Menlo Park hosts 11th Annual Storytelling Festival

Published on September 09, 2026

Collage shows all of the tellers in the 2026 Storytelling Festival, plus Menlo Park Library behind a theater curtain

Join us for the 11h Annual Menlo Park Storytelling Festival, featuring nine free events between September 27 and November 21.

This year’s celebration of the ancient living art introduces two tellers new to the city library’s “stage.” Kenyan-born Clara Kamunde will be the inaugural performer on September 27, and Hana Baba (a name familiar to many locals for her award-winning journalism for KALW radio) will share folktales from Sudan on October 18.

We’ll get to meet the wife of Mahatma Gandhi on October 3, as Chautauqua scholar Roopa Mohan introduces Kasturba Gandhi in a performance that allows us to ask questions of the peace activist.

A storytelling workshop with drama teacher Enid Davis on Nov. 15 will let attendees explore the art—perhaps even preparing the brave to contribute to the closing Tellabration!™ event on Nov. 21.

Those events, and four more, are all free, thanks to the Friends of the Menlo Park Library. Drop in for one event or join us for the entire series. Visit each event link for details including times, location, and age recommendation.

Performances: 

  • 9/27: Clara Kamunde: Afri-Crafty Tales
  • 10/3: Roopa Mohan presents Kasturba Gandhi
  • 10/18: Hana Baba: Folktales from Sudan
  • 10/27: New Monthly Event! Storytelling Meetup
  • 11/5: John Weaver: Pumpkin Tales
  • 11/12: StoryFest Online
  • 11/16: Jeff Gere: True Supernatural Tales of Hawaii
  • 11/21: Tellabration! ™

Workshop:

  • 11/15: Storytelling Workshop: The Enchanting World of "Once Upon a Time"

About Storytelling

  • Storytelling is telling stories--without using a book.
  • It's an ancient art form that predates libraries, and books, and writing. 
  • It's not necessarily for children!
  • Traditional-style storytelling creates unique images in the mind of each listener.
  • According to the National Storytelling Network, "storytelling is the interactive art of using words and actions to reveal the elements and images of a story while encouraging the listener’s imagination. In storytelling, the listener imagines the story.”
  • According to the Storytelling Association of California (an organization dedicated to promoting storytelling as a living art form), storytelling is “orally passing on adventures, wisdom, experiences, surprise, history, laughter, beliefs and imagination.”

This free event received funding support from the Friends of the Menlo Park Library.

Schedule of events

  

 

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