Social-Emotional Learning Specialist for Chicago Public Schools. She devotes her days to helping youth find their voice and helping teachers and principals learn how to support youth with special social-emotional needs. With a degree in Psychology and Theatre Arts from the University of Notre Dame, she has committed her life to blending her skills for the understanding of the human spirit with her ability to share her vulnerable experience of life. She has been featured on SoulPancake, a YouTube channel that tackles the universality of the human experience and performed at Mortified, Story Lab, The Green Mill, and Do Not Submit. She also takes pride in being a licensed foster parent.

Maria Kostas

Maria Kostas has told stories on various stages around Chicagoland. Her stories are sometimes entertaining, sometimes historical, perhaps insightful, and often quite personal. She blends the past with the present as she shares impressions and memories gathered from working with large groups of people most of her life, including work as a teacher, a business owner, a bartender, and a couple of seasons as a carnie. She is happy to be sharing at This Much Is True.

Ken Krimstein

Ken Krimstein draws cartoons for The New Yorker, writes and draws for The Chicago Tribune's "Printer's Row" Literary Journal, writes for McSweeney's, and Clarkson Potter published a collection of his cartoons entitled "Kvetch as Kvetch Can -- Jewish Cartoons." He also teaches in the College of Communication at DePaul. After a bunch of years in New York City, he moved his family and cat back to his ancestral stomping grounds of Evanston a couple of years ago. Bats, left. Throws, left.

Simi Krishnan

Simi Krishnan is a mom to two rambunctious kids, a 13 and 8 year old, and wife to a Star Trek fiend!! By day she wears a data and analytics cape, leading analytics in the pharmaceutical industry, and by night she is a producer of The People Tree, a live storytelling show which takes place the third Thursday of every month, located in Naperville!

Myron Laban

Myron Laban is a Chicago-Based visual artist, musician, and pharmacist born of Egyptian immigrants. His work focuses on the human condition, with a constant conversation on overcoming struggle and finding one's light. These ideas are conveyed with his playful illustrations of faceless figures, including his trademark “Uplift” figure with a boy on top of his shoulders. Conversely, these ideas are also represented with his vivid surrealistic pieces exploding with elements of basketball, pastel colors, flowers, and abstract shapes. His work is heavily incorporated into the community through his numerous murals spanning every corner of the city, work with nonprofits, and countless collaborations. Myron has been featured in PBS, CNN, USA Today, and other notable media outlets. His ultimate goal is to uplift the world through his art.

Vinnie Lacey

Vincent Lacey moved to Chicago by way of having absolutely nothing better to do in 2004. Since then he has trained and played in many improv theatres of questionable merit. He has also worked with the production companies WNEP and The Mammals on plays, and co-wrote a two-person Catholic comedy called Hopelessly Devoted. He considers his Catholicism an addiction. Watching people do good, weird works of art in unexpected places is a personal love, and thus Vincent is Associate Producer of the Chicago Fringe Festival.

Tara Lake

Tara Lake is a soprano, storyteller, playwright, actress and scholar-artist. Her award-winning solo play, "I Know It Was The Blood: The Totally True Adventures of a Newfangled Black Woman," premiered at the Chicago Fringe Festival and won the Artists' Choice Award there before snagging a Rochester Fringe Festival 2018 "Best Bet" title and a “...Not to Miss" nod at the 2018 Charm City Fringe Festival. The production has toured to Washington D.C., London UK, Baltimore and New York City and hits the road again this summer after a year in quarantine. As a storyteller, Tara has appeared on numerous stages and was featured in a FIAT Cars USA advertising series. She has performed her original literary concerts featuring African American spirituals and art songs at a number of cultural institutions. Tara has been awarded grants and fellowships from organizations including the James and Sylvia Thayer Foundation, the UCLA Institute of American Cultures, the Puffin Foundation, and the Ella Fountain Pratt endowment. For more about Tara, please visit: www.TaraLake.com.

