Linda Goss

Linda Goss was born near the Smoky Mountains in an aluminum factory town, Alcoa, Tennessee. She grew up listening to the storytelling of her grandfather Murphy, who shared stories of life under slavery as well as a heritage of folk tales. Her life’s work has been to research and present the wealth of African American oral literature.

Her education in storytelling began in her family — in the way that her grandfather told stories by first asking a question -- and in the repertoires and narrative habits of other family members and neighbors. Linda grew up absorbing this heritage of family folklore, oral history, and legend. Stories about ethical values, courtship, the civil rights struggle in Tennessee, stories from personal experience, play-party songs, and hundreds of stories that she has gathered over decades of serious study and performance of stories, are now in her repertoire.

Linda is the "Official Storyteller" of Philadelphia. A pioneer of the contemporary storytelling movement, she was co-founder of In the Tradition, the National Black Storytelling Festival and Conference, and The National Association of Black Storytellers. She is a founding member of Keepers of the Culture (a Philadelphia-area affiliate of NABS), and of Patchwork: a Storytelling Guild. Linda has authored numerous books, and is a contributor to several collections on African American storytelling. She has two Folkways recordings to her credit. Linda received the 2003 Oracle Lifetime Achievement Award in Storytelling from the National Storytelling Network, and served as a master teacher in the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program. She holds an undergraduate degree from Howard University, and a Masters degree from Antioch University. She is currently Artist-In-Residence at the Rosenbach Museum, and a featured artist in the Philadelphia Folklore Project’s Local Knowledge initiative.