Bio (300 words)

Nationally known Latina storyteller, performance artist, keynote speaker and author, Olga Loya dramatically and vividly mixes Spanish and English in her performances. Her repertoire reveals the diversity and richness of our collective culture in its commonality and individuality. Olga also performs an extensive repertoire of colorful tales from around the world that entertains, and awaken the audiences' awareness of other cultures. Loya uses stories to examine themes such as healing, racism, bullying, multiculturalism, forgiveness, and our environment. Olga Loya's performance style ranges from improvisation to movement, dance, music, and song.

As a workshop leader, Olga Loya combines her skills as a performer and teacher to encourage participants to listen, use their language, to tell stories and, above all, to develop a love for the story.

Loya is an award-winning author of a bilingual Spanish-English book called Magic Moments. She is the author of three books: Left Out, Growing up in East Los Angeles, and Ghost House. Each book has an accompanying video. Loya also has stories in the collections of four other books and has a CD named “Uncle Rabbit.”

Loya has been the recipient of the following grants:
California Arts Education Grant, California Arts Tourist grant, The Lucille Packard Foundation, Arts Council Silicon Valley, and the Mexican Heritage Foundation. She is on the roster of the following Arts Councils: Los Angeles Music Center Education Division, Santa Barbara-San Luis Obispo Children's Creative Project, and the Cultural Council of Santa Cruz.

A featured teller at many festivals, including the Guadalajara, Mexico Festival and the Jonesborough National Storytelling Festival, Loya also performs and teaches workshops in museums, theaters, conferences, correctional facilities, universities, libraries, festivals, concerts, and schools throughout the United States and Mexico.

Brief Bio (150 words)

Latina storyteller, performance artist, writer and teacher, Olga Loya uses a dramatic mix of Spanish and English to share traditional tales from Latin America as well as stories from her own varied and colorful life growing up in East Los Angeles. Known nationally and described as an "alchemist" who can conjure up images and fill them with life, her shows are bursting with color and passion. Stories inspired by legend and current headlines, reality and dreams, ancient myths and personal experience, healing stories and tales of extraordinary women are shared with imagination and exuberance as Loya uses her voice, body and sometimes music and dance to draw her audience into the imaginative and surprising worlds of the tales she tells.

She has been a featured teller at many festivals including the Guadalajara, Mexico Festival and the Jonesborough National Storytelling Festival. Loya has performed and taught workshops at colleges, schools, libraries, conferences, festivals, museums, bookstores, and corporations.

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