Jeanne Lambin

Originally, from Chicago, now living in Hong Kong, Jeanne left her lucrative career in historic preservation to pursue a new one in storytelling, improvisation and writing. She has told stories, written and done improv in all sorts of places, some sanctioned, some not. Jeanne is a co-organizer of Hong Kong Storytellers. Most recently, her work has been featured in the Hong Kong’s Top Notch Storytelling Festival, Liar’s League, Mamagushi Shanghai, Literary Death Match and the Art’s House World Voices Presents. When not working, she enjoys travel, reading, kayaking, hiking and running, not necessarily in that order or at the same time.

Monte LaMonte

Neck breaker, shit taker, love maker. http://monteism.blogspot.com/

Carrie Lannon

Carrie comes from a background in public relations, where she says you are telling stories just about every day and just about every one of them is true. Her work today finds her presenting to audiences on main stages and in workshops on her favorite business topics -- personal and business branding. She has been a television spokesperson, appearing on ABC's Shark Tank and numerous talk shows, and has performed at the Second City Training Center in sketch comedy and storytelling shows.

Emily Lansana

Emily Hooper Lansana is an arts administrator, educator and performing artist, she is Associate Director of Community Arts Engagement at the Logan Center for the Arts at the University of Chicago. She performs with In the Spirit. She has been featured at the National Storytelling Festival, the National Association of Black Storytellers Festival, and at many venues. She enjoys passing on traditions as a coach and mentor with Ase Youth Group and Rebirth Poetry Ensemble. She received her BA in Theater Studies from Yale University and MA in Performance Studies from Northwestern University.

Onam Lansana

Onam Lansana is 16. He is an active member of ASE’s youth group. Onam was the first youth teller to be a fully featured performer at NABS. He is also a member of Rebirth Poetry Ensemble, second place in Louder Than a Bomb (the largest youth poetry slam) and in the top 16 at Brave New Voices in 2014. He has performed all over Chicago including at the Goodman Theatre and with the Civic Orchestra.

Bill Larkin (Musical Guest)

Bill Larkin is an award-winning stage actor, having received the Joseph Jefferson Award for Outstanding Performance by a Lead Actor in a Musical for the role of Edward Kleban in Porchlight Music Theatre’s “A Class Act”. He is also an accomplished pianist, singer and comedy songwriter. He has performed his original musical comedy on Comedy Central’s Premium Blend. His comedy album, Knowing Your Audience, was recorded live at the Green Mill Jazz Club in Chicago. He has also performed at the Howl at the Moon dueling piano bar for the last 20 years.

Ray Lauk

Ray Lauk is the owner of Dr. Ray’s Toffee and is also a school district administrator and professional speaker. During the summer, Ray teaches school leadership in Bangkok, Thailand, to teachers and administrators working in international schools. The author of FUEL for Learning, Ray is working on his second leadership book entitled, “Where Were Your Brains?” Ray will be running his 8th Chicago Marathon this October just weeks before turning 60. His goal is to finish in the top half of his age bracket and eventually to be the only one in his age bracket.

Megan Lavery

Megan lives in Grayslake with her partner, daughter, and menagerie of rescue animals. However, home will always be Danville, IL, where she was born and raised. Megan is a Health teacher and coach on the North Shore whose passion is helping kids become good humans. Teaching important topics like mental health, consent, and addiction are her jam. She told her first story at the Wild Goose Festival in Hot Springs, NC in 2016. Meg is an introvert who has lived many lives in her 42 years, which begets her family motto: “We don’t have good luck, but at least we have great stories!”

Muteeat Lawal

Muteeat Lawal began her storytelling journey a long time ago. as a young girl growing up in the Baptist church she quickly overcame her fear of public speaking. When she joined Toastmasters International in 2005, her goal was to learn how to effectively deliver a speech in the time frame allotted ... And well, she’s still working on that! It was in Toastmasters however, that she discovered her storytelling voice. She’s currently a member of the National Association of Black Storytellers as well as ASE (ah-shay) the Chicago affiliate of NABS. In December of 2019, she completed training under TRHT (Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation) Chicago, and she currently works as a racial healing practitioner. Stories are the vehicle she uses to connect with people within their heart space. She's stepping out now, in 2023 to share more and learn more about the artform of heart sharing....through stories!

