Three of our winningest (is that a word?) storytellers will share the stage at L’Etage tonight when host Katonya Mosley, guest storyteller Doug Didyoung and guest judge Naomi Brownstein team up. For a taste of what you’re in for, check out one of my favorite Doug stories from the 2009 Grand Slam below. I wonder what he’ll have to say on the theme of Faulty Logic at tonight’s Slam?


First Person StorySlam
L’Etage, 6th and Bainbridge
21+
Doors at 7:30, Slam starts at 8:30
$10, $8 for FP members
$4 well drink specials

I just got back from talking to Bill Tortorelli’s freshman humanities seminar at Temple. The course has been focusing on various models of storytelling – like the travelogues of Marco Polo – and the biases and motivations of each author in creating a first person narrative. Bill wanted to bring the live storytelling experience into his classroom. So, with help from Temple’s GenEd program, he partnered with First Person Arts.


I gave a little spiel on the mission of FPA and our philosophy on the power of storytelling. Then Katonya took the floor and interacted with the students in true Katonya style- frank, funny and totally engaging. She got the students storytelling right away by asking the simple questions, “How are you doing today?” and “What do you think about storytelling?” She shared her principles of storytelling. First and foremost, know yourself. She talked about using the energy from your audience, being an “energy vampire,” which was how one of the students described Katonya herself.


(And Katonya is our guest storyteller at next Tuesday’s StorySlam at L’Etage! Watch her tell a story on the theme of Gifts. Here is video of Katonya using her non-linear narrative style to talk about mortification at last year’s Chicago v. Philly Slam at the Free Library Festival.)


We’ll be returning to Bill’s class on March 29th for the first ever First Person StorySlam at Temple! The theme, chosen today by the class, is Growing Up. Katonya and I (along with another “celebrity”) will be the judges. I’m psyched and while some students were honest about being nervous for the Slam, a lot of them were totally into it. I’m looking forward to some awesome stories.


- Karina

And yeah, that’s a double-hung shower curtain she’s wearing:

Sorry for the terrible compression on that.  I’m working on it.  And a better photo of that dress coming soon. See below!

The 2009 StorySlam season will open just a hair early with a special slam just before the Ira Glass show on Saturday January 24th at the Kimmel Center for FREE.  The theme is “Broke.”  The regularly scheduled slams resume on the following Tuesday the 27th back at L’Etage (that theme will be “Bad Idea”).

She’s Katonya, and so are you.  But good luck, you, pulling off that dress as well as Katonya.