MothUP Ann Arbor's "Out of the Ordinary" Storyslam

As part of my CEPL fellowship I started a version of "The Moth" on U of M's campus. If you haven't heard of it, the Moth is a really wonderful organization based out of NYC that holds live storytelling events. There is always a theme, and audience members are encouraged to place their name in a hat to be selected to tell a story. All stories are told live with no notes.

We held our first event on November 10th at the Work Gallery on State street. Much to my surprise, 85 people attended. Better than the number of attendees though, was the fact that the audience was mixed with students and community members—part of the vision of the organization was to bring the campus community and the Ann Arbor community at large closer together.

On Thursday, we are having our second event. The theme is "Out of the Ordinary" and the event is being held at UMMA. It is really an honor to have an event held at one of my favorite spaces on campus.

My fingers are crossed that the event will be a success. Here's hoping!

After A Brief Dance with Tumbler

I decided to come back to blogspot, thus the lack of posts.

At this point you're wondering:

1. Who is this girl?
2. Why is she blogging about fascinating people?
3. Why should I care?

My name is Stephanie and I am a student at the University of Michigan. This year I was lucky enough to receive a fellowship from the Center for Ethics in Public Life.

The work I do as a CEPL fellow revolves around storytelling. Stories are incredibly important to our lives, and inform the way we see the world.

For the 2010-2011 academic year I will be making storytelling more prominent in the Ann Arbor community. Myself and some friends have created MothUP Ann Arbor, a community storytelling group loosely associated with The Moth based in NYC. Basically this means that I get to provide a forum for community storytelling, and then listen to incredible people talk about their lives.

When I'm not working on projects for MothUP Ann Arbor I go around interviewing fascinating people. After the interview is over I post their profiles and stories on this blog. I am one lucky girl!