Join BLR for a night of intimate and compelling live stories about the complex relationship between our bodies and society. Six storytellers take to the stage to perform their inspiring personal stories for a live audience. Don’t miss this one-of-a-kind live storytelling experience that takes you into the heart of what it means to navigate our bodies in the world today.

Join us live in New York City, or livestream in your living room. (And if you can’t tune in that night, no worries—the recorded livestream will remain available for viewing for one week after the event.)

Saturday, November 16 at 7:30 pm
Leonard Nimoy Thalia at Peter Norton Symphony Space
Broadway and 95th Street, NYC

Click below to get your ticket:

After an acclaimed (and sold-out!) show last year, Bellevue Literary Review takes to the stage again to share powerful stories of the human experience within our rapidly changing world.

Hosted by Danielle Ofri and Ashley McMullen

Storytellers

Sofia Ali-Khan is a storyteller, ceramic artist, and author of A Good Country: My Life in Twelve Towns, and the Devastating Battle for a White America, a braided Muslim-American memoir and history of American racism. She is at work on her first book of speculative fiction.

Kelli Dunham is the nonbinary nurse, ex-nun, trauma-informed comedian so common in modern Brooklyn. Kelli is the author of seven hilarious nonfiction books about not humorous subjects, including puberty, grief, and death. Kelli’s podcast, Second Helping, is available where podcasts hang out.

Delight Chinenye Ejiaka is a writer whose works investigates melodramatic women, female hysteria, and consciousness in the marketplace. Her works have appeared in Isele Magazine, Michigan Quarterly Review, and Whale Road Review. She is a 2024 Macdowell Fellow and Aspen Words Fellow.

Lena Gilbert is a writer, choreographer and performer with deep roots in ballet and modern dance. Her writing is known for honesty combined with warmth and humor, always with an eye toward activism and improving how human we are to each other.

G.K. Jayaram emigrated from India in 1968. After 32 years in the corporate world, he founded ILID, an NGO, which runs ten schools for 4500 slum children in India and provides online tutoring to 1250 students in 25 schools in the U.S. He’s written plays, short stories, and poetry.

Ginelle Testa (she/they) is a queer, sober, and body-positive author who lives in Boston. Her memoir, Make a Home Out of You, was published by She Writes Press. When she’s not writing, you can find her thrifting and doing yin yoga.

Hosts

Danielle Ofri is the editor-in-chief of BLR, a primary care doctor at Bellevue Hospital, and contributor to The New Yorker and the New York Times. Her latest book is When We Do Harm.

Ashley McMullen is a BLR Board member, and a primary care doctor at the San Francisco VA Hospital. She co-hosts the podcast The Human Doctor.

Creative Team

Catherine Burns is a Peabody Award–-winning director, storytelling midwife, consultant, and public speaker. She was the artistic director of The Moth for 20 years, where she was a host and producer of The Moth Radio Hour and co-author of the NYT bestseller, How to Tell a Story.

​​Maggie Cino is an award-winning content producer, director, and playwright described as “a writer of extraordinary versatility and imagination.” As former Senior Producer for Peabody and MACEI Award-winning organization, The Moth, she served as lead director at venues including Lincoln Center, BAM, and The Sydney Opera House.

Musician

​​Kwami T. Coleman is a musician, composer, producer, and musicologist specializing in improvised music. His research interests include experimental music history, jazz history, the African Diaspora, the political economy of music, music technology, aesthetics, and cultural studies. Coleman’s current book project, in production, is titled Change: The “New Thing” and Modern Jazz. 

ASL Interpreter

​​Avery Gordon is a freelance ASL interpreter in the NJ and NYC areas. In addition to Broadway productions such as Kimberly Akimbo, Avery has interpreted for many off-Broadway shows including Marcus Gardley’s black odyssey with Classic Stage Company; The Ally with The Public Theater; Gun & Powder with Paper Mill Playhouse; Good Bones with The Public Theater, and Radio City Rockettes.

Artist

​​Stephanie Singleton is an illustrator with an interest in all things decorative and surreal. Born and raised in Toronto, she graduated from OCAD University with a B.Des. specializing in illustration.

Produced with generous support from the BLR community, The Paige Fraser Foundation, and Northwell Health.