People Behind Tenx9

It takes a village to create what some audience members have described as “the best event happening in Nashville every month”: 9 tellers, a room full of willing listeners, venue staff to serve, and finally, the Tenx9 hosts who organize and facilitate the event. Here’s a bit about the Tenx9 team (in Nashville and the original in Belfast), who work hard to make sure this event thrives.


  • TENx9 NASHVILLE FOUNDER & HOST

    Michael McRay started Tenx9 Nashville in September 2013 after a stroke of good luck connected him to Pádraig Ó Tuama, one of the Belfast cofounders, when he moved to Northern Ireland for grad school in conflict resolution in 2012. Michael grew up in a storytelling family, hearing family tales around the table as often as the family gathered. He has come to see his vocation as telling stories that rarely get told, whether through his own writing or through providing a platform for others.

    Beyond Tenx9, he is the founder of Becoming Restoried, a life story coaching program. He is the author of multiple books, a certified experiential coach, facilitator, and lover of a good amber whiskey. If you surprised him at home, you’d likely find him working out, reading, or writing.

    You can follow him on his blog, or @michaeltmcray on Facebook and Instagram.


  • UNDERSTORIER

    Like Michael, Rob McRay, comes from a storytelling family…actually, the same storytelling family. He’s Michael’s uncle. Rob is a consultant with churches who are in a season of transition. Prior to this he spent nearly 40 years as a minister and nonprofit leader. That work nurtured his passion for storytelling as a way of sharing life, with all its joy and pain. He loves sports, music, and movies (especially if they involve laughter or something blowing up)—and shares these loves with Judy, his wife of over 40 years and the topic of several of his favorite stories.

  • ORGANIZER

    Gayathri Narasimham discovered Tenx9 Nashville in April 2016, and has been a regular attendee and an occasional storyteller. She grew up in Chennai, India, and in Nashville, TN, and loves the folklore of both continents. Gayathri is Research Faculty in Computer Science, and Data Science, at Vanderbilt, and explores children’s problem solving in virtual environments. She is fascinated by the contexts of people, and what motivates their stories.

  • STORY-EDITOR
    John M. Sloop began attending Tenx9 in 2014 on the whimsical suggestion of a friend. Delighted by the first several months he attended, he also began telling stories. Sloop is Professor of Communication Studies at Vanderbilt University. He is the author and editor of numerous books and articles. Outside of work, Sloop is an avid marathon runner, a diehard Chelsea Football Club supporter and a pretty awkward swimmer. He loves the way TenX9 takes the audience through a wide array of emotions each month. You can reach him at tenx9nashville@gmail.com.

  • STORY-EDITOR

    Sally is a Story Coach and writer from Kenya. She discovered Tenx9 in 2018 when she moved to Nashville. In Tenx9 she found community and rekindled a childhood passion for storytelling. She is also passionate about empowering others to craft powerful stories from their life experiences in order to inspire and build meaningful connections. Connect with Sally on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn or her website.


  • STORY-EDITOR

    Alesha Handy told her first Tenx9 Nashville story in 2021. After telling a few more stories, she began volunteering behind the scenes for the organization as an editor. She works as an English and Creative Writing teacher at a high school in Nashville.


  • STORY-EDITOR

    There is no greater power on this earth than story. ~ Libba Bray, author

    Elly Haddad first encountered Tenx9 when her daughter, Becca, told a story back in 2015 and she was hooked, becoming a regular attendee and storyteller. Since 2021, Elly has been on the coordinating team providing support, generating theme ideas, co-hosting, cheering others on, and spreading the Tenx9 love. Elly describes herself as a nomad who had an extended stay in West Virginia and has called Nashville home since 2011. Her day job as a psychotherapist specializing in grief and religious trauma allows her to engage with people and their stories on an intimate level. Here, you’ll see her utilizing narrative therapy and mindfulness modalities, learned through years of teaching yoga and guided meditation, alongside CBT and other more traditional methods. Elly is a mother to three children and six grandchildren and loves to travel in her free time.


  • STORY-EDITOR

    Ty Powers grew up in Oklahoma, Texas, and Mississippi. He has been a Nashvillian since 1994. An editor for the Lord at a local religious publisher, Ty believes telling one's story is first, an act of courage; second, an act of profound self-care; and third, an act of service to the wider storytelling community. The storytelling art form is perpetually in need of purveyors to enrich and strengthen it.

  • TENx9 BELFAST CO-FOUNDER

    Pádraig Ó Tuama is from Cork on the south coast of Ireland. Following a nomadic decade, he settled in Belfast in 2003. He met Paul Doran in 2010. In 2011, Tenx9 was born. Initially a night of 30 people in a small room in Belfast, it now regularly hosts audiences of up to 200 and, in addition to its monthly events, partners with festivals of politics, health, arts and culture. Pádraig is the former leader of the reconciliation community Corrymeela and is a published poet and essayist and theologian.

    Asked why he loves Tenx9, Pádraig says, “It’s because of the never-ceasing delight of hearing true stories.”

    You can follow him on his blog, Facebook, and X.

  • TENx9 BELFAST CO-FOUNDER & HOST

    Paul Doran is a television news producer working in Belfast. He always thought he had had a fairly average life–one of five adopted children growing up in a working class area in a society torn apart by civil strife. But he later discovered this wasn’t necessarily a typical life experience and realized he had a lot of stories to tell. That love of story, a feature common to Pádraig too, was one of the impetuses that drove them to create Tenx9 –the desire to hear the unheard, untold true stories of the “ordinary” person. Nothing connects humans more than their shared humanity.

    You can follow Paul on X. Send him a note at tenx9belfast@gmail.com.