by Dot Hamelin
As a long time attendee and volunteer of Ex Fabula, it’s great to see younger volunteers and storytellers attend events such as the recent Teen Pride StorySlam with the theme, “Celebrate Queer Pride & Joy.” This event, held at First Stage, was for others to tell their stories about their experiences as queer teens and young adults.
We started off the show as usual, with the emcees introducing themselves and offering the indigenous land acknowledgement. One of our lovely emcees by the name of Time started it off with a fresh twist, telling a story that had bits of their personal life in it. This story was called “The Little Hybrid,” with some very nice personal drawings to depict their story. This story was about their journey as a non-binary individual.
The next storyteller—to my shock, being the story wrangler myself—was me (Dot), which was quite funny. My story was about my transition and my advice to trans youth under the umbrella due to the newest anti-trans law being put into place. My story was not only a message, but it came from a place of empathy and being a trans teen once myself. I really wanted this to stick with the younger people within the room, so my piece of advice was to wait, because time flies by way faster than they think. By the time they know it, they’ll be 18 and able to make their own decisions on their own time and money without any parental guardian or anybody interfering. After my story, Time said it was nice to hear advice from an older non-binary person, which made me feel a sense of enlightenment.
The next storyteller was a teen boy named Wendy. His story was about his turmoil within himself and journey of discovering his gender identity as a trans teen. He ended his story with a big announcement: he was coming out to his parents! I am really happy for him and hope everything turns out great.
Our next storyteller was my roommate and guest Sonny, who told her story of her experience in high school greening out and how the experience made her more cautious.
Our next storyteller was Wendy’s little brother R. This young teller was scared but so brave. His story was about his journey as a young queer and trans teen and how he plans on coming out to his parents eventually and how he is still figuring things out himself, with room to grow more. My heart genuinely goes out to him. It took a lot of courage to come up and tell his story despite his feelings.
The storyteller after him, M., picked up the show with joy and laughter with his comedic story. M.’s story was about his gender journey and transition as a trans man. His story brought liveliness with comedy and definitely got a loud laugh out of me mid-performance.
After those great stories we cut to a break where storytellers and the audience were able to talk in mingle. Once break was done, we were welcomed by our lovely emcees opening the show back up with more UltraShorts before continuing to our last three stories of the day.
The next storyteller, Alex, told their story through a comedic skit. Performed their story about coming out to their mother and gave shout outs to their family and family friends during this funny performance while also interacting with the audience.
After Alex’s entertaining performance and interactions we chose our next storyteller. This storyteller was vocal and a rambunctious ball of joy named Zander. Zander told their story with energy about their gender journey and finding acceptance and even love in unexpected places with their boyfriend Wendy and their friends. They left the stage radiating with love.
Lastly was Rivermist. Rivermist’s story was called “My Journey as River” and depicted their life, gender journey, and how they chose the name that suited them best. This lovely final storyteller closed the storytelling with grace and gave a shout-out in the audience that followed us into the choosing of the winners.
After the audience and the secret judges cast their votes, the winners of this amazing event were none other than R. and Zander. These two proud teens definitely deserved the award they had gotten. Both had told amazing stories, one with confidence and one with bravery, and I hope to see more events like this where younger people can also experience this type of love within their communities.
Upcoming Youth Affinity Storytelling events:
Teen StorySlam
Celebrating the voices of our community’s young people
Date: Tuesday, June 23, 2026
Time: 3:30PM doors, 4PM stories
Location: Mitchell Street Library, 906 W Historic Mitchell St, Milwaukee, WI 53204
Tickets: https://www.exfabula.org/product/teen-storyslam-6-23/
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