Howell Opera House, 123 W Grand River, Howell, Michigan

Advance Ticket Purchase

Tickets are also available the day of the festival at Howell Opera House.

Schedule

Click here to download a printable version of the Schedule.

9:30 – 10:00am
Register, Meet & Greet, Welcome

10:00 – 11:30am
Workshop with Jane Fink – Shake It Up and Dump It Out

This workshop is about EDITING your stories – refining and polishing them. The workshop is helpful in editing personal stories, literary stories and folktales. In this workshop, Jane will discuss the necessity of editing, the reluctance to edit and ways in which editing enhances audience engagement. After introducing editing techniques, Jane will demonstrate editing through telling two versions of one brief story – the edited version and the unedited. Workshop attendees will have an opportunity to practice editing. Artist Bio

11:30am – 12:15pm
Open Mic

Bring a story to tell – 7 minutes or less

12:15 – 2:00pm
Lunch

Restaurant of your choice.

1:00 – 3:00pm
Bright Water Tellers at Black Iron Coffee Roasters, 119 W Grand River, Howell

Drop-in stories for Everyone! Free & Open to the Public

2:00 – 3:30pm
Workshop with Allison Downey – Bring It Home! Crafting Winning Stories for StorySlams

Are you curious about, or a fan of The Moth and StorySlams? Wondering how to craft a winning story for a Slam? This workshop will introduce you to the nature of the genre, working with a theme, and applying crafting strategies to your personal narrative for a 5 min. time limit. These techniques are developed from personal experience performing on The Moth Mainstage, teaching for The Moth, winning multiple StorySlams (The Moth, National Storytelling Festival), and interviewing NYC’s top storytellers and producers. Bring a story / story idea to workshop, or find one during our session. Artist Bio

3:30 – 4:30pm
Open Mic

Bring a story to tell – 7 minutes or less

4:30 – 5:30pm
Workshop with Greg Weiss – Come to the Table

The heart of the home is the kitchen and the gathering place for feasting on food and story is the kitchen or dining room table. Come to the Table provides an interactive experience for anyone hungry to dig into the buffet of story possibilities from their own life. Family and food are among the main ingredients in recipes for a wide menu of tales, some savory, some sweet, some spicy, and maybe even a little salty. Come and explore tidbits from your family food culture, snack on a “tasty” morsel, and even share your plate with other participants. Artist Bio

5:30 – 7:30pm
Dinner

Restaurant of your choice OR Fun and pizza at Jeff Doyle’s
Thinking about dinner at the festival? Registered attendees are invited to Fun and Pizza from 5:45-7:15 pm at the Doyle Residence upstairs in the Pearl Building, 309 E Grand River just over two blocks east of our Festival Hub at the Howell Opera House. Sign up at check-in (required); $5 donation to the pizza fund (requested).

7:30 – 9:00pm
Storytelling Concert – Tellabration™  “Coming Home”

Featuring Gloria Cangelosi, Jane Fink, Gwendolyn Lewis, Luunappi (Norm Wheeler & Patrick Niemisto), and Greg Weiss Artist Bios

 

Pre-Festival Weekend

Join us in our Pre-Festival Weekend, with two virtual workshops that are free and open to the public on October 23 and October 25, 2026. Registration is required.

Our first presenter will be Laura Packer with “Crafting and Sharing Difficult Stories” on Friday, October 23, 7pm Eastern, 6pm Central, 5pm Mountain, 4pm Pacific. 

On Sunday, October 25, Momo Heiss will present “Mother Hulda Stories Rediscovered – How Can We Tell Ancient Myths Today?” at 4pm Eastern, 3pm Central, 2 pm Mountain, 1 pm Pacific. 

Laura Packer – Crafting and Sharing Difficult Stories
Friday, October 23, 7:00pm Eastern
Registration: http://tiny.cc/PackerDifficultStories

Everyone needs to know they are not alone in their experiences. Shared stories help us talk about difficult things so we can recognize common ground, find more healing, and help others. Sharing these stories requires special attention to the needs of both the story crafter and the audience. This workshop will help you shape your difficult story so you can share it safely, the audience can experience it deeply without worrying about you or themselves and will give you the tools you need for a crafted, powerful story. Prompts will be provided and tellers are welcome to arrive with an idea for a story.

Laura Packer is an award-winning storyteller with over 30 years of experience telling, coaching, teaching, and consulting. She knows that stories connect us, and believes that
sharing our difficult stories builds bridges, teaches skills, builds resilience and healing, and offers great opportunities for tellers. Find more at laurapacker.com and at patreon.com/laurapacker

Momo Heiss  – Mother Hulda Stories Rediscovered – How Can We Tell Ancient Myths Today?
Sunday, October 25, 4:00pm Eastern
Registration: http://tiny.cc/HeissAncientMyths

Like most people, I grew up knowing just one story about Mother Hulda. As a storyteller I started digging and found a whole world waiting. A goddess older than the fairy tale, deeply rooted in the elder tree, connected to the stork, shaped differently by every region of the German-speaking world that remembers her. In this session, I share what I found: carefully researched, reimagined stories — including the rarely told Two Li’le Lights — and an open conversation about what it means to retell what has almost been lost. Storytellers offer one perspective to keep the story alive. Which one will we take?

Since the beginning of 2016, Momo Heiss has been telling stories extemporaneously, weaving in music and sounds. She tells both original stories and those from other sources. Transitioning into the profession of storyteller was a vigorous and vital step, fulfilling her and giving her great strength.