Life Member

​Co-Founder of Affiliate Keepers of The Culture, Philadelphia
Zora Neale Hurston Award Winner

​Co-founded organization; Incorporated as the National Association of  Black Storytellers, Inc.; Festivals coordinated by Host Cities; Zora Neale Hurston Award Established; Liar's Contest Established; Love Circle Established; 1st Newsletter Published;  Published Talk that Talk

Positions Held: Chair of Nominations & Elections Committee; Festival Director; Editor, Sayin' Somethin'

​

"Think before you speak and pray before you think." – Willie Louise Martin McNear

​

Life Member
Zora Neale Hurston Award Winner,

Adopt-A-Teller Program Modeled; Landmark Festival in Horry & Georgetown Counties, SC (Winner of Chamber of Congress "Top-Ten" Award); NABS Trademark Redesigned; President's Award

Established; First Membership Handbook Produced

Positions Held:  Co-Festival Director

"As long as the living tell the stories the people shall not die."  ~ West Africa

​

Zora Neale Hurston Award Winner,

Brother Blue Circle of Elders

1st to Receive Passing of Cowtail Switch; New By-Laws Enacted; National Affiliate Program Established; Festival Community Outreach Named "Adopt-A-Teller"; First Heritage Tour

Positions Held: 1st President-Elect; Treasurer; Festival Director; Affiliate Director (Sole)

"Kwa Mashu – Where is the courage in this place?"  ~ Jamal Koram

Life Member
Co-Founder of Affiliate Keepers of The Culture, Philadelphia
Zora Neale Hurston Award Winner, Brother Blue Circle of Elders;

​

Application of NABS 501(c) 3; Festival Guidelines Established outlining all Festival Committees; The Elder's Chair in Honor of Brother Blue Established; First Board Professional Development; First Full Youth Program at Festival & Conference

Positions Held: Administrative Assistant; Festival Director; Festival Selection Committee Chair; Festival Creative Director; Editor, Sayin' Somethin', Education Committee Chair

"We are what our thinking makes us." ~ Nigeria

Life Member
Zora Neale Hurston Award Winner,

501 (c) 3 Received; The first NABS-sponsored Festival; National Youth Program Established; First Village Telling; The National Adopt-A-Teller Program Established

Positions Held: Festival Director; 1st Executive Director

"Guard your Relationships." ~ Linda Jenkins Brown

The Elders Chair in Honor of Brother Blue expanded to The Elders' Circle and Awards

"Whoever is ignorant of his roots, his intellect has vanished. Whoever does not know his place of origin, his honor has collapsed." ~ A Scholar of Old Mali - 14th Century

Life Member
Co-founder and 1st President Affiliate Griots' Circle of Maryland 
Zora Neale Hurston Award Winner,

​

Executive Director Position Established

Positions Held: Adopt-A-Teller Director; Festival Director; President Griots' Circle of Maryland

"A child doesn't belong to the father or mother; a child belongs to the ancestors." ~ African proverb

Presidents' Round Table Initiated; New Website Established (www.nabsinc.org); Festival Preview Stage Established

Positions Held: Festival Director; Newsletter Editor

​

"Do not look where you fell, but where you slipped." ~ African proverb

Co-Founder Cleveland Association of Black Storytellers 
Brother Blue Circle of Elders, Life Member, Zora Neale Hurston Award Winner

Publication of NABS 1st Anthology: Sayin' Somethin'; Katrina Fund Established

​

Positions Held: Secretary; Membership Committee Chair; Newsletter Editor; Festival Director; President Cleveland Association of Black Storytellers

​

"If you want to buy some cloth, go to the weaver, if you want a hoe, ax or knife, then go to the blacksmith.  But if you want to know the history of the people, you must go to the Griots." ~  Foday Musa Suso

Zora Neale Hurston Award Winner, Life Member

​

Akawabaa Gathering Established; Linda Goss Enshrinement Established; First Master Classes & Zora Neale Hurston Series; 25th Festival & Conference Milestone; Love Circle renamed Mother Mary Love Circle; Preview Stage renamed the Anansi Stage

Positions Held: Sayin' Somethin' Editorial Committee Chair and Editor; Festival Director

