Winners of the Brother ( Hugh Morgan) Blue and Ruth Hill Award, 2010

Today, the winners of the 2010 Brother Blue and Ruth Hill award met to celebrate and install their plaque at Toscanini’s in Central Square Cambridge. “This is where it all started” said the massmouth founders, (from top left) Norah Dooley, Andrea Lovett, Stu Mendleson and Doria Hughes. "Toscanini's has been so good to us. They've donated "office" space, performing space, ice cream, a prize for the Big Mouth Off and sponsored our videos at cctv as well," said Dooley. She comes from the same borough of NYC as Gus and Mimi also was at the Boston Museum School at the same time as Gus Rancatore. All the Brother Blue winners are loyal fans of Toscis ice cream, the amazing baristas and the excellent coffee.

The massmouth team reminisced about how Brother Blue and Ruth had attended and performed at the first massmouth event at Toscanini’s in August of 2008. "He is missed but he lives on in the stories, " they said. Each year LANES.org honors those who “give their lives to storytelling” at their annual conference, Sharing the Fire.

Excerpt from this massmouth blog:

"On Saturday, March 20, 2010, massmouth founders Norah Dooley, Doria Hughes, Andrea Lovett and Stu Mendelson were awarded the Brother Blue and Ruth Hill Award by the League for the Advancement of New England Storytelling in recognition of their extraordinary commitment and efforts to promote a broader understanding of the art of storytelling and the support of storytellers in the development of their art. It serves, as Brother Blue (Hugh Morgan Hill), has said, “To honor those who give their lives to storytelling to change the world.”

When the award was announced the crowd rose to their feet and cheered, in delighted recognition of all that massmouth has done to build storytelling in Massachusetts." - Laura Packer, Storyteller

The massmouth founders have been having an eventful year –in October they started a series of story slams in Greater Boston. Ms. Dooley helped secured a not-for-profit umbrella agreement with The National Storytelling Network, so that any donations can be tax-deductible and Ms. Lovett has been profiled by The Boston Sunday Globe. Doria Hughes served as a judge at the last Cambridge slam in addition to many local gigs. And Stu Mendleson has been traveling in Africa, teaching drumming and hosting massmouth open mics, with Doria Hughes, for over a year.