Current Storytellers

SOL Collective welcomes a rotating group of storytellers each show. We affirm and celebrate all those who have contributed to our artistry.

AYANA CLARK

Communications Director/Storyteller

Ayana is a longtime lover of theater who always saw the stage as a safe space. From an early age, she found comfort embodying characters as an escape from her own reality. In college, she learned to channel her trauma into storytelling, successfully weaving humor, emotion, and linguistics to paint verbal pictures of her life experiences. She is a proud boy mom to Ja'Mal (10) and Ja'Dyn (6)

In 2017, Shelley A. Davis became inspired to become a storyteller, while she was driving down the highway crying while listening to an NPR radio story. In 2020, she co-founded SOL Collective Shelley’s stories are true personal essays. She became a storytelling performer because she believes that it is a way to transmit humor, love, and insight. Shelley is a southside Chicago native. She lives with her husband and two teenage children in Bronzeville in an 1889 brownstone that always needs more work.

SHELLEY A. DAVIS

Co-Founder/Storyteller

Smiling woman in black jumpsuit and hat posing.

AWILDA GONZALEZ

Storyteller

Awilda is a Puerto Rican writer, speaker, and advocate. As a mother and grandmother, Awilda brings lived experience to her work. She also contributed to The Body Is Not an Apology as a content writer, sharing stories rooted in healing, truth, and radical self-love.Awilda describes her relationship with writing simply: “I’m not a poet or a performer — I just have a story to tell. It just happens to be that writing chose me to tell the story.”

MICHELLE HUGHES

2023 marked Michelle's debut with the SOL Collective in “A Habit of Tenderness”. Currently she loves holding sacred space for creativity that includes; being a “house head”, playing her Djembe with Spirit Rhythms, and sharing her musings on her blog :Reflections of An Aging Revolutionary on Wordpress. She is a mother of two amazing adult children,(Nia and Joshua) and is still committed to keeping the faith and yearning for justice.

Storyteller

Terri has written stories since she was a child, she began telling them when she joined the SOL Collective in 2020. Using her voice to speak truth to power is at the center of her work – both personal and professional. A second-generation South Sider, she is a fusion of public schools, Free Street Theatre, basement house and funk parties, black church pews, Harold’s mild sauce and Gladys’ catfish and spaghetti.

TERRI JOHNSON

Woman storyteller in black attire with layered necklaces.

KARIN NORINGTON-REAVES

Storyteller

Karin Norington-Reaves is a lover of languages, & a self-avowed nerd, who grew up loving the written word. She believes storytelling is in the blood and bones of all people. After witnessing the beauty and impact of a SOL Collective performance, she knew she’d found her people. Her dream life includes writing and telling stories, traveling the world, and one day competing on Jeopardy! She is the proud mother of a blended family of four, who regards “Mama” as her favorite title of all.

PAST STORYTELLERS

Keelah Moore

Storyteller

Le'Trice Buckingham

Storyteller

Kara Ervin

Storyteller

Keelah started telling stories to improve her communication skills and fell in love with the storytelling process. She joined SOL in the Spring of 2023 and through this process not only has she drastically improved her communication skills, she has also gained an understanding of the profound depth her stories can have on others. She is a Chicago native, wife and mother of two who works as a Project Manager.

Le’Trice is a multi-disciplinary artist who uses storytelling, poetry and visual art to subvert and conjure. She believes in the transformative power of art and seeks to create in the rich traditions of Blackness. Her work can be found at artconjure.com. She lives just south of Chicago with her mother and feline daughter.

Kara has been in love with stories since she first learned to read. She has always enjoyed reading books of any kind and writing personal essays. To this day she never leaves home without a book to read. In recent years, Kara has expanded her love of stories to create her own stories, shorts, poems and songs. Kara is a native of Chicago currently residing in Bronzeville.

R.C. Riley (they/them) is a queer, non-binary social activist, writer, and performer known for creating work at the intersection of personal truth, social justice, and transformative storytelling. R.C.’s solo show, Sex, Race & Jesus,
In addition to their directing and performance work, R.C. continues to develop original scripts and lead workshops that explore identity, resilience, and collective liberation.

For more than thirty years, she has performed, curated and taught storytelling. She often performs with Performance Duo: In the Spirit. Her storytelling has taken her to stages across the country. Her work seeks to give voice to those whose stories are often untold, especially those of the African diaspora. She is honored to be a 2021 3Arts Award recipient. Emily is the proud mother of 4 powerful sons and 1 amazing granddaughter.

In the past 26 years, I’ve traveled the world using writing as a medium for my award-winning marketing
communications career.
It is my goal that the words that come from my pen, come from the joy in my heart. And the words from my heart come from the love that lives in us all. I hope to continue to share my stories, stories of others, and lways keep alive the stories of my loved ones who were healed in
heaven.

R.C Riley

Storyteller/

Dec '25 Artistic Director

Emily Hooper Lasana

Past Artistic Director/Storyteller

Melody Waller

Storyteller

Ruby Haughton-Pitts

Storyteller

Lauren M. Woods

Storyteller

Lauren Woods, a fourth-generation Chicagoan, has cherished stories since childhood. As a mixed media artist, she carries the legacy of her family and community, weaving tales into her art that underscore our connectedness and humanity. Her work blends vibrant visuals and narratives to celebrate Black culture and the bonds of family. Lauren invites her audience to explore a world where stories are not just told but deeply felt, connecting us all.

Ruby came to the SOL Collective in 2021 with a desire to learn from a diverse group of seasoned story tellers. She had her storytelling debut in winter of 2022 and fell in love. Nearing retirement, she decided that it was time to tell her own stories. She and her husband live in Chicago, have three adult children, and recently celebrated their second grandchild.