A big warm virtual sparkly-eyed hug to everyone who came and listened and shared their stories on Wednesday night. I had such a good time listening to all of you, and felt totally welcome in sharing my own stories . . . as spooky as they turned out to be. : ) Who knows why we feel moved to tell what we do at an event like this? Sometimes it’s because someone else’s story sparked our memory of something, and sometimes it seems like a story comes out of nowhere, unrelated to anything, but we really want to share it anyway. I love both kinds, and have vivid memories of the stories you all shared. Poor little Butterball dangling in the air . . . Andy’s uncle making his cousin eat everyone else’s food . . . the fish on the pillow . . . the gifted wallet . . . the future king of comedy . . . Nadia hearing her dad tell the story of her own birth for the first time . . . the Aggressive Behavior of 100 pound catfish (what was his name)? And then there were Joey’s chocolate chip pumpkin cupcakes, which like Dan said were a story in and of themselves.
A photo of the list of quotes I was scratching while you were telling!
So thank you all for coming, and for making our first Story Swap the best it could possibly have been. I hope you’ll come back next month, and bring friends! We are excited to continue offering a space for anyone who wants to tell their stories in the open slots. And we’re also excited to bring you the stories of a variety of special guests . . . a handful of Chicago writers, artists, and thinkers that we hope you’ll find fascinating. The night will still be free and have lots of yummy food and artwork in store.
Finally, I really want to thank Dan here too (even though he’ll hate it ; )), for all of the labor and love that he’s put into producing this event. In the midst of all the organizing and publicity and groundwork for making a new thing happen, he is also making T-shirts and exquisite raspberry chocolate chip cookies, all with complete joy and enthusiasm, just for bringing people together in this way. I’m real honored and happy to be making this with him.
If any of you would like to join us in making Here’s the Story, just let us know. If you’re an artist who’d like to display your work at our events, or have any ideas or skills you’d like to donate, we’d love to hear from you. HTS is not-for-profit . . . we’re here just to bring people together, to foster the art of telling and listening, to build connections across communities, to support the work of known and developing monologuists, solo-performers, storytellers, along with other artists and thinkers. We want this to be a place where you feel welcome and a part of things. So, let us know!
Much love, many thanks, and hope to see you June 1st!
Janna
