About

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Best selling author and founder of the internationally acclaimed storytelling network The Moth, George Dawes Green brings The Unchained Tour out for a unique evening of entertainment. The Tour will be featuring storytellers from The Moth, musicians, and other artists. These are not your grandfather’s storytellers—their contemporary stories are drawn from personal experience; that said, expect nothing short of riveting, poignant, hilarious and contemplative slices of life.

The Unchained Tour is a 11-show 9-city bus tour throughout The South drawing attention to and promoting locally owned, independent bookstores.

Mission Statement:

Unchained believes that the art of the raconteur—the telling of unscripted, personal, porch-style stories—is one of the great arts, and that nights of storytelling are vital to any vibrant and healthy community. Our mission is to bring brilliant raconteurs, along with musicians and writers and other artists, to towns large and small across the South—and eventually across the continent. We’ll champion the local and home-grown: independent bookstores, community gardens, performing cafes.  We’ll advocate getting offline and off the grid, and wherever we go we’ll celebrate the pleasure and inspiration of raconteuring.

Board:

George Dawes Green, Founder

George Dawes Green is the founder of the Moth. His first novel, The Caveman’s Valentine, won a Edgar award. His next, The Juror, was an international bestseller in 23 languages. Both books were made into movies. His new novel, Ravens, is also an acclaimed international bestseller.

 

Lisa Parker Fort, Co-Founder

An Organizational Consultant who has worked as the Volunteer Coordinator and Event Director for The Savannah Book Festival, Location Consultant for Kingsgate Films, Program Development for the Family Enrichment Program and Speaker Coordinator and Program Chairman for the Episcopal Church Women of Saint John’s Church.

 

Francis Allen, Executive Director and President

Former President and CEO of Syntheny, Ltd.  Currently active in community gardening, serving on Board of Directors of Savannah Urban Garden Alliance and Co-Founder/Garden Manager of Starfish Community Garden. If you can read and don’t, do not for a minute consider yourself superior to someone who wants to read and can’t. – Francis Allen

Chad Faries, Vice-President

Chad Faries was raised mostly in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, but lived in 24 houses by the time he was 10 years old. These experiences are chronicled in his forthcoming memoir, And Then We Moved (Emergency Press February, 2011) . His poetry collection, The Border Will Be Soon, was the winner of the Emergency Press open book competition in 2005. The Book of Knowledge, a poetry collection whose design and contents were inspired by a 1911 children’s encyclopedia, was just published by Vulgar Marsala Press. He has published poems, essays, photographs, interviews, and creative non-fiction in Exquisite Corpse, Southeast Review, New American Writing, Barrow Street, The Hawaii Review, Afterimage, Post Road, and others. He has a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and was a Fulbright Fellow in Budapest. He has lived extensively and taught in Central Europe. Currently he is an Asst. Professor at Savannah State University where he also hosts a theme based storytelling and music program on WHCJ 90.3 .  He now owns a house in Thunderbolt, GA but lives abroad and gets lost on his motorcycle whenever he can.  More info can be found at chadfaries.com.

Ariel Janzen, Secretary

Ariel holds a masters degree from the Savannah College of Art & Design and has over 12 years of web, print and identity design experience, having worked as an art director in Toronto before relocating to Savannah in 2001. In 2004 she founded the graphic design firm brightwhitespace, which has re-branded dozens of organizations including the City of Savannah, designed and helped publish dozens of books, and launched countless websites. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in literature, loves typography and kerns letters in her spare time. brightwhitespace.com

Linette Dubois, Treasurer

Linette Dubois is a visual artist. She attended the University of Georgia for a BFA in drawing and painting. Her work has been shown in exhibitions in galleries and museums. She has served as both co-chair and juror for the Reflections Program, a national public school arts competition. For three years she was on the Board of the Ardsley Park Neighborhood Association as the Events co-chair. She resides in Savannah, working in her studio and raising two lively boys.

 

Leslie Lovell, Executive Producer

Leslie is a graphic designer and a graduate of the University of Alabama.  Following a career in advertising and color forecasting she recently opened with her sister, The Art of Sisters, a Savannah/Houston artisan business creating items made from indigenous materials.  Roll Tide!

 

Crew:

Anita Sundari Akella, Assistant Producer

Anita, an erstwhile conservation gypsy, has a long history of pestering people to tell their stories and telling a tale or two herself – everywhere from the sun-warmed verandas of rural Indian villages to the hammock-hung depths of the Amazon jungle.  She collects flowers and feathers for her hair, cusses a lot (but artfully), and is a fool for wild nature, summertime sweetwater, beards on fine men, magical realism, and Southern byways and backwaters.  A blue bus full of renegade raconteurs and associated eccentrics suits her just fine, thank you very much.

Isaac Hammons, Sound Engineer

Isaac is a creator, editor, and recorder of sound, working in the fields of film, television, theatre and life.  Currently residing in Austin, TX.  Isaac strives everyday to capture the power and beauty of the human voice, and share it with others.  isaachammonssound.com

 

Jose Ray, Navigator

In the plains of Kansas, Jose acquired the skills to drive a bus. He would encounter characters of all sorts while driving the bus there, but nothing could have prepared him for the cast of characters he would be transporting around with the Unchained Tour. Besides driving the bus for the Unchained Tour, Jose works as a freelance illustrator and painter. You may also see him around Savannah spinning records with the Vinyl Appreciation crew, or climbing buildings downtown. See some of what he does here joseraysay.blogspot.com

Andrew Von Goellner, Photographer

Andrew started photographing people on the DC streets at 13 and earned his B.F.A. in Photography from the Savannah College of Art and Design in 2009. With a heavy background, and love, of traditional film he does not believe in the modern style of composing images in Photoshop. His photographs have appeared in multiple publications:  Washingtonian Magazine and the novel Drive Me Out of My Mind by Chad Faries. He has shot documentaries from San Francisco to the Galapagos Islands. Andrew’s documentary style draws from Henri Cartier-Bresson, Arthur “Weegee” Fellig, and Danny Lyon.  vg-photography.com

Kimberly Faith Waid, Publicity Director

Kimberly received her BFA from The Savannah College of Art & Design and her MFA in Creative Writing – Fiction from New York University. She has been a Goldwater Fellow in Creative Writing at Coler-Goldwater Hospital and has taught creative writing to undergraduates at New York University. She has handled publicity  for Washington Square Review, Savannah Stopover 2011, and all of the Unchained tours to date. She’s currently working on a novel. A lady of many hats, she’s also a storyteller, story coach, and an on-call snuggler.

Samita Wolfe, Producer

Samita is the bees knees.  This girl is one wild south Georgia woman who can cook, raises chickens, drinks strait whiskey, and drives an old pick-up truck.  She spent five years in the military where she learned how to “take care of business.”  Samita’s spirit is infectious and genuine and feeds the energy behind Unchained.

 

unCHAINed GANG:  We couldn’t have done it without their tireless hours.  Thank you!