Hi Milwaukee,
My name is Mary Oliver Lee Moody, I go by Oliver or Ollie. My pronouns are they/them and she/her. I am super excited to start as the Program Coordinator with Ex Fabula and be a part of the mission to connect Milwaukee through real stories.
I was born in California and raised in Hawai’i since I was 18. I am a first generation Filipino American. My partner and I moved to Milwaukee in September of 2024. She is a 4th generation Milwaukeean hailing from the Sicilian and Jewish communities that were a big part of the legacy of this great city.
My storytelling journey started in 2019, when my partner and I met in Hawai’i and decided to launch a production company together. We began by running a monthly poetry series on the Big Island of Hawai’i until the pandemic hit us all. Our production company became ever more important at that time as Indigenous and local artists went online and needed to communicate in ways that were innovative and different. We were able to assist activists and artists publishing books, producing film, capturing oral histories, reviving out-of-print books back into production, and running storytelling workshops at the University of Hawai’i at Hilo for first generation college students. There I also served as the storytelling coach for the live series, Wailau, which is a non fiction short story series in the community. I began working with documentary film at this time, capturing stories of elder Hawaiian voyaging knowledge keepers.
My wife and I got married in September of 2022 on the volcanic slopes of Mauna Loa and decided to embark on a traveling journey for two years. We continued our documentary journey by keeping a blog, writing newsletters, and making travel videos of all the places we were visiting to keep our friends and family up to date. After traveling the planet we decided to situate ourselves in Brooklyn, New York where I continued my storytelling journey as a production assistant on big budget productions. We came back to Wisconsin July 2024 for a family reunion and quickly realized our family was in need of extra care. We decided to pack up for a final time and settle in Milwaukee September 1st of 2024.
As newbies to the city we jumped right in attending the Creative Mornings Milwaukee meeting the following week where we heard about Ex Fabula and the storytelling work they do in the city. We trundled down to the Sugar Maple that October to attend our first Story Slam event and I quickly realized I had found my people. Going to that first event, we met some of the keystone folks that have become part of our vibrant and flourishing network of friends and allies in the city. Since then, we regularly attended and volunteered at events. I was hired on as a storytelling coach in February of 2025 and following the resignations of the brilliant minds that came before me, JJ Draper and Alea McHatten, I applied for the position as the Program Coordinator and find myself in the fortunate position as a staff member today.
I love this city and have quickly found that this city loves me back. Although I’ve visited Milwaukee many times and slept in its hotels over the past decade it isn’t until now that I realize how diverse and rich the culture here is with all its history and wounds and pockets of celebration. I am proud to be part of the global majority here and look forward to uplifting the voices that are the glue to this city. As Program Coordinator, I’ll be managing our storytelling workshops, community partnerships, and coaching program, working to ensure that stories from all of Milwaukee’s diverse communities are heard and celebrated. I’m committed to continuing Ex Fabula’s tradition of inclusive storytelling while bringing my own perspective as a first-generation Filipino American to this vibrant community.
With Love,
Ollie
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