A VIRTUAL celebration of Black Storytelling: Jan. 22-30, 2022

Photos by Jonathan Pitts-Wiley

FESTIVAL PASSES AVAILABLE soon!

2023 Guest Tellers and Artists

This much anticipated and highly visible event is the flagship of RIBS programming and reaches a statewide audiences of thousands. Each January for the week of the Martin Luther King Holiday, RIBS tellers, local artists and invited national and international guests bring the best of Black Storytelling to Rhode Island and Southern New England. For an entire week, Rhode Island will experience some of the best cultural arts programming across the state for the 25th year in a row.

Antonio Rocha

Antonio Rocha

Antonio Rocha, a native of Brazil, began his career in the performing arts in 1985. In 1988 he received a Partners of the Americas grant to come to the USA to perform and deepen his mime skills with Mime Master Tony Montanaro. Since then he has earned a Summa Cum Laude Theater BA from USM (University of Southern Maine) and studied with Master Marcel Marceau. Mr. Rocha’s unique fusion of mime and spoken word has been performed from Singapore to South Africa and many places in between including 16 countries on 6 continents. Some of the venues include The Singapore Festival of the Arts, Wolf Trap, The National Storytelling Festival, The Kennedy Center, The Smithsonian Institution, The National Geographic, The Tales of Graz in Austria, Dunya Festival in Holland as well as many other Storytelling Festivals and educational institutions around The USA.

Antonio has three very entertaining and educational award-winning DVDs, a picture book, and a few awards including the coveted Circle of Excellence Award by the National Storytelling Network.

READ ABOUT ANTONIO

Amina Blackwood-Meeks

Amina Blackwood-Meeks

Amina holds a Ph.D. in Cultural Studies. Her thesis The Oral Tradition: Displacement, Adjustment, Replacement – Storytelling as a Tool for Wholistic Development is available on the website of the University of the West Indies, Mona.

Amina is an award-winning Writer, Actress, Storyteller, Founder/Artistic Director, Ntukuma, The Storytelling Foundation of Jamaica. She weaves tales from the loom of her practical knowledge of the Caribbean, her life skills as a mother, grandmother, educator, communication specialist, political scientist, social and cultural policy researcher/analyst, and farmer. Her stories cover a range of issues affecting gender, the environment, children, and the direction of human development. Ken Corsbie, Elder Statesman of Caribbean Culture describes her stories as parables for the theatre which are “An outrageous combination of education and entertainment, of glitz and thoughtfulness”.

100% Jamaican/Caribbean
From the traditional to the contemporary, from workshops to performances, Amina delivers confidently bilingual in English and Jamaican. She has traveled with her special friends Ananse, Miss Lady, and Likkle Miss Jing Bang to storytelling festivals and a host of speaking engagements across the Caribbean, Africa, Europe, and North America.

READ ABOUT AMINA

Teju Ologboni

Teju Ologboni

Teju Ologboni, from Milwaukee, is a master storyteller and folklorist of international renown and FUNDA FEST favorite. Teju draws his listeners into stories with gestures and movements, and sometimes with traditional African instruments. An author, teacher, poet, actor, dancer and "verbal illusionist" Teju shares stories that reflect on longstanding and contemporary cultural perspectives to give listeners greater understanding of the profound influence of African heritage on our traditions and identities. Come listen to this culture keeper and be enlightened and inspired.

READ ABOUT TEJU

Keep checking back! More Tellers and Information Coming soon.

Rhode Island Black Storytellers

VALERIE TUTSON

VALERIE TUTSON

Valerie Tutson has been telling stories in schools, churches, libraries, festivals and conferences since 1991. She draws her stories from around the world with an emphasis on African traditions. Her repertoire includes stories and songs she learned in her travels to South Africa, her experiences in West Africa, stories from African American history. In addition, she is gaining quite a reputation for her exciting retelling of age-old Bible stories.

She graduated from Brown University with a Master’s Degree in Theatre Arts and a degree in a self-designed Major-Storytelling as A Communications Art

READ ABOUT VALERIE

ROCHEL COLEMAN

ROCHEL COLEMAN

Rochel Garner Coleman, actor, singer, storyteller, has been performing since he was 9 years old. He travels nationally and internationally sharing stories of Black historical legends such as Nat Love and Cool Papa Bell in shows developed using the research to performance method.

READ ABOUT ROCHEL

LEN CABRAL

LEN CABRAL

Len Cabral is an internationally acclaimed storyteller who has been enchanting audiences with his storytelling performances at schools, libraries, museums and festivals since 1976. A great grandson of a Cape Verdean whaler whose grandparents immigrated to America from the islands off the coast of West Africa, Len’s strong Cape Verdean ancestry comes alive in his exuberant retelling of African, Cape Verdean, and Caribbean folktales as well as original stories and tales from around the world.

READ ABOUT LEN

V. RAFFINI

V. RAFFINI

V. Raffini, a self-made artist, actress, and teacher from the South Side of Providence has long been committed to the community, teaching Black History, and theatre, telling stories and nurturing the spiritual and creative abilities of youth.

READ ABOUT V. RAFFINI

MARLON CAREY

MARLON CAREY

Marlon Carey is a multitalented artist who is always looking for ways to help build community and inspire people to make positive changes to the world. As a storyteller, he weaves an intricate tapestry with words, using a variety of methods with respect to the Storyteller traditions of old. He is a full-time father of three remarkable children and three cats.

READ ABOUT MARLON

RAMONA BASS KOLOBE

Ramona Bas Kolobe

"The Watermelon Lady", is a "story wheeler." Miss Ramona brings her traditions of storytelling from her Jamaican and Native American ancestry together with her formal education to create works that open up the treasury of healing and understanding. Watermelon is a fruit of peace, friendship and sharing good times - all around the world!

READ ABOUT RAMONA

LINDA & SUMNER MCCLAIN

LINDA & SUMNER

Both Linda and Sumner McClain love to perform stories together, celebrating life. They strongly believe that through the art of storytelling, poetry, music, and movement we are awakened to the valuable stories of our past and present, creating tremendous potential for wholeness, and making the world a better place for everyone.

READ ABOUT LINDA & SUMNER

Sylvia Ann Soares

Sylvia Ann Soares

Ms. Soares has worked for many different theater companies in New York, L.A. and Rhode Island including the New York Public Theater, the Negro Ensemble Company, L.A. Shakespeare Festival, Trinity Repertory Company and the Westerly Shakespeare Theatre. She was active in theater in New York and L.A. during the late sixties and seventies and considers herself a part of the Black Theater Movement. She returned to Providence in 1981 and worked as a live-in nurse for several years before deciding to go back to college. She gained her associates degree from C.C.R.I. in 1993 and then enrolled in Brown University’s Resumed Undergraduate Education program. She graduated from Brown in 1995 with a BA with honors in Theater Studies. Ms. Soares is an actress, poet, playwright and activist. Throughout her life, Ms. Soares has been involved in activism and what she calls “entertaining education.” She worked for the Amos House in Providence, RI, helped build a school in Nicaragua through the Providence-Niquinohomo Sister City Project, and has written several poems and plays about slavery in Rhode Island.

-Excerpt written by Gabrielle Fuentes

READ ABOUT SYLVIA

Our Sponsors

Some of our Events

Info coming soon!

Music, storytelling, spoken word and more

Because there are so many ways to tell a story! And in Black Storytelling all these genres have a place. Storytelling is not just “reading books to kids.”

FULL LIST OF PERFORMERS COMING SOON!