Who is Tom Brillat?

Tom Brillat is President of the Education Exchange based in Wakefield, Rhode Island which provides basic academic, GED prep, English as a Second Language, computer courses and more to area residents. He has also been a Naval Officer, life insurance salesman, marine coastal planner, harbormaster of the Port of Charleston, South Carolina, air freight manager for the world’s largest freight airline, director of the Tall Ship Bounty Foundation, and a marketing manager.

Tom is a graduate of the United States Naval Academy, the University of Rhode Island and Providence College, where he earned his teacher certification in social studies and science. He is a member of the League for the Advancement of New England Storytellers, the National Storytelling Network and a member of the inaugural class of Rhode Island Foundation Fellows.

From hurricanes to chicken coops, from square-rigged sailing ships to aircraft carriers, from childhood to grey hair, from sports to mathematics, Tom delights audiences with memories “tweaked through the haze of years.” 

Who is Mark Binder?

Mark Binder is an author and storyteller whose stories make people smile and laugh. He loves to write and tell tall tales, whoppers and stories of fools and wise folk that entertain and educate audiences of all ages. Mark is the author of four books, including The Everything Bedtime Story Book, a collection of 100 stories for kids of all ages. He has recorded three CDs, including the award-winning Classic Stories for Boys and Girls. He's a trained actor, a Trinity Rep Conservatory Graduate, and holds a third degree black belt in Aikido. (He promises not to throw anybody across the room.)

He is the founder of the American Story Theater and a member of the League for the Advancement of New England Storytelling

He has told stories and given workshops at preschools, elementary schools, junior high schools, high schools, libraries, churches and synagogues, in parks and in parking lots.

His short stories have appeared in Cricket Magazine, Bostonia, Hadassah, The Family, Pizza Today, and hundreds of other magazines, newspapers, and on the Internet.

He has performed at the New England Folk Festival, the L.A.U.G.H.S. Festival, the Jonnycake Festival, Bright Night, and Sharing the Fire.

Most summers he spends touring the inner city in Boston with ReadBoston Literacy Program or scootering around the Ocean State on the Rhode Island Summer Library Reading Tour.

During the summer and fall of 2004, he ran for Congress, working to represent Rhode Island's first district in the House of Representatives. (Really. More details at www.markbinderforcongress.com)

In 2005, he will be teaching a college-level course in "Telling Lies" at the Rhode Island School of Design.

He holds a BA from Columbia University and an MA in English and Theater from Rhode Island College. While at Columbia, he studied Playwrighting at the Hammerstein Center for the Performing Arts, and Storytelling with Spalding Gray.He has received a Literature Project Grant from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts.

He has served as the Acting Director of the East Bay Coalition for the Homeless, where he worked to solidify and maintain a program designed to provide transitional housing to homeless families with children.

He has also been co-editor of The Rhode Island Jewish Herald, and editor-in-chief of Food Distribution Magazine. He has written thousands of non-fiction articles for newspapers and magazines about pizza, gourmet food and business (often in the same article).

Mark lives in Providence, RI with his wife, Alicia, two sons, Max and Harry and his daugher Francesca.