Archive for the Storytellers Category

April storyteller Jackie Linn is a queer Filipino-American comedian, filmmaker, and content creator based in Chicago. She’s performed stand-up internationally ...

April storyteller Pedro Guerrero creates spaces where people feel seen, celebrated, and connected through art, culture, and collective joy. He ...

April storyteller Heather Saylor is a School Counselor, GSA Sponsor, and Swim Coach at a Chicago Public High School as ...

April storyteller Bill Larkin is a comedian, pianist, vocalist, and Jeff-award winning actor. He has performed at piano bars for ...

This is April storyteller Archer Coe’s third time at Outspoken and 35th year tending bar at Sidetrack. He has performed ...

April storyteller Ben Saylor started his story telling journey with Tellin Tales when he was in 6th grade in 2006 ...

March storyteller Daniel Sedge is yet another Long Islander who made his way to Chicago after a stint in New ...

March storyteller Joseph Anthony Rulli “Joe” is a native Hoosier who has taken Chicago as his second city since 2006 ...

March storyteller Delilah Orizaba is a therapist by day and comedian by night. She’s performed at the Steppenwolf Theater with ...

March storyteller Josh Friedberg is an author, TEDx speaker, music historian, staff writer at the international web magazine PopMatters, and ...

March storyteller Chloe Noteboom has been active in the Chicago comedy scene for the past three years, producing and performing ...

March storyteller Brad Berlage is both proud and grateful to call Chicago home for almost 25 years and has sung ...

February storyteller Sofia Javed is a Chicago-based comedian, storyteller, and writer. Her humor is inspired by her life as a ...

February storyteller Timothy David Rey is a writer/performer and teaching artist in Chicago. If he is not writing or performing, ...

February storyteller Ann Kaplan-Perkins is a finance attorney for the City of Chicago working to increase affordable housing and parking ...

February storyteller Karl Malchut is an activist that stands at the intersection of religion and politics. Through his faith based ...

February storyteller Dmitri LaCour is originally from Texas and has lived in Chicago for about four years. He’s autistic, aggressively ...

February storyteller Dennis Holtschneider is a Catholic priest who was the president of DePaul University from 2004-2017 and has been ...

January storyteller Kim L. Hunt feels blessed to have had so many wonderful opportunities to make positive change with so ...

A native son of the Deep South, January storyteller Timothy S. Jackson currently serves as the Senior Director of Policy ...

January storyteller Jay Myers is a native of Normal, Illinois who has lived many other places in his life (thank ...

January storyteller Raymond Coffman marched in Chicago fist Pride Parade (the Gay Liberations March) in 1970. He has been an ...

January Storyteller Iana Amiscaray is a Filipino & Chinese American woman of Trans and Queer experience. Iana is currently the ...

January storyteller Lamar Jackson is a retired social worker and native Chicagoan. An advocate for LGBTQ senior rights, Lamar considers ...

December storyteller Allison Mitch is a movement, relationship, and spiritual coach, as well as an artist, activist, parent, and insatiable ...

December storyteller Jackson McKenzie is a multidisciplinary Chicago creative always looking for new and exciting ways to stretch his artistic ...

December storyteller Alissa Castañeda is a queer storyteller who is excited to be back at OutSpoken. Although it has been ...

December storyteller Christopher Bigelow is a trans writer, former teacher, and metadata manager living in Chicago. He writes about queerness, ...

December storyteller Elizabeth Gomez is a Chicago based writer, comedian, and storyteller. She has made appearances in Steppenwolf’s LookOut Series, ...

December storyteller Lou Dangelo is an older Gay man who finds himself out of time and space - take that ...

November storyteller Ken Mejia Beal is a writer/politico/ and activist. In 2015 Ken began writing for the platform DemWrite Press ...

November storyteller The Reverend Jeff Berry is a life long Chicagoan who seriously can’t imagine living anywhere else in the ...

November storyteller Suzie Campbell lives in Ravenswood and is a single mom to two small humans and a pair of ...