Rose Laws

Rose Laws was born and raised in rural Tennessee. She was educated in small, one-room schoolhouses and went on to graduate high school from the nearest "big" town. She married at a young age and relocated to Chicago. She had five children in eight years. After she divorced in the 1960s, she went on to become an enterprising motel owner in the western Chicago suburb of Addison, Illinois, and began her journey in what she refers to as the hanky-panky business. She was a dedicated single parent who always tried to put her children first. For about four years between 1979 and 1983, Rose took a break and headed south, trying her hand at "straight" work--owning a restaurant, managing a restaurant, teaching hotel employees hostess skills, selling cars, selling funeral needs--in Atlanta and Savannah, before returning to the business she knew best. After nine of the twelve call girls who worked for her in Savannah married clients, she returned to Chicago to start her agent business anew in the place she loved best. She soon took her business from the western suburbs to downtown Chicago where it exploded and she began the life that would eventually lead to the media nickname "Gold Coast Madam." A natural people person, Rose continually expanded her network of wealthy and famous men until her little black book had almost 5,000 names. She estimates she had nearly 1,000 women work for her in her career. In 1988, after accidentally giving information to an undercover cop, Rose was arrested and spent the next four years in and out of court, only to receive a minor sentence. She then opened a flower shop that she ran along with her agent business for the next four years until the IRS shut the florist down because of back taxes due. Rose continued to quietly run and grow her call girl operation in downtown Chicago until 2002 when she was arrested again, but this time by the FBI. She was accused of being part of a nation-wide prostitution ring called The Circuit. Madams around the country had collaborated and were sharing girls and sending them across state lines to work. The FBI closed in and shut the operation down by busting each madam one by one. Rose was sentenced to 22 months in a minimum-security prison in Florida. After serving her time and probation, Rose retired. She now lives with one of her sons in Sarasota, Florida, where she particularly enjoys her long daily walks and spending time with her three grandchildren.

Carol LaChapelle

Carol is a Chicago-based writer, teacher, and author. For the past 25 years, she has conducted her writing workshops for educators, therapists, and professional associations; at conferences and book fairs; and at the world-renowned Newberry Library in Chicago. Carol’s writing has appeared in The Writing Group Book; Environmental Practice; the New York Times; and in various consumer publications and newsletters. Her book Finding Your Voice, Telling Your Stories (Marion Street Press, 2008) is available at bookstores, on Amazon, and following the show.

Talle Laosebikan

Talle (Mommy Titi) has been a part of ASA for several years. With over 20 years of experience, she has dedicated her career to Chicago Public Schools (CPS) and has also taught in Africa. Her passion for storytelling began during her time as a teacher and flourished through her life experiences in Nigeria for 15 years. Committed to personal development, she is an active member of Toastmasters, continually refining her communication and leadership skills. Additionally, Talle participates in Generations, a seniors' creative writing class. Her diverse experiences contribute to the rich community of ASA, reflecting her commitment to education and storytelling.

Bill Larkin

Bill Larkin is a Chicago actor, pianist and comedian who performs his original comedy songs regularly at the Paper Machete at the Green Mill Jazz Club. He received the Joseph Jefferson award for acting for Porchlight Music Theatre's "A Class Act". He performs at piano bars across Chicago including the Redhead, Sluggers and Grapes & Grains. He streams his online show "Parody Song Improv" on Twitch. (FB, IG, Twitch, Cameo, Tiktok @BillLarkinMusic).

