by Dot Hamelin
This wonderful event took place at the Mitchell Street Branch of Milwaukee Public Library at 3:30. The theme of this story night was “Clock It.” Our emcees, Time Ervin and Jay Lopez, took the stage to introduce themselves, gave the usual announcement of the native land acknowledgment, and set out the rules and requirements for the afternoon’s StorySlam. We kicked off the show with some playful banter between Time and Ollie before they got to their story.
Time’s story was a continuation of “The Little Hybrid,” which they originally shared during the Pride Week StorySlam, and they delved into the personal relationship of theirs with their father and how they had called out their father’s behavior. Time set the tone for this event, which was full of many more stories like theirs that were personal and that required a lot of bravery to go up and tell.
Our lovely co-emcees chose from the hat again, and the next storyteller to come up was Pipp. This young person told their story with a semi-comedic twist about their experience with a teacher who wasn’t very coherent.
The next draw from the hat was the storyteller known as Sonny that we had in our last slam. As a disclaimer, before Sonny told her story, she told the audience that she does not condone her past actions and what she had done. She then told her story about her falling out with her ex.
After these great stories, the two emcees led us to a break where everyone could mingle and prepare for their performances. During this time, I interacted with a few of the audience members and storytellers. After our break, our emcees reeled us back in with some great written UltraShorts from our audience. We then started drawing our next names of storytellers.
The next storyteller to come up was Leona. Leona told a story about school drama. In her story, she talked about her experience with an ex-friend who became riled up with her over a conflict.
After Leona‘s story, we then continued the show with an inspirational performance by a young man named Trey. Before he told his story, he gave a motivational speech backed with music. His story was then about his not-so-great substitute teacher being very rude and him advocating for himself. His performance was exceptional and was very creative and out of the box.
Soon after him, we had another name drawn, and it was none other than the comedic returning storyteller, Alex. Alex reeled in the crowd with their charisma and gave us an option on which story they should tell, and the crowd chose the story about how Alex called out their uncle on his prejudice and racist behavior.
During our final break of the afternoon, I took some notes and then gathered more UltraShorts, since we were running short on those. Our break came to an end, and we had made it by a hair on the short stories due to four great audience members. These short stories were again read by the emcees before it was time for our last two storytellers.
The first of the last two storytellers was a young person by the name of Eathan. Eathan’s story was about their journey as a queer young person and their struggles with mental health while being bullied for being queer and how such hateful behavior should be called out. This young person was very outspoken and brave.
The very last, but not least storyteller was Dot, otherwise known as myself. Before I had begun my story I had set out a disclaimer on how I was in high school during the time this had happened, and how I don’t condone what was done because it could’ve been handled better. My story was about a high school altercation and the drama that had led up to it and how I had called out an ex-friend’s behavior.
After all of us had told our stories, we had then come to the voting hour. During this time, the audience and the staff would choose their favorite storytellers. The two winners were none other than Trey and Time. These two young storytellers deserved all the love, attention and rewards they had gotten during this event.
I am hopeful and certain that these events will continue on, especially if young people like these winners continue going to these StorySlams. This experience was wonderful as usual.
Thank you to the funders and partners who make these events possible! You can read more about our work elevating the voices of young storytellers—and learn how you can bring Ex Fabula to your school, community center, or youth-serving organization—by visiting our Youth Affinity Storytelling page.
Leave A Comment