November storyteller Tim Barnett is a professor of English and gender/sexuality studies at Northeastern Illinois University and a single dad ...

November storyteller Roberta Miles is a jazz singer, poet, writer, and visual artist. Her award-winning autobiographical monologues touch on growing ...

November storyteller David Beam is a semi-retired legal communications professional who survived the de-evolution of print journalism and still enjoys ...

October storyteller Mac Cherny is a Chicago-based comedian and playwright returning for his third story at Outspoken. He tours his ...

October storyteller Le'Trice Buckingham is a Chicago-based multidisciplinary artist whose work blends visual art, storytelling, and poetry. Her practice explores ...

October storyteller Kyle Sanders is a Kentucky native, Chicago resident, and all-around national treasure. He works in the College of ...

October storyteller Aditya Gupta is a Chicago resident who can reliably be found at any theater in downtown Chicago that ...

October storyteller Lewis Warren was born in the UK and moved to Chicago in the summer of 2022. After falling ...

Meet October storyteller Rex James. The Universe gave Rex the gift of managing the Town Hall Apartments two years after ...

September storyteller Willa Taylor started telling stories at the age of 8, when she explained to her mother how the ...

September storyteller Yoni Pizer is a former cheesehead from Madison, Wisconsin; currently a proud Chicagoan of almost 4 decades (although ...

September storyteller Michal Eskayo has been teaching English language learners at Harold Washington College for a freaking long time. Getting ...

September storyteller Dee Gilsdorf has spent most of his working life as an early childhood educator where he honed his ...

September storyteller Sunjay Kumar is a queer Indian-American community organizer and bus apologist. They have been organizing in queer and ...

PJ Gray proudly returns to Outspoken for the third time. He was recently featured in Chicago Story Press' Literary Journal ...

August storyteller Dominik Doemer is celebrating three years in Chicago this month. He is originally from Germany and Massachusetts, more ...

August storyteller Nancy Mullen is the executive director of Youth Outlook, the first not-for-profit organization serving LGBTQ youth in the ...

August storyteller Archy Jamjun is the curator of Outspoken LGBTQ stories at Sidetrack in Chicago. He is also a two-time ...

In a land far, far away called DuPage County August storyteller Jim Johnson is a husband of over twenty years ...

August storyteller David Fink is a co-founder of Outspoken and a co-founder of The Acorn Theater in Three Oaks. MI ...

August storyteller Charlie Garrido is a Cuban American who arrived in Miami, Florida at the age of three, with his ...

July storyteller Mark Shields is a Chicagoland native currently living in Andersonville. By day, he works on progressive causes. This ...

Caroline Schless Andres is a member of the Sweats Girls who have been performing true stories in Chicago and beyond, ...

July storyteller Nathan Deva is a first-generation immigrant. Born and brought up in Southern India, he moved to Chicago 15 ...

July storyteller Jordan Zelvin is a Chicago teaching artist, comedian, puppeteer, storyteller, and generally likable guy. As a queer and ...

July storyteller Anthony Whitaker has been a theatre artist in Chicago for a really long time. They have acted, sung, ...

July storyteller is a transgender woman who has embraced many gender and sexual identities in her many decades of life ...

June storyteller R.C. Riley is a dynamic creative and activist who began writing as a means of healing after a ...

A displaced Southerner, June storyteller Rich Havard grew up in rural Mississippi, but he has called Chicago home for nearly ...

June storyteller Lizzie M. is a lifelong resident of the city. Two fundamental truths were deeply woven into her life: ...

June storyteller Edward Kelsey Moore is an award-winning author whose works include the New York Times and international bestselling novel ...

June storyteller Briana Grace Hammerstrom is a tidal wave in the world of poetry. With titles like Haiku Deathmatch Champion ...

June storyteller Ben McClymont is a performer currently living in Chicago. Prior to moving here, he lived abroad performing as ...

May storyteller Kim L. Hunt has used her platforms in storytelling, public speaking and civic engagement to curate brave, inclusive ...