Anthony LeBlanc

Anthony LeBlanc is originally from Beaumont, TX. He performed with his sketch group, Boxaganga, while obtaining a Computer Science and Physics BS at Loyola University New Orleans. He directed The Second City e.t.c. review, Soul Brother, Where Art Thou? and The Second City Main Stage review, Winner…of Our Discontent. He had recently Directed Nothing to Loose (But Our Chains) at the Woolly Mammoth Theater in DC and The Magic Negro and Other Blackity Blackness as Told by an African-American Man Who Also Happens to be Black at the Alliance Theater in Atlanta Georgia. He wrote and performed in two Second City Chicago Main Stage Reviews; America: All Better and Taming of the Flu. He is also An Artistic Director of the Second City Inc. and part of Columbia College Chicago’s theater department faculty teaching in the Comedy Writing and Performance Major. He hopes that His Sketch Directing helps him one day realize his dream of working for NASA, programming A.I. computer systems. He thanks Mom, Dad, David, Katie, Kennedy, Matt, Ryan, his friends… and of course… Stephen Hawking.

Kristina Lebedeva

Having moved to The United States from Russia in 2000, Kristina Lebedeva dedicated most of her efforts to earning a doctorate in philosophy. As her academic work continues to explore the intersections of ethics, trauma, social justice, and disability, Kristina’s fiction and autobiographical essays address such themes as mourning, violence, suffering, survival, and memory in a way that is both surreal and unflinchingly factual. Kristina is currently working as a language instructor, splitting her free time between writing, theater, and digital art.

Vanora Legaux

Vanora Franklin Legaux, retired teacher and counselor, storyteller native of New Orleans, is the Executive Director of the National Association of Black Storytellers, Inc. (NABS). Vanora is also Founder of the Stronger Hope Biblical Storytelling Guild and was a Featured Teller at the Network of Biblical Storytellers Festival Gathering in August 2014 near Ashville, NC.

Sarah Leibov

Sarah Leibov is a writer who enjoys sharing her stories on stage. In the past year, she has performed for The Moth, Story Lab Chicago, and First Person Live. Sarah is also a Feldenkrais practitioner, and teaches therapeutic movement classes that enhance overall awareness of the body and creativity. When she’s not writing or teaching, she enjoys reading and spending time with her husband and sons.

Aviva Levavi

Aviva Levavi is an English as a Second Language teacher. Her adult students have enriched her life by telling their stories from around the world. Her other great inspiration is her dog who sees the world without borders and sometimes gets in a lot of trouble, like the time she followed a duck into a frozen pond. Aviva is a world traveler, including spending 2 years in West Africa in the Peace Corps and riding her bicycle across the United States. She is a graduate of the Scott Whitehair school of storytelling. She loves, writing short stories, cooking for her family, gardening, and finding the next great story whether at the end of the block or around the world.

Debi Lewis

Syd Lieberman

Syd Lieberman tells poignant and hilarious personal stories, identifies with Sean Connery, and navigates the mad world of Edgar Allan Poe as easily as he walks the cobbled streets of the folk tale town of Chelm. He has received commissions to create historic narratives from several major US institutions, including NASA, the Smithsonian Institution, and Historic Philadelphia. Syd's work has garnered awards from the American Library Association, Parents’ Choice, and Storytelling World. This year Syd was given a Lifetime Achievement Award by the National Storytelling Network.

Katie Liesener

Katie Liesener is a journalist and storyteller who moved to Chicago from Boston last year. Her journalistic peak was an ode to Marshmallow Fluff that appeared in the Best Food Writing book series. She tells stories around the Chicago area, most recently winning a Moth GrandSlam in Milwaukee. Katie spends her days working on a book and nights sleeping on an air mattress that is neither seaworthy nor floorworthy.

Kris Light

Kris came to Illinois in 2011 after years of parenting four kids and leading congregations. Serving previously from Kentucky to Michigan, Pennsylvania to Georgia, she now pastors in Urbana-Champaign. She lives in Gibson City where she raises chickens and keeps a big, weedy garden. She fills the rest of her time working with community groups to promote social justice and with her congregation to tell true and compelling stories. Kris is thankful for the gift of candor which can break open hardened ground and lead to better things growing in the body politic.

