The Moth StorySLAM Comes to Berkeley
The Moth StorySLAM, an open-mic storytelling competition, is taking place tonight in Berkeley at The Freight. This event's theme is "Fumbles and Fouls," where participants will share five-minute personal stories on the topic.
Founded in 1997 by novelist George Dawes Green, The Moth aims to recreate the feeling of friends sharing stories on a porch, with the name inspired by moths being drawn to the light. This nonprofit organization is dedicated to the art of storytelling, presenting themed events across the U.S. and beyond. StorySLAMs are open-mic competitions where ten storytellers are chosen at random from a pool of volunteers who put their names in a "hat." Each participant gets five minutes to tell a true, personal story without notes, related to the night's theme. Three teams of judges, selected from the audience, score the stories on a ten-point scale. The highest-scoring storyteller of the night becomes the StorySLAM winner. After ten StorySLAMs in a city, the ten winners advance to a GrandSLAM championship, which is held in a larger venue to accommodate bigger crowds. Beyond the live events, The Moth has a significant media presence. The organization produces "The Moth Radio Hour," which airs on over 570 public radio stations, and a popular podcast that receives over 100 million downloads annually. They have also published several books and an interactive card game. The venue for tonight's event, The Freight & Salvage, has been a Berkeley institution since 1968. Originally a hub for folk and traditional music, it is now a nonprofit community arts organization known for presenting a wide variety of musical genres in its 490-seat, LEED-standard venue in the Downtown Arts District.