May storyteller Beckett Kenny is a queer writer, actor, keynote speaker, and comedian located in Chicago, where he regularly performs ...

May storyteller Chijioke Williams is a sound designer, journalist, and voiceover artist who loves combining her experience as a community ...

For May storyteller Tim Schreiber's first mid-life crisis, he got married and had kids. After studying English, Journalism, German, and ...

May storyteller Maria Kostas has told stories on various stages around Chicagoland. Her stories are sometimes entertaining, or historical, perhaps ...

May storyteller Alden Bell has been a member of the creative community for over 50 years. He has performed as ...

April storyteller Jonathan Van De Loo is a Case Management Specialist working at a Rape Crisis Center in Chicago called ...

April storyteller Sonal Aggarwal is a Chicago based stand up comedian, actor and producer. She is a regular host of ...

April storyteller Veronica Arreola is a professional feminist, women’s sports evangelist, and writer. She has read at Tuesday Funk, 20x2, ...

April storyteller James Baran is a native Chicagoan. His gay epiphany occurred when he was 15 at the corner of ...

After finding herself on stage during an expanded state of consciousness, April storyteller Mary Hoefler decided that it was about ...

April storyteller Xan Xander rebooted his life in 2021 with a name change, legalized two years later. So he's telling ...

March storyteller Kim, the ADHD comedian, is a writer, producer and film maker in Chicago. You can catch her at ...

March storyteller Jackie Linn is originally from LA, but this ‘Jack-ie’ of all entertainment trades now proudly calls Chicago home ...

March storyteller Joseph William Reese goes by “Reese” and is a writer, stand-up comedian, and storyteller who was raised in ...

March storyteller Daniel Dever has been a volunteer and nonprofit leader in Chicago’s LGBTQ+ community since the mid-1980s. He has ...

March storyteller George Omondi Odendo is originally from the East Africa nation of Kenya. He lived in Ohio until 3 ...

March storyteller Lee Hubbell trains future elementary school teachers full time and works part time as a psychotherapist. He is ...

February storyteller Elizabeth Gomez is a Korean Puerto Rican queer middle-aged lady, writer, storyteller, podcaster, and founder of The Windy ...

February storyteller Leo Monts is a queer, Irish-American filmmaker, writer, and musician trying to build a better world, while having ...

February storyteller Audry Farber is a transgender activist. She is a grandparent, a Sunday school teacher, a puppeteer and a ...

February storyteller Josh Friedberg is a TEDx speaker, scholar, college writing tutor, and academic coach. This is his second time ...

February storyteller Dorothy Powers is a retired transwoman, traveling tirelessly to see the world and visit family and friends. For ...

February storyteller Armand Cerbone has been a gay-affirmative activist in Chicago since 1973. He co-authored American Psychological Association's first Practice ...

January storyteller Drew Heckman is a queer advocate, organizer, and recovering attorney from Omaha, Nebraska. As an Engagement Officer at ...

January storyteller Alicia Obando has spent the last four decades working to help the voiceless and marginalized including women, children, ...

January storyteller Joey Xuereb III is a former event producer and runway model. The tragically beautiful Joey aka the Lady ...

January storyteller Celene Julieth Luna Garcia came to the United States as a refugee in February 2024 with the help ...

January storyteller Dan Santow is a former journalist and television producer - he was senior writer and nightlife columnist for ...

January storyteller Mike Adreani is a native Chicagoan raised on the westsiiiiide but a northsider for most of his adult ...

December storyteller Brandon Tamayo is originally from Bucktown but tragically moving to Hammond, Indiana when he was a kid. Brandon ...

December storyteller Elizabeth Strusz is a salon owner, speaker, and author from Southern Illinois, known for her commitment to creating ...

December storyteller Michael Concepcion is a Chicagoland native who grew up in Bolingbrook, IL. He graduated from Moody Bible Institute ...

December storyteller Shawn Cobb has worn many hats over the years, working jobs ranging from Railroad Mechanic to Cosmetologist and ...