Jessica Robinson is the Founding Executive Director of Better Said Than Done, the organization behind the Women’s Storytelling Festival.
In addition to producing storytelling shows since 2011, Jessica has been a performing storyteller since 2007. She has performed at Exchange Place at the International Storytelling Festival, on WGBH’s “Stories from the Stage,” the Risk! and Funny Parents podcasts, at the Georgia Mountain Storytelling Festival, and for Artists Standing Strong Together, Six Feet Apart Productions, Mostly True Things, and 3 National Storytelling Network (NSN) Conferences. Jessica was featured at the Stone Soup, the Washington Folk, the Alleghany Highlands, the Florida, and the Hampton Storytelling Festivals, and has told lies and emceed at the Good Liars Club Festival 4 years in a row. Jessica is a 2023 ORACLE Award recipient from the NSN.
Jessica is the author of the novel Caged (under pen name JP Robinson), contributing author to the anthology Roar: True Tales of Women Warriors, and her latest book Stages: My Life in Stories, is a memoir in stories.
Jessica has been teaching storytelling to individuals and organizations since 2011. In addition to community centers, libraries, and adult education centers, Jessica has taught storytelling for The Brookings Institution, The George Washington University School of Business, George Mason University’s Athletic Department, and The World Bank, to name a few.
Jessica Robinson’s storytelling is thoughtful, funny, true, and sometimes magical.
Norm Brecke, Storyteller and
Co-Producer of the Good Liars Club Festival
Jessica has stories from a woman’s perspective that men can learn from. This man has taken some of those lessons to heart. All men would benefit from them (just as all men would benefit from attending the Women’s Storytelling Festival, an event she founded). Jessica brings us important stories with a bold heart and razor-sharp wit. In some of Jessica’s stories, she finds herself in uncomfortable situations, sometimes there’s a bit of danger, and, occasionally, there’s magic – and I’m talkin’ actual magic. These moments are not frivolous, and we are on the edge of our seats.
Andy Offutt Irwin, Storyteller and whistler
I’m so used to Jessica as skillful organizer, host, creator, and videographer of storytelling shows that when I hear her tell a story there’s always a moment of amazement: oh yes, this, she’s this good! She believes the stories she tells are important and the people she tells to are important and you can feel it in her storytelling. Onstage or online, she gives each story what it needs, finding its lightness, humor, relatability, depth, and heart.
Andrea Kamens, Storyteller and teacher