First Person Arts

Ryan came in late in the year to win the September “Belonging” StorySlam (you can see his monthly winning slam story here).  It was the first StorySlam he’d ever attended, let alone participated in!  Here he delivers the winning story at the 2008 Grand Slam:

Stay tuned for all of the stories from the 2008 Grand Slam, and get ready for the 2009 season fast approaching with a very special FREE season-opener at the Kimmel Center right before Ira Glass on Saturday, January 24th.  Details here (scroll down to the bottom).  Starts at 6:30pm!   The theme will be “Broke.”

The regularly scheduled monthly Slam returns to L’Etage on the following Tuesday, January 27th at 7:30pm.

Heroes of Grand Slam brings you the cast of Story Slammers you’ll see go head-to-head at the 2008 First Person Festival Grand Slam on Saturday November 15th from 9-11pm.  This one will sell out, so buy your tickets right away! You can make a day of it and check out Girls Rock from 3-6 pm and Doubletime! from 6:30 to 8:30pm.

Here are our heroes, and these are their stories:

Sandy Beaches, winner of March’s “The Road Not Taken”

Kevin Lee, winner of April’s “The Awkward Pause”

You’ve got one more chance to get into the pantheon of Philadelphia storytellers next week at L’Etage.  The last regularly scheduled slam of the season will be “Strange Coincidence” on Tuesday, October 28th.  Doors open at 7:30 and the slam begins at 8:30.

Heroes of Grand Slam brings you the cast of Story Slammers you’ll see go head-to-head at the 2008 First Person Festival Grand Slam on Saturday November 15th from 9-11pm.  This one will sell out, so buy your tickets right away! You can make a day of it and check out Girls Rock from 3-6 pm and Doubletime! from 6:30 to 8:30pm.

Here are our heroes, and these are their stories:

Kendra Gaeta, winner of January’s “Good Intentions”

Ingrid Wiese, winner of February’s Brotherly Love (and Sisterly Affection)

You’ve got one more chance at admission to this pantheon of Philadelphia storytellers next week at L’Etage.  The last regularly scheduled slam of the season will be “Strange Coincidence” on Tuesday, October 28th.  Doors open at 7:30 and the slam begins at 8:30.

StorySlam tonight at L’Etage (6th and Bainbridge above Beau Monde)

Doors at 7:30 and the Slam begins at 8:30.  We’ll be collecting complaints for the Philly Complaint Choir outside before the doors open!

Oh yeah…and:

Next StorySlam: September 23rd

August Winner Sam Malissa will host!

Okay, here you go.  Worst Ever StorySlam Podcast.  Let us know how it works!

Who among us hasn’t dreamed of being the target of a Craigslist Missed Connection?  Well, here’s one from our very own StorySlam this week:

Bringing people together to share their stories, that’s what we’re all about at First Person Arts.  Perhaps we could devote an entire StorySlam in 2009 to “Missed Connections.”  Let’s hope, of course, that this isn’t fodder for a future “Worst Ever” story…We want a follow-up!

Last night’s slam saw some of the stiffest competition we’ve ever had at one of the monthly StorySlams, with tellers pulling out all the stops with their best Worst Ever stories!  Uwishunu should have the blogger’s report from last night up sometime this morning and the videos should be up in the next couple of days.  We recorded some audio last night, and we’ll see if we can’t whip together some kind of a podcast, so watch this space.  In the meantime, here are the collected, if disjointed (and loosely reverse order)  livetweets from last night.  As you can see, I only broke my promise of 12 tweets by 8:

Next StorySlam is TONIGHT!!!

Time: Doors at 7:30 and the Slam begins at 8:30. Get there early if you want a seat!
Location: L’etage Cabaret (above Beau Monde) at 6th and Bainbridge
Theme: Worst Ever
Host: Beth Nixon
Cost: $5-$10 sliding scale

Check out this unique take on the classic love (or lack thereof) story from last month’s slam on “Getting Caught”: