Rejoice During the Storm
The Flouncer is a featured panelist at the 2026 Henry David Thoreau conference.
In this society, where there is a pill to cure anything, imagine receiving an amyotrophic lateral sclerosis(ALS) diagnosis where there is no treatment.
Katrina Byrd, storyteller, disability advocate living in Jackson, MS, will serve on a panel during the Annual Henry David Thoreau Society in Concord, MA. Name of panel takes place on Friday, July 10, 2026 at 1:15pm. Link to panel here Rejoicing During the Storm, explores Thoreau’s connection to transforming daily life into art and how uses storytelling to live deliberately and to relieve mental blocks. While living at Walden, Thoreau used storytelling to process grief, an idea that has shaped my advocacy.
In this society, where there is a pill to cure anything, imagine receiving an amyotrophic lateral sclerosis(ALS) diagnosis where there is no treatment. What do you do? Go home and die quietly? Or do you fight for your life and the lives of the future diagnosed? If you choose this route, how do you fight with the prognosis of weakening muscles and death within two to five years? ALS is a terminal neurodegenerative disease with a two to five year life expectancy.
Diagnosed with ALS November 18, 2019, Dora Robertson, my partner of twenty-three years passed away seventy-six days later on February 2, 2020. With no money, no family support, we navigated the disease with me as her only caregiver.
Four weeks after her death, I became an advocate for ALS treatments, cures, continuity of care and partnership in caring for people living with ALS.
In this presentation, I will explore how I use storytelling
For ALS education
Legislative initiatives.
To guide advocates toward accepting death.
Remembering loved ones after they have passed.
Using storytelling to live their best life.
Katrina Byrd, a lover of feather boas, is a storyteller living in Jackson, MS. A six time recipient of the Mississippi Arts Commission’s Artist Minigrannt, Byrd received her MFA in Creative Writing from Mississippi University for Women. Byrd is also an ALS advocate who serves on the ALS Hope Foundations Veterans Action Committee.