This one-of-a-kind event with five featured storytellers begins at 7 PM on Tuesday, October 7.

What is a story that changed your life, a story that you carry always?

Perhaps it was the right book that someone gave you at just the right time. Perhaps it was a story told around a table by a loved one and then told and re-told. Perhaps it came to you through song, through art, through film.

On the evening of Tuesday, October 7 at 7:00 PM, five people connected to Maine, each well known in different ways, will give us a taste of their most vital stories, talk about why they have held onto them, and consider what these stories might give us for our collective future.

Stories That Move Me will be an authentic, dynamic, and broadly inclusive night of storytelling, a reminder of what makes us human. This special event will raise money for MWPA’s scholarships and fellowships, which support emerging writers and seed our next generation of storytellers, as well as free community programs and events like the Maine Lit Fest, which will return in the fall of 2026.

Tickets

TICKETS

Ticket sales end at 2 PM on Tuesday, October 7. There will be limited tickets available at the door. Doors open at 6:30 PM.

All ticket proceeds benefit MWPA’s scholarships and free community programming.

General admission tickets, which are $20/each, can be purchased by clicking on the button below.

Buying a “Pay It Forward” Ticket, also $20/each, will provide a free ticket for a student or person who cannot afford a regular ticket.

There will be a reception with all of the hosts, sponsors, and featured storytellers at 6 PM at First Parish. Reception Tickets are an additional $50/each ($70 total including the event ticket), and can also be purchased by clicking on the button below.

For handicap access, please use the back entrance to First Parish, which is off Chestnut Street in the alley behind Portland High School. Take the elevator up to the Parish Hall. There are limited handicap parking spaces in the alley.

Featured Storytellers

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Joan Benoit Samuelson is an American long-distance runner who won the first Olympic gold medal awarded for the women’s marathon, which debuted at the 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles. During her career, she also held U.S. records for the 10 km, the half-marathon, and the marathon as well as a world record for the marathon. She also founded the Beach to Beacon 10K in 1998, which raises money to support Maine children and draws top athletes from around the globe as well as top Maine and New England runners.

Vincent Stanley, co-author with Yvon Chouinard of The Future of the Responsible Company, has been with Patagonia on and off since its beginning in 1973, for many of those years in key roles as head of sales or marketing. More informally, he is Patagonia’s long-time chief storyteller. Vincent helped develop the Footprint Chronicles, the company’s interactive website that outlines the social and environmental impact of its products; the Common Threads Partnership (precursor of Worn Wear); and Patagonia Books. He currently serves as Patagonia’s director of philosophy and is a resident fellow at the Yale Center for Business and Environment. He is also a poet whose work has appeared in Best American Poetry. He and his wife, the writer Nora Gallagher, live in Santa Barbara and on the coast of Maine.

Nirav Shah, the epidemiologist who rose to national prominence during the Covid-19 pandemic as director of the Maine Center for Disease Control & Prevention, is now a visiting professor at Colby in the Department of Statistics. Shah teaches courses on public health and helps the College develop its public health program. He received an honorary doctoral degree from Colby in 2022 and recently stepped down from a leadership position at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. Previously, he also served as the Director of the Illinois Department of Health. Dr. Shah completed both his medical and law degrees at University of Chicago. After graduating from college, he studied economics at Oxford University.

Onnesha Roychoudhuri, is a journalist, essayist, and storyteller. Her work has appeared in publications such as Rolling Stone, Harper’s Bazaar, Kenyon Review, n+1, Virginia Quarterly Review, The Boston Review, McSweeney’s, The Rumpus, The Nation, The American Prospect, Salon, and Mother Jones. She has read and performed on stages for The Moth, Tedx, Lincoln Center, and more. Onnesha is the author of The Marginalized Majority: Claiming Our Power in a Post-Truth America, a Kirkus Best Book of the Year. She has been awarded residencies and fellowships at Hedgebrook, Blue Mountain Center, and the Center for Fiction. She is currently an Assistant Professor of English - Creative Writing at Colby College.

Gia Drew is the Executive Director at EqualityMaine, leading the fight for LGBTQ+ rights in Maine. Gia has been with EQME since starting as a volunteer on the 2012 marriage equality campaign. She serves on multiple committees and boards, including the MaineCare Advisory Committee, a Trustee of Maine Health Access Foundation, and board chair of Equality Federation, a leading national LGBTQ+ organization. Gia was previously a high school teacher and coach for twenty years. During her time in education, Gia transitioned on the job, becoming the first out transgender public school teacher in Maine and one of the first trans high school athletic coaches in the country. Born and raised in the Boston area, Gia has called Maine home for nearly 25 years.