Name: Three Femme Fa-Tales
Start: 2025-10-10T13:00:00-05:00
Location: The ARC, Home of the Historic Masonic Theatre

Three renowned storytellers. One stage. An afternoon of powerful voices and rich traditions.
Featuring Katie Knutson, Dovie Thomason, and Elizabeth Ellis—internationally celebrated for their craft and artistry.
Admission is free, but seating is limited. Arrive early and discover why storytelling is taking center stage in Winona.

1:00 p.m. Katie Knutson
Katie is a professional storyteller and teaching artist based in Minneapolis who has performed and taught around the US and Canada, Chile, Italy, and the United Arab Emirates. She began storytelling in high school and is now the Executive Director of Northeast Storytelling (NEST). Katie has taught hundreds of adults and children to tell their own stories, create new stories, or make traditional stories their own. You can learn more about Katie at ripplingstories.com.
2:00 p.m. Dovie Thomason
Dovie imagines herself as a river, fed by many streams: Lakota, Apache, and Scot Traveler ancestry, urban Chicago, rural Texas and international travels, the Internet and Indigenous elders, family teachings, kitchen table wisdom, and university classrooms — Dovie Thomason draws on those contrasts and cultures in her work. Conveying these stories respectfully and responsibly has made her one of the most respected and admired storytellers of her generation. When she adds personal stories and untold histories, the result is a contemporary narrative of Indigenous history and identity in North America told with elegance, wit, and passion. Dovie has been featured at the Kennedy Center, National Museum of the American Indian, the Smithsonian, Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, and festivals around the world. She is a recipient of the National Storytelling Network’s Circle of Excellence award and the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers’ Traditional Storyteller Award.
3:00 p.m. Elizabeth Ellis
Designated an American Masterpiece Touring Artist by the NEA, Elizabeth Ellis grew up in the Appalachian Mountains hearing stories from her grandfather, a mountain minister. The “Divine Miss E” is a versatile and riveting teller of Appalachian and Texas tales and stories of heroic American women, though her personal stories are arguably her best. An award-winning author, she is a recipient of the John Henry Faulk Award from the Tejas Storytelling Association, and the National Storytelling Network ORACLE Circle of Excellence and Lifetime Achievement Awards.