JUNE THEME: BACKFIRED

Doors Open/Sign Ups Begin 7pm | Start 7:30pm

In this brilliant open mic series, ten storytelling hopefuls are selected to present a five-minute tale, based on a provided theme. The stories will be judged, and one lucky raconteur will be chosen to compete in the Moth’s GrandSLAM Championships.

The Moth StorySLAMs are open-mic storytelling competitions, which are held weekly in New York City, three times a month in Los Angeles, twice a month in Chicago, Michigan, Boston, Portland, and San Francisco, and monthly in Louisville, Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, Seattle, Minneapolis/St. Paul, New Orleans, Houston, and Philadelphia.

When the doors open, storyteller hopefuls put their names in The Moth “hat”. A half hour later, names are picked, and one by one, storytellers take the stage. The ten featured stories are scored by teams of judges selected from the audience. Each StorySLAM generates a StorySLAM winner. After ten SLAMs, the winners face off in our GrandSLAM Championships.

The Moth is an acclaimed not-for-profit organization dedicated to the art and craft of storytelling, and