​

"Wisdom is the principle thing; therefore get wisdom; and with all thy getting get understanding." ~ Proverbs 4:7

Brother Blue Circle of Elders, Gold Life Member, Linda Jenkins Brown Nia  Award Winner

​

Positions Held: Secretary; Festival Director; Public Relations Chair, Newsletter Editor; Executive Director

​

"Do not let what you cannot do tear from your hands what you can." ~ Ashanti

​Positions Held: Public Relations Chair; Fund Development Chair; President, Kuumba Storytellers

​

"The tragedy of life does not lie in not reaching a goal. The tragedy of life is having no goal to reach for." - Benjamin E. Mays

Life Member

Annual Storytelling Contest established; 1st Professional Webinar conducted; Fireside Chat initiated; Products & Development, Education and Legacy Committees established; Redesign of Website; NABS Blog launched; Youth Awards renamed Baba Jamal Koram Harambee Youth Award; Linda Jenkins Brown Nia Service Award established

​

Positions Held: Secretary; Chair Mama Linda Enshrinement Committee; Festival Director; President Cleveland Association of Black Storytellers

​

"Se Wotra Dua No A Wobehu Ahemfie" (When you pass the tree you will see the palace.) ~ Ghana

Gold Life Member

Positions Held:  Board Member; Membership Chair; Adopt-A-Teller Director; President Keepers of the Culture, Inc. 

Headquarters at National Great Blacks in Wax Museum established, Mother Mary Carter Smith Day proclaimed February 10, August established as Founders' Month, NABS featured at PANAFEST in Ghana West Africa,  Awarded NEA Challenge America, Nora Roberts Foundation and Lois Lenski Covey Grants, Awarded McGraw Hill Education Foundation book grants, Established Awards & Scholarship and Tradition & Protocol Committees,  1st MENU(Monthly News Update) andThe Fourteenth (Presidential Monthly Newsletter) published, 1st On-line Spread the Word Newsletter published, NABS Care initiated, Position of Financial Operations Manager secured, Sankofa Intergenerational Oral History Project implemented, NABS featured performers at Grand Opening of National African American Museum of Cultural and Heritage on the Freedom Sounds Stage, National Collegiate Affiliate Program established, One Story At A Time online project launched, Virtual Wall of Remembrance in honor of Ancestors implemented, Partnerships established with NSN and the State Department Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs, 1st Resource Guide published on website, Language, Literacy and Lore Project launched.

​

 “Raise your words, not voice. It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder.”  ~ Rumi

​Emeritus of the Cleveland Association of Black Storytellers Inc. and also served as the former assistant to Affiliate Director Baba Jamaal Koram. Kwanza is also a member of the National Black Child Institute Cleveland Affiliate. She is a member of the National Sorority of Phi Delta Kappa Inc. She served as the former project director for the Children's Defense Fund Freedom School of Olivet Institutional Baptist Church. 

​

Favorite quote: Isaiah 40:31 But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary and they shall walk and not faint.

 In appreciation of his work, David has been recognized as a Young Cultural Innovator by the Salzburg Global Seminar, an Emerging Nonprofit Leader by the Aspen Institute, and was awarded a 2016 Master/Apprenticeship Fellowship in Storytelling from the Maryland State Arts Council to work with Mama Linda Goss. Recently David co-founded DiscoverME/RecoverME, an organization that utilizes the African oral tradition to encourages the claiming of one’s narrative for personal and organizational growth.

Ms. Merrill has been a guest storyteller on the “Larry Young Morning Show” (WOLB) for many years, presenting several segments called: “Voices of Our Ancestors”, “Voices of Our Legacies”  and “Voices of Kwanzaa”. She has been featured on the TV show “All About Baltimore” produced by Lee Michaels. Ms. Merrill has been a frequent guest on the “Anthony McCarthy Radio Show” for WEAA. The (late) Thomas Saunders, CEO of Renaissance Productions and Tours named her “Baltimore’s Own Madame C.J. Walker”. She was appointed the Official Griot for the Baltimore City Branch of the NAACP from 2010-2014 and is  the Official Griot for the “Larry Young” Radio Show WOLB (1010) in Baltimore, Maryland until 2021.