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Moonlight Tales

Distance Separates Us, Kindness Brings Us Together

Moonlight Tales brings together three renowned storytellers to share lively stories guided by one single theme, kindness.

Join us in a live, online setting as we listen to curated stories by Adam Booth, Carrie Sue Ayvar, and Dr. Joel Ying under the moonlight and stars, in your own home. 

Adam Booth's storytelling blends traditional folklore, music, and an awareness of contemporary Appalachia. His original cinematic style, both humorous and touching, is influenced by generations of diverse storytellers from West Virginia. A nationally touring artist, his professional telling appearances include premiere storytelling events across the United States, such as the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival, the National Storytelling Festival, and Teller-In-Residence at the International Storytelling Center (three times), as well as resident at the Banff Spoken Word program in Alberta, Canada, multiple storytelling and music events in twenty-six states, and collaborations with the West Virginia Dance Company, Goose Route Dance Company, Frederick Chorale, and Hagerstown Choral Arts Society. Equally at home as a teller and educator, his research fellowships and presentations have included the Berea Appalachian Sound Archives Fellowship, Ghost Ranch, the National Storytelling Conference, the Appalachian Studies Association Conference, the National Endowment for the Humanities Voices from the Misty Mountains summer seminars and institute, and a commission from the National Academy of Medicine. He is a member of the Recording Academy (GRAMMYs) and his stories and recordings have been honored with many national awards, including a Parents’ Choice Gold Award, two Parents' Choice Silver Honors, five Storytelling World Awards and Honors, the National Storytelling Network's J.J. Reneaux Mentorship Grant, and four West Virginia Liars’ Contest wins. Adam serves as the inaugural Storyteller-In-Residence at Shepherd University and is founding artistic director of the Speak Story Series, now in its ninth season. Adam is most at home sharing stories and music with the next generation of listeners and tellers throughout Appalachia.

Carrie Sue Ayvar, Storyteller, has been connecting people, languages and cultures in both English and Spanish for over forty years. A long-time advocate for the Art of Storytelling and Arts Education she has performed in diverse venues from intimate café settings with small audiences to a National Park with several thousand eager listeners. She believes that “If you don’t know the trees you may be lost in the forest, but if you don’t know the stories you may be lost in life.”

Her awards include: National Storytelling Network’s Oracle Award for Service and Leadership; “Sun Award” for Advancing Teaching and Learning Through the Arts; Florida Storytelling Association’s Chuck Larkin Distinguished Service Award; Broward Teaching Artist ArtsEd Forever Award; a National Parenting Publications Honors Award; iParenting Award for Cuentame Un Cuento/Tell Me A Story CD.  She is an Endorsed Master Teaching Artist for the South Florida Cultural Consortium, an alliance of five local arts agencies and co-created their credentialing program. In 2019 she was one of only four recipients of the National Residency Teaching Artist Credential which recognizes the skills and experiences of exemplary school-based residency teaching artists in the United States.

In 2015, Dr. Joel Ying began the journey as a storytelling performer. He discovered
a new way to connect and touch an audience. In this age of information, it is not the facts
and figures that inspire, but rather it is the power of story to create emotion and move us
into action. He began to work on the craft of storytelling: workshops, writing stories, and
watching other tellers. Promoting storytelling has also become one of his passions. With Storytellers
of the Round Table, Dr. Ying has produced showcase events, sponsored National Tellers to perform
locally, started a local guild, and of course perform!

Dr. Ying now performs regularly with an eclectic collection of world folk tales and touching personal stories.
He has performed at the Florida Storytelling Festival, Stone Soup Festival New Voice in South Carolina,
Timpanogos Timp Tell Contest in Utah, and to just about anyone that will listen. He teaches “Storytelling as Healing”
at Florida Gulf Coast University and online workshops. Story is the gift that gives back when it is shared.

Dr. Ying is a Physician-Educator-Storyteller.

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