Storytelling has taken Charlotte Blake Alston from the South Philadelphia neighborhood where she was raised to being a featured teller at the National Storytelling Festival and to the National Festival of Black Storytelling. She’s performed at festivals worldwide, including in Ghana, Ireland, South Africa, Brazil, Austria and Switzerland.
This master storyteller, narrator and librettist (author of long vocal works) brings traditional and contemporary stories from African and African American oral and cultural traditions to life.
In North America, Alston has graced the stages of Washington, D.C.’s John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and Smithsonian Institution, as well as Philadelphia’s own Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts. She has narrated for symphony orchestras and performed at international storytelling festivals. She is a frequent guest artist at universities, grade schools, museums and cultural arts institutions around the country and also presents at day care centers, for special needs populations, as well as prisons and youth detention centers.