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Madafo Lloyd Wilson has presented as a storyteller and musician since the early 1980s. His programs are patterned in the spirit of the "Griot"; those individuals responsible for keeping the history, traditions, principles and values of the people alive and vibrant. A Madafo Storytelling presentation breathes life into the age old Art Form and speaks from the African experience in America.

A multi-instrumentalist, composer, and scholar, Hankus Netsky teaches improvisation and Jewish music. He is the founder and director of the Klezmer Conservatory Band, an internationally renowned Yiddish music ensemble. Netsky has previously taught Jewish music at Hebrew College and Wesleyan University, and has lectured extensively in the U.S., Canada, and Europe. Several of his essays on klezmer music have been published by the University of California Press. Netsky has produced numerous recordings, including almost a dozen by the Klezmer Conservatory Band. He has composed extensively for film and television, and has collaborated with such artists as Itzhak Perlman, Robin Williams, Joel Grey, and Theodore Bikel. At Commencement 2001, Hankus Netsky received NEC's Louis and Adrienne Krasner Teaching Excellence Award. Netsky has also been the recipient of NEC's Outstanding Alumni Award and Laurence Lesser Award for excellence in teaching. Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology, Wesleyan University. B.M. with honors, M.M. with honors, NEC. Studies at Carnegie Mellon University. Jazz with Jaki Byard and George Russell; contemporary improvisation with Ran Blake. He is a former member of the faculty for the Yiddish Folk Arts Institute and Hebrew College.

Charlotte Blake Alston is a Philadelphia-based storyteller, narrator, and singer with an interest in literature. After 21 years of teaching from the preschool through graduate levels, Charlotte chose to devote more time to touring and performing. She brings her stories and songs to national and regional festivals, schools, universities, museums, libraries and performing arts centers throughout the United States and Canada, as well as local and national radio and television. Charlotte is the first storyteller to perform with the Philadelphia Orchestra on both their Children's and Youth concert series. Since 1994, she has been the host of "Sound All Around"; the orchestra's pre-school concert series and continues to appear as a guest host and narrator on family concerts. Charlotte also hosts "Carnegie Kids", Carnegie Hall's Preschool concert series and has been a featured artist on the Carnegie Hall Family Concert Series in NY since 1996. She has been a featured artist at both the Presidential Inaugural Festivities in Washington, DC and the Pennsylvania Gubernatorial Children's Inaugural Celebrations in Harrisburg, PA. Charlotte's narrative voice can be heard on documentaries including *Plenty Of Good Women Dancers*, *The Peddie School*, and *Crosstown*. She herself was featured in the award-winning documentary *Family Name* that aired around the country on PBS. She is a regular guest reader on WNYC New York's *Prime time with PJ*. Charlotte has received numerous honors including the prestigious Pew Fellowship In The Arts in 1994. She was selected as Philadelphia Magazine's "Best Of Philly" 1995. She is the recipient of the 1997 Commonwealth Of Pennsylvania Artist Of The Year Award (The Hazlett Memorial Award). She holds two honorary PhD's from Seton Hill and LaRoche colleges respectively and was one of four Americans selected to perform and present at the first International Storytelling Field Conference in Ghana in August of 1999. She was the Director of "In the Tradition" 14th National Festival Of Black Storytelling in 1996.

Jeffrey Matthews is associate professor and director of the business leadership program at the University of Puget Sound. He holds a PhD in history from the University of Kentucky. His many published articles include: *Yankee Enterprise: The Houghtons of Massachusetts and, The Rise & Fall of Corning Incorporated, 1851-1871 in Essays in Economic and Business History.*

Television and radio personality Robert Aubry Davis is a native Washingtonian and an active member of the area's cultural community. Davis is the creator and host of "Millennium of Music," a program dedicated to music from the thousand years before Bach. The program is carried by more than 100 public radio stations nationwide. He has been host and moderator of WETA TV 26's Emmy Award-winning weekly arts discussion program, "Around Town," since its inception in 1986. Davis can also be heard on Vox, XM Satellite Radio's opera and classical vocal music channel. His education in literature and art history at both Duke University and American University and his broad knowledge of and participation in the arts make him a well-respected and visible member of Washington's cultural community. He is a regular lecturer at a variety of area seminars and performances, including concerts with the Folger Consort, the Baltimore Consort, the Early Music Series at the University of Maryland, the Dumbarton Oaks Concert Series and the Smithsonian Early Music Series.

Leonard Simon Nimoy (born March 26, 1931) is an American actor, film director, poet, musician and photographer. He played the character of Spock on *Star Trek*, an American television series that ran for three seasons from 1966 to 1969, and he reprised the role in the movie sequels (most recently 2009's *Star Trek*) and the follow-up series *Star Trek: The Next Generation.*

Douglass Shand-Tuccis previous books include *The Art of Scandal*, the bestselling biography of Isabella Steward Gardner; Boston Bohemia, and, most recently, Harvard University, with photographs by Richard Cheek and a foreword by Neil Rudenstine. Shand-Tucci, a 1972 graduate of Harvard College, gave to the Gay and Lesbian Caucus in 1997. He lives in Bostons Back Bay.