June theme: potluck
6/14, 6:30-9:30 p.m.
Food & drink at 6:30 pm; event begins at 7:30 pm
1111 Addison St, Berkeley, CA 94702
Our June event: six storytellers, ten minutes each, one theme: “potluck”
April event theme: oops!
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Aru Nair
Aru Nair (she/they) is a senior at Stanford University from Laramie, Wyoming. She’s studying Human Biology and Comparative Literature and will be Coterming in Journalism. Aru is also a producer at the Stanford Storytelling Project and loves working alongside other students to create audio stories about culture and identity. Storytelling in all its forms is one of their biggest passions because of its incredible power to bring people together. In her free time, Aru loves watching live music, hiking, and playing board games with her friends.
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Eva Schlesinger
Eva Schlesinger is an artist, writer, musician, and storyteller. Four-time Moth StorySlam winner. Author of Remembering the Walker & Wheelchair: poems of grief and healing and View From My Banilla Vanilla Villa, plus two other titles. When not creating or entertaining audiences, Eva likes to roam around in her hand painted jeans, eat pastries, and do psychic readings.
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Gabby Mullem
Gabrielle Mullem is a documentary artist and creative wellness coach, who is passionate about learning and sharing. Gabby fuses her varied professional work experiences in media, cooking and movement-instruction with her personal journey navigating health challenges and parenting to inform, uplift and entertain others. A newbie surfer at 52, Gabby takes pride in her involvement with Project STOKE, a USC research initiative exploring the effects of surfing on chronic pain and PTSD.
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Harriett Jernigan
Harriett Jernigan teaches writing and rhetoric at Stanford University and German at Bauhaus University. She has been a Moth Grand Slam Finalist and collaborates with the Stanford Storytelling Project. She is the founder of First Person Storytelling Workshop in Berkeley, CA. Harriett has also been a professional baker, competitive fencer, and spontaneous backup singer. Back by popular request from the January cohort.
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Kurt Schwarzmann
Kurt is a visual artist, story teller, and retired baker. He has performed at Muni Diaries’ Live, sharing his journey of gratitude. He is currently working on an art series called “Portraits of Muni Service,” highlighting San Francisco Transit operators. You can find the series at YellowLineArt.com. A fashion enthusiast, he is a sharp dresser, embracing bold colors and a unique style.
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Shameka "Smeek" Wilson
Smeek is a proud Southern Black Woman born and raised in North Carolina. She’s a Mandalorian enthusiast, the Queen of glasses, and a doctoral candidate in the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University. When she’s not creating stand-up comedy routines for her final exams, you can find her with her family and two fur babies,Acro and Zee Zee. Smeek triumphantly returns from our January cohort.
January event theme: sporty
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Kathleen Auterio
Kat is a lifelong horror fanatic, metalhead, and avid swimmer. She’s told stories at Porchlight, RISK!, Bawdy Stories , Mill Valley Library, Story Slam Oakland, and Fireside. And on top of all of that, she is a Moth Grand Slam Finalist. When she’s not waiting patiently for the next concert, she’s making music in her own band, The Beast of England. She takes her dog Lil D everywhere.
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Serena Chang
In her 9-to-5, Serena is the Director of Product at Recidiviz, where she partners with state governments to reduce incarceration. In her 5-to-9, she eats bread and trains on a swim team so she can eat more bread. In addition to dancing and practicing her Spanish, she’s told exactly one story publicly before about her and her brother coming out to their grandma at the same time.
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Laura Joyce Davis
Laura Joyce Davis teaches podcasting at Stanford University, and manages production for the award-winning State of the Human. She is the CEO and cofounder of Narrative Podcasts, the Executive Producer of Shelter in Place, and a Podcast Magazine Top Influencer in Podcasting. She lives in Oakland with her husband and 3 kids, believes in fairies, and loves to sing the blues.
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Harriett Jernigan
Harriett Jernigan teaches writing and rhetoric at Stanford University and German at Bauhaus University. She has been a Moth Grand Slam Finalist and collaborates with the Stanford Storytelling Project. She is the founder of First Person Storytelling Workshop in Berkeley, CA. Harriett has also been a professional baker, competitive fencer, and spontaneous backup singer.
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Katherine Rae Mondo
Rae loves getting the California veggie burrito at El Buen Sabor and then biking to the top of Twin Peaks to eat it. She's a bad writer, enjoying the slow process of becoming a good writer. For work, she's an audio engineer at This American Life. When not doing podcast or radio things, she tries to be in the mountains as much as possible. Read and listen to her work here.
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Shameeka "Smeek" Wilson
Smeek is a proud Southern Black Woman born and raised in North Carolina. She’s a Mandalorian enthusiast, the Queen of glasses, and a doctoral candidate in the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University. When she’s not creating stand-up comedy routines for her final exams, you can find her with her family and two fur babies,Acro and Zee Zee.
The process behind the stories
A big part of our skill-developing and community-building mission is workshopping with our cohort of storytellers in multiple formats for multiple weeks before the event. We share rough recordings of our stories with our WhatsApp group for feedback, and have a live dress rehearsal before the event. Instruction in live storytelling, performance, and stage presence is a balance of two things:
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Part "how to"...
Some aspects of storytelling are universal: character, setting, conflict, and resolution. Bringing back a theme or idea you mentioned at the beginning. Editing, editing, editing! And more. We discuss these as each participant develops their story leading up to the event.
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... and part "how you"
But other aspects of effective live storytelling are unique and personal: your vocabulary, rhythm of speech, facial expressions, and body language. Discovering your distinct strengths and personality onstage is the other component of the workshop and feedback process.