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Join us for the world premiere of The Strange Case of Lady Liberty told by the 2025 Speak Story Series Commission Recipients Barry Stewart Mann and Deborah Strahorn. We all know about the majestic statue in New York Harbor, and the words that welcome “your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. . . ." But the origin story of the Statue of Liberty is complicated, and the accepted interpretation conceals shameful resonances from our nation's past. In this tandem telling, Barry Stewart Mann and Deborah Strahorn will weave historical narrative - figures, monologues, and dramatizations - personal family stories, forgotten facts and flights of whimsy and reflection into a long-form story that investigates the strange case of a beautiful woman with a troubled past.
Atlanta-based storyteller Barry Stewart Mann tells world folk tales, historical narratives, biographies, personal stories, and more. He is the winner of the 1999 National Storyteller of the Year contest. Barry has told around the world, including as a featured teller in the II Festival Internacional de Cuentacuentos in Santo Domingo, DR, the Chennai Storytelling Festival in India, and with Dream On Productions in Buenos Aires, Lima, Bogotá, Santiago, and Mexico City. In August of 2024 he traveled throughout southern India as the recipient of a Fulbright Specialist Program Project grant, as a part of which he was a teller in the Under the Aalamaram International Storytelling Festival in Coimbatore and Chennai. Barry has also completed several commissions with the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library. He is a longtime member of the National Storytelling Network, the Georgia Storytelling Network, and Kuumba Storytellers of Georgia.
Atlanta-based storyteller Deborah Strahorn has been telling tales for over 25 years. She has been featured at nearly three dozen libraries for the Atlanta Public Library Summer Reading programs and is currently a regular teller and workshop presenter at the Wren’s Nest, the museum/cultural center in the former home of author and journalist Joel Chandler Harris (of “Uncle Remus” fame). In 2024 she joined the Georgia Council for the Arts Teaching Artist Registry. For twelve years she has presented Historical Portraits of African Americans at both Historic Oakland and South View Cemeteries in Atlanta, and served as Storyteller-In-Residence at the APEX Museum from 2015 to 2022. Deborah is a member of Kuumba Storytellers of Georgia and the National Association of Black Storytellers.
In-person tickets are $20.00 for general admission and $10.00 for Shepherd University students with ID and may be purchased at the door. Livestream tickets are also $20.00 and may be purchased on the tickets page of our website.
This year’s commission is supported by Commission Donor Beth Brent, The Brick and Water Fund.
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
100 W Washington St, Shepherdstown, WV 25443-4901, United States
