Tell It On Tuesday

July 28, 2026

Stories 

Gwen Carmen‘s
The Mission After Dark

Show Description: After seeing one of Aretha Franklin’s final performances, Gwen journeys home only to find herself in the middle of a crime scene. Luckily some of her previous students arrive to save the night.

Artist Biography: Gwen Carmen is an activist, actress, educator, and writer whose work has appeared in Essence magazine, Plexus feminist newspaper, Haight Ashbury Literary Journal, and numerous other small presses. She’s told stories at The Moth, Monday Night Marsh, and MUNI Diaries Live.

Joyful Raven‘s
Tactical Frivolity: How to save the world in a unitard (excerpt)

Show Description: Forced into animal-print unitards and political positions long before she was a consenting adult in her parent’s radical theater company, Joyful never had a fighting chance at anything resembling a normal life. You think your parents were embarrassing? Did you have to sing about salmon sex on stage, in a unitard, at 12 years old… WITH your parents? I didn’t think so. In an attempt to heal her hippie trauma, she runs away from the circus to seek solace in the arms of a spiritual teacher…

Artist Biography: Joyful Raven is an award-winning actor, director, and “story midwife” known for her powerful and thought-provoking solo shows, where she tackles thorny social issues with humor, heart, and nuance. Born into an iconic political theater family, she has been devising original work for over 20 years. Her latest solo show, Breed or Bust, was nominated for Best Comedy at the 2022 Hollywood Fringe Festival, critically acclaimed at the 2023 Edinburgh Fringe, where it won an Offie (OffWestEnd Award), and went on to have an extended run at The Marsh. Joyful holds an MFA in Dramatic Art from the University of California, Davis, and teaches solo performance and storytelling at Berkeley Rep School of Theatre, The Marsh, and her own studio in Berkeley.

Hope Silver’s
Need a Husband? Get a Wedding Dress First!

Show Description:

“Have you ever been married?” someone asked my date.

“I have,” he answered.

“Do you want to get married again?”

“I do,” he said, looking completely sincere.

I do? On a first date? That caught my attention. I decided to take a closer look at the man sitting across from me.

Artist Biography: Hope Silver is a Siberian-born writer, storyteller, and former journalist whose birth name, Nadezhda, means hope in Russian. After winning the green card lottery, she reinvented herself as an Uber driver, screenwriter, and documentary filmmaker. Her award-winning short documentary, Hope Is on the Way, explores hope through conversations with her passengers. Drawing from real-life experiences, Hope shares stories with humor and heart, often leaving audiences with something that stays with them long after the story is over.