PROGRAMS
BREAKING NEWS
We’re Bringing a SECOND Monthly StorySlam to World Cafe Live!
First Person Arts is proud to announce a SECOND StorySlam series, open to all ages, at World Cafe Live on the second Monday of every month, starting January 2010. We will continue to host our original StorySlam series monthly on fourth Tuesdays at L’Etage Cabaret.
The inaugural First Person StorySlam at World Cafe Live will be held on Monday, January 11th with the theme Home for the Holidays. Philadelphia actor and musician, David Sweeny will host. David is the star of the Johnny Showcase and Lefty Lucy Cabaret, last seen performing their hit 2009 Fringe Festival show, Purr, Pull, Reign: A Litigious Fantasy in D.
Keep reading for more info on First Person StorySlams at World Cafe Live and L’Etage.
StorySlams take place on the second Monday of each month at World Cafe Live and the fourth Tuesday of each month at L’Etage. World Cafe Live is located at 3025 Walnut Street. L’Etage is at 6th & Bainbridge Streets. Doors open at 7:30PM, and the slam begins at 8:30.
How does a StorySlam work? Every month’s event has a theme and everyone in the audience is invited to share a personal story from their lives that relates to the theme. If you have a story you want to share, leave us your name at the sign-in table where you’ll pay admission. Every potential storyteller’s name goes into a bucket. Ten names are drawn from the bucket, and each contestant is given five minutes on the mic to tell a story and win the crowd. ‘Judges’ are audience members who score the performers on a ten-point scale. The highest-scoring participant wins a prize and the Golden Ticket – an invitation to November’s Grand Slam at the First Person Festival of Memoir and Documentary Arts. At the Grand Slam, the monthly winners vie for the title of “Best Storyteller in Philadelphia.”
Click here for all StorySlam Dates and Themes.
Tickets are $10 for the general public, $8 for members and are available only at the door. Six-pack bundles of tickets are $55, can be purchased at the door or in advance at storyslams.firstpersonarts.org, and can be used for admission to Slams at either World Cafe Live or L’Etage. (Note: admission is on a first-come first-served basis; six-pack tickets do not guarantee entry to individual events). StorySlams at World Cafe Live are all-ages events; Slams at L’Etage are 21+.
Storytelling Tips & Essentials
- This event is for story TELLING. Sorry, but you can’t read from your work; you must tell it.
- All stories must have a beginning, a middle, and an end. Know your plot points!
- Tell your story from your point of view.
- Your story should be true - or as true as possible. Like Emily Dickinson said about poetry: tell all the truth, but tell it slant.
- Stick to the 5-minute time limit! You’ll be penalized in the competition if you don’t.
- Know your first line and last line when you step on stage. Knowing what point A and point Z are will help you get through the rest if you get nervous.
- Raise the stakes! Sure, you know that this story happened to you, but show us why it matters — both to you and to us.
If you have any further questions, email Karina at kkacala@firstpersonarts.org or call 267-402-2057.
Title: Warning: Graphic Content
Location: Bryn Mawr Film Institute, 824 West Lancaster Avenue, Bryn Mawr
Start Time: 7:00PM
Date: 2010-03-10
End Time: 10:00PM
Buy Tickets: Click here
Description: Making art using words and images has penetrated the genres of memoir and documentary, creating new ways to ponder the past and document events as they happen. Daniel Heyman has concentrated his art on the abuse and torture of innocent Iraqis at Abu Ghraib and other prisons, painting portraits that incorporate stories of what happened to them at the hands of American captors. Jamar Nicholas is a Philadelphia-based comics artist currently working on a graphic novel adaptation of Geoffrey Canaday’s life story. These leading graphic memoirists and documentarians will discuss their work, their process, and their way of seeing the world. The discussion will be followed by a screening of the film Persepolis, based on the graphic memoir by Marjane Satrapi.
A Philagrafika and One Book, One Philadelphia event, presented in collaboration with the Bryn Mawr Film Institute.
For the past four years, Daniel Heyman has concentrated his art on making images about the war in Iraq, specifically the abuse and torture of innocent Iraqis at Abu Ghraib and other prisons. For this work, Heyman traveled to Jordan and Turkey where he has talked face to face with over 25 former detainees, painting their portraits and taking down their own versions of what happened to them at the hands of the American captors. Portfolios of his work are held by the Library of Congress, New York Public Library, Yale University Art Gallery, Baltimore Museum of Art, Free Library of Philadelphia, Spencer Museum of Art, North Dakota Museum of Art, and many other. Heyman holds degrees from Dartmouth College and the University of Pennsylvania, and currently teaches at Swarthmore and RISD.
Jamar Nicholas is a Philadelphia-based cartoonist, illustrator and educator. Beginning a career in comics in 1997, he has created several popular titles, most notably Detective Boogaloo: Hip Hop Cop. Jamar also held the rare position of Editorial Cartoonist at the Philadelphia Tribune—the nation’s oldest African-American newspaper. He has taught and lectured on the topic of comics creation at the University of the Arts, Delaware College of Art and Design, Arcadia University and currently teaches at Moore College of Art in Philadelphia.
Laura Jean Zito is a photographer living in Philadelphia. She spent her childhood living in various places. Born in Cincinnati, she lived in Idaho, Syracuse, the Hague in Holland, and Philadelphia, and later in Cambridge, Manhattan and Ireland.
Laura got a Brownie camera when she was a young girl and she’s been taking pictures ever since. She writes, “The need for connection to other people engages me directly in the dialogue and dance of photography, even with total strangers, forming memorable experiences for both of us.”
Ryan Brandenberg is a photojournalist living in West Philadelphia. He has a degree in photojournalism from the University of Pittsburgh and a degree in documentary photography from Temple University.
Ryan feels that photography captures situations that might otherwise be difficult to access; he likes the immediacy of it and feels it’s the easiest way to interact with the world around him and preserve a situation.
Ryan has produced a book that brings together text and images he took of those people most adversely affected by Hurricane Katrina, those in the 9th Ward.
