Thursday, January 13, 2011

Live storytelling at MothUP Ann Arbor

Last summer, I attended my first live Moth Storyslam at Cliff Bell's in Detroit. During Storyslams, a group of people gather to tell stories, should their name be picked from the hat, but they are not allowed to use any written notes. The theme that night was "heat," and my favorite story was told by a woman who came home on a hot summer day to tell her husband she is in labor but instead ended up sitting through an extensive seminar on improvements she and her husband should make to their roof. It didn't win--that honor went to story whose only distinction was that it was the filthiest--but there was consensus, at my table at least, that her story was nearest the quality of the ones we heard via the radio and podcast from slams in New York and Los Angeles.

However, for people who don't live in cities that host live story slams, the website suggests a MothUP: "A Living Room Satellite Moth."

Ann Arbor has responded in kind. Tonight at 7 PM at the UMMA, MothUP Ann Arbor, a University of Michigan student organization, will host its second Storyslam. The theme is "Out of the Ordinary." Start brainstorming!

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