This May, join us to celebrate the 9th anniversary of The Story Collider with an evening of stories from five very special guests! After the show, stick around and celebrate with The Story Collider crew.
Hosted by Erin Barker and Tracy Rowland. Doors at 7:30pm.
Stories by:
Kambri Crews once lived with her deaf parents in a tin shed in Montgomery, Texas. She now owns and operates the performance venue Q.E.D. in Astoria, Queens. Kambri is also a renowned storyteller and the author of the critically acclaimed and New York Times best selling memoir Burn Down the Ground (Random House). She has performed on The Moth (MainStage & radio), Women of Letters, Risk! and Mortified. In 2014, Kambri opened QED, a performance venue meets community and learning center. With over 100 events per month ranging from comedy, storytelling and music to classes like embroidery, cartooning and writing, there is something for everyone. Since its opening, QED has been featured on The Jim Gaffigan Show, NY1, The New York and LA Times and countless other media outlets. Performers have included the super famous like Leslie Jones, Kate McKinnon, Janeane Garofalo, to the first-time performer and everyone in between. Also a public speaker, Kambri has given speeches for Girls, Inc., University of Texas, Texas Book Festival, University of Oregon, SXSW (South by Southwest), DeafHope, and many other schools, colleges, book festivals, and events.
Khalil A. Cumberbatch currently serves as Chief Strategist at New Yorkers United for Justice a coalition of broad and diverse organizations whose goal is to pass criminal justice reform legislation in New York State. He previously served as Associate Vice President of Policy at the Fortune Society, a reentry organization whose goal is to build people and not prisons. He is also a lecturer at Columbia University School of Social Work.
Dr. BethAnn McLaughlin is an assistant professor in the departments of Neurology and Pharmacology at Vanderbilt specializing in mitochondrial and redox stress signaling in neurological injury and disease. She has received major research funding from the NIH, the DoD, the Dan Marino Foundation, the AHA and IARPA. Her career was sidetracked in 2014 when she experienced retaliation after being a witness in a Title IX investigation. Recently, the National Academy of Sciences gold ribbon panel revealed that her experience was all too common for women in science and medicine. The majority of women in these fields are sexually harassed, very few report, and the consequence of reporting is almost always retaliation. The rates of assault and harassment of those we seek to include most including people of color, LGBTQI and individuals with disabilities are far higher and even more devastating.
Dr. Bianca Jones Marlin is a neuroscientist and postdoctoral researcher at Columbia University in the laboratory of Nobel Laureate Dr. Richard Axel, where she investigates transgenerational epigenetic inheritance, or how traumatic experiences in parents affect the brain structure of their offspring. She holds a PhD in neuroscience from New York University, and dual bachelor degrees from St. John’s University, in biology and adolescent education. As a graduate student, her research focused on the vital bond between parent and child, and studied the use of neurochemicals, such as the “love drug” oxytocin, as a treatment to strengthen fragile and broken parent-child relationships. Dr. Marlin’s research has been featured in the Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, Scientific American, and Discover Magazine’s “100 Top Stories of 2015.” Dr. Marlin aims to utilize neurobiology and the science of learning to better inform both the scientific and educational community on how positive experiences dictate brain health, academic performance, and social well being.
Mamoudou N'Diaye is a talented comedian based in NYC. He most recently wrote for the streaming Refinery 29 / Facebook Watch Late Night Talk and Sketch show AFTER AFTER PARTY. He made a big splash writing and performing at Mic as a video correspondent. His very first video for Mic (shortly after he began in January 2017), “Racism as a Spectrum”, hit a nerve and went viral, reaching 20 million views. He continued to produce videos in this vein with the platform SEEKER. He performs stand-up all around New York City, and has written, directed, and performed on the web series deadass, the live sketch shows Ryan Live and Lo-Fi, MTV News's Decoded, and has also written for Funny Or Die's NewsFlash, Michael Moore, and the 2017 Radio and Television Correspondents' Dinner hosted by Roy Wood Jr. He is a published neuroscientist, former middle school teacher, improviser, DJ, and activist originally from Mauritania.
Kate Willett is a comedian, actress, and writer whose raunchy feminist storytelling is both smart and relatable. Her 15 minute special premiered on Netflix’s “Comedy Lineup” in August 2018. She was recently a correspondent for the JIM JEFFERIES SHOW at Politicon 2017. She’s been featured on Viceland’s FLOPHOUSE and her appearance on Comedy Central’s THIS IS NOT HAPPENING was on Splitsider’s list of “2016’s Best Late Night Standup Sets.” In the past, she toured with Margaret Cho nationally and internationally and has featured with comedians like Kyle Kinane, Jen Kirkman, Ali Wong, Dana Gould, and Greg Behrendt. She has appeared in the Just for Laughs Montreal Comedy Festival, Limestone Comedy Festival, High Plains, Big Sky Festival, Bridgetown Comedy Festival, San Francisco Sketchfest (5 years in a row), and most recently Laughing Skull. Earlier this year she was a “Comic to Watch” at the LA RIOT festival.