Spotlight: Linda Goss; Official storyteller of Philadelphia.

Last year, Linda Goss spread out a large cloth with the word "peace" written in several languages before a class of mostly Asian-American students at a Philadelphia school. She told the group to find the language of their ancestors. The exercise led one student to share the story of an aunt who was imprisoned during Japan's occupation of Korea during World War II.

For professional storyteller and artist-in-residence Linda Goss, storytelling is "medicine for the spirit and healing for the soul." She weaves together a tapestry of words, sounds and movements to document a past and envision a future. Seeing herself as a vessel through which ancestral stories can flow, Goss has been a professional storyteller for 35 years and the "Official Storyteller of Philadelphia" for 23 years. This year, the Leeway Foundation honored Goss, an author of 10 books, with its $15,000 Transformation Award, a prize awarded to women artists based in Philadelphia who have demonstrated a long-term commitment to making art for social change. Goss cofounded the National Black Storytelling Festival, a forum for Black storytellers that will celebrate its 25th anniversary in Atlanta this year.

Born and raised in the aluminum factory town of Alcoa, Tennessee, Goss received her earliest training by listening to her grandfather perform stories. His favorite tale eventually became the subject of one of her children's books, The Frog Who Wanted to Be a Singer.

Ultimately, Goss says, it's up to each of us to discover our gifts and figure out how to use them to tell stories. "We are all stories, and we are all storytellers," she says. "Tell your story the best way you know how."