Susan Klein - Born, raised, and still residing on Martha’s Vineyard Island, Massachusetts, Susan Klein is an award-winning spoken-word artist. She is a much sought-after editor and story coach for the stage and page, and leads workshops in America and Europe on memoir organization and writing, storytelling, emceeing, the application of story format for opening and closing statements for lawyers, public speaking, and storytelling in the curriculum, through her business, Story Wisdom. She is the author of Through a Ruby Window – a Martha’s Vineyard Childhood, as well as articles, storytelling industry guides, and speeches. She is the owner of Ruby Window Productions through which she provides storytelling concerts, speeches, and story-crafting-to-shrink-wrapping spoken-word audio direction and production. During her 27-year touring career she has appeared in more than 120 storytelling festivals, on main stages and for special interest groups. Susan is a winner of numerous awards for her audio work as well as the coveted Circle of Excellence Award. She is the 2007 recipient of the Creative Living Award presented by The Permanent Endowment of Martha’s Vineyard which honors a person with a “creative and luminous spirit.”

Motoko - A native of Osaka, Japan, Motoko first came to the United States as an exchange student to University of Massachusetts. Her earlier career included working as a Japanese language instructor at UMass for 10 years. She trained with late master mime Tony Montanaro (1927-2002). Her partner Eshu Bumpus introduced her to the world of American storytelling. Motoko has performed professionally since 1993, going to hundreds of schools, libraries, museums and festivals. Motoko has appeared on Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood and an educational video by Harcourt, and also has been awarded numerous grants from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and New York State BOCES. Her debut CD, The Promise of Chrysanthemums won a 2002 Parents’ Choice Silver Honor Award and a 2003 Storytelling World Award. In October 2003, Motoko was showcased on the Exchange Place Stage at the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, Tennessee, representing the Northeast region. In November 2003, Motoko toured Miyazaki, Japan, as a part of CarnegieKids in Miyazaki Project, sponsored by Carnegie Hall. 

Minton Sparks  - Spoken-word artist Minton Sparks is in a category all her own fusing poetry and her intoxicating gift for storytelling into a series of one woman performances punctuated with world class music. Minton travels extensively, performing at various universities, clubs, conferences, and music and poetry festivals sharing her brand of performance poetry and her workshops on creative writing with audiences nationwide. Sparks graduated from the University of the South with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and then from Vanderbilt University in 1991 with a Master’s of Education in Human Development Counseling. Grammy-nominated Minton was featured nationally on the NPR’s All Things Considered and internationally on the BBC’s Bob Harris Show, along with the syndicated Woodsongs’ Old Time Radio Hour. Minton was the keynote performer at the International Art and Healthcare Conference sponsored by Vanderbilt University, she also performed at The Personal Historians Conference, National Women’s Book Conference and The Southern Women’s Writing Conference in Rome, Georgia.

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