Matt Lipman

Matthew J. Lipman is a Chicago based actor – writer – storyteller and philosopher (with a degree to prove the last one). Life is about gathering stories and its meaning can be found in the sharing of them. He is thrilled to be living in a time where people have the courage to question. That which defines us need not pay the bills.

Gilo Logan

The scope of expertise Dr. Gilo Logan provides is driven by his 20+ years of experience as an internationally recognized leadership and diversity speaker, consultant, and writer. He is the founder and president of Logan Consulting Services, LLC, global leadership and diversity consulting firm; a member of the Illinois Diversity Council; a National Diversity Council Certified Diversity Professional; and has been an adjunct professor of diversity and social justice in Chicago, IL, for more than fifteen years. Dr. Logan’s clients include McDonald’s Corporation, Mac Arthur Foundation, Northwestern University, and more. He has over seven years of experience living and working in 23 countries throughout North and Central America, the South Pacific, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and West Africa. He gains the greatest pride and satisfaction however, as a loving and devoted husband, and father to three sons. Dr. Logan is the author of Cultivating Cultural Competence for Leaders: Tips, Tools and Techniques for Managing a Diverse Workforce. A partial list of media includes Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Korean Radio Broadcast Co., Financial Survival Network, Ebony Magazine, Cosmopolitan Magazine, CLTV, The Fiji Sun, and Kiora FM.

Tekki Lomnicki

Tekki Lomnicki is a solo performer, playwright, director and educator. She has devoted her craft to finding ways to incorporate her abilities and those of others to perform compelling stories. Tekki is the Artistic Director of Tellin’ Tales Theatre, a company, dedicated to building community through the art of storytelling. They produce adult solo performance as well as a life changing mentoring program and show called “Six Stories Up” featuring kids and adults with and without disabilities. Tekki performs her critically acclaimed solo work for schools, conferences and theater audiences all over the US and Canada and starred in the award-winning film, The Miracle by Jeffrey Jon Smith. She also taught for Chicago’s Gallery 37 and currently teaches solo performance to adults at the Prop Thtr. She is a recipient of an Illinois Arts Council Artists Fellowship in New Performance Forms, the 2008 3Arts Artists Award in Theater and the 2010 Grigsby Award for Excellence in Solo Performance. See glimpses of her performances at tekkilomnicki.com and see her live in Lifeline’s Theater’s Fillet of Solo in January.

Drew Love

Drew Love is the co-founder of Yost & Rios Enterprises, Inc. and publisher of Golf+Life+Business the digital golf and business lifestyle publication. He is currently working with social enterprise partners The Chi Chi Rodriguez Academy and Midwest Association of Golf Course Superintendents. He previously worked with Mark W. Travis on Life Stories. Mark Travis is regarded by many in Hollywood to be one of the world’s leading authorities in the art and craft of film directing. He previously worked with Julie Hudash, the Founder and CEO of Team Kids, which is an Orange County, CA based nonprofit that runs school-based community service learning programs. He was also mentored by Candace Silvers of Candace Silvers Studios.

Alyson Lyon

Alyson Lyon is co-producer of Essay Fiesta (every 3rd Monday at the Book Cellar) and a member of the Chicago Story Collective — Not only does she perform her essays all over town, but she also has a background in comedy and music and currently works as makeup artist — She also loves to make soup –

Tracy Lytwyn

Tracy Lytwyn has been part of Chicago’s live storytelling community since 2018. Some of her favorite stories to share feature her former religious life, her late mother and, naturally, her misadventures in dating. When she’s not on stage, Tracy loves to play and write music, rock climb, be outside, travel, sing karaoke and dance. Tracy also professionally tells stories as a public relations manager in health and science. She lives in Ravenswood with her dog, Juno.