PRESS RELEASE

September 20, 2024

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For More Information, Contact:

Karen “Queen Nur” Abdul-Malik

AATP@NABSinc.org

www.nabsinc.org

The National Association of Black Storytellers Announces

the Black Appalachian Storytelling Fellowship Awardees for 2024

Baltimore, MD: The National Association of Black Storytellers, Inc. (NABS) has

selected six artists as the 2024 Black Appalachian Storyteller Fellows. Applicants with

connections to six states in the areas designated by the Appalachia Regional

Commission of KY, OH, TN, NC, VA, and WVwere awarded. Recipients will receive a

cash award of $5,000 to support their practice as a Black Appalachian storyteller and culture bearer with opportunities to examine, research, develop and perform and/or document the Black Appalachian storytelling tradition. Additionally, the fellows will receive funds for travel to and lodging at the 42nd and 43rd Annual National “In the Tradition…” Black Storytelling Festival and Conference. Fellows will be welcomed at an opening “Akwaaba Gathering,” and celebrated at the BASF Awards Ceremony during this year’s Festival and Conference in Buffalo, NY, October 23-25. Next year, the fellows will present during the 2025 festival and conference being held in Atlanta. A one-year membership to the National Association of Black Storytellers is also awarded as part of the fellowship prize.

The NABS Black Appalachian Storytellers Fellowship is made possible through

partnerships and funding in part by Mid Atlantic Arts’ Central Appalachia Living

Traditions Program and South Arts as part of the In These Mountains, Central

Appalachian Folk Arts and Culture.

This 3rd year fellowship is an adjudicated award recognizing artistic excellence in

representation of Black Appalachian storytelling and cultural heritage. The 2024 Black Appalachian Storyteller Fellowship awardees are:

Kentucky

• Jim Embry: Performer, Teaching Artist, Author, Activist, Workshop Presenter,

Mentor, Historian, Agrarian, Cultural Organizer; Madison County, Kentucky

North Carolina

• Beverly Fields Burnette: Performer, Author, Poet, Workshop Presenter,

Advocate; Buncombe, Polk and Burke Counties, North Carolina

Ohio

• Omope Carter Daboiku: Author, Performer, Teaching Artist, Mentor, Workshop

Presenter, Advocate, Historian, Quilter; Lawrence County, Ohio and Wise

County, Virginia

Tennessee

• Felecia Outsey aka Sista’ Felecity LUV: Performer, Poet, Dancer, Teaching

Artist, Historian, Activist, Author, Mentor, Cultural Organizer; Knox County,

Tennessee

West Virginia

• Janice Lynn Cooley: Historian, Researcher, Exhibitor; Greenbriar County, West

Virginia

West Virginia

• Eric “Monstalung” Jordan: Performer, Recording Artist, Hip Hop Producer,

Teaching Artist, Workshop Presenter, Advocate and Mentor; Fayette &

Monongalia County, West Virginia

The co-founders of the National Association of Black Storytellers, Inc. (NABS), Mother

Mary Carter Smith and Mama Linda Goss (born and raised in Appalachia Tennessee) conceived the idea of a storytelling festival to give opportunities to African American

storytellers to share the stories of their heritage.

The first “In The Tradition…” Festival of Black Storytelling was held at Morgan State

University (MSU) in 1983. Now in its 42nd year, the Festival and Conference will be in

Buffalo, New York and co-hosted by NABS Affiliate, Tradition Keepers: Black

Storytellers of Western New York. The 2024 Fellows will be honored and will receive an

originally designed award by Tennessee Appalachian Folk Artist, Dena Jennings.

-End-