Valerie Tutson
Valerie Tutson is a multiple award-winning storyteller who has been performing in schools, churches, libraries, festivals and conferences since 1991. She draws her stories from around the world with an emphasis on African traditions. Her repertoire includes stories and songs she learned in her travels to South Africa, her experiences in West Africa and stories from African American history. She is a graduate of Brown University where she earned a Master's degree in theater arts and a BA in her self-designed major of Storytelling as a Communications Art.
Programs Offered
Testimonials
"Incredible!!! I LOVED everything about her performance, and would say that it’s the best enrichment I have ever seen at a school that I’ve taught at. I would love to have her back again!"
Valerie Tutson is an energetic, dynamic performer who leaves the room vibrating when she exits. Her voice, facial expressions, and dance movements make her presentation a delight for children and adults. Her stories range from humorous to frightening to plain fun– and they kept the attention of a challenging audience (spanning from about a year and a half to seventy-five).
Valerie Tutson’s tales take the audience on a voyage. She’s refreshing…enthusiastic…and intriguing. The audience (young and old) absolutely loved her!!
This was fantastic! Incredibly engaging, entertaining and relevant, and a perfect fit for our 2nd grade curriculum in particular. I will be recommending Valerie to the other Brookline schools. The format was great, in some ways better than an in-person assembly. There wasn't a bad seat in the house! Students were able to provide feedback through the chat and via hand gestures at different times of the meeting, and Valerie was great at 'looking around the room' and shouting out different students by name. Q & A was very smooth as well with easier back-and-forth between students and the presenter.
I just wanted to drop you a line and thank you for the amazing performance. My daughter, who is not easily impressed, absolutely loved it.
She said “I had already read the book about Mumbet in the past but the way that she tells the story is so mesmerising that I felt like I was in the movies. It was disappointing when she finished and we had to go back to reality, I just wanted her to keep going...”
She was so honest, still spellbound by the presentation.
Thank you Valerie! I hope you will come back next year.
She began by asking the intergenerational audience what they knew of Dr. King and his life and work, and why we now celebrate his birthday. She dramatized the day in his childhood when he learned he would be treated differently by light skinned people because his skin was darker. Then she warmed up the audience’s hearts and bodies by leading a song in a Malawian tribal language that had each of us looking directly in another’s eyes and acting out lyrics that translated as “I see you.” In her “Right to Liberty” program, she told stories of courageous African Americans from the colonial period, including Elizabeth Freeman, who filed court cases that paved the way to abolishing slavery in Massachusetts. Even the youngest members of the audience that filled the Winchester Unitarian Society’s Metcalf Hall were entranced by Tutson’s dynamic performance.
We just want to thank Arts for Learning MA for making a program like Valerie's available to us, we hosted this as a free public event at the Salem Regional Visitor Center and it was well attended by over 40 adults who were thrilled to have the chance to see her in this setting. We wanted to find a way to commemorate and raise awareness about the upcoming Juneteenth holiday, and Valerie's presentation was such a great way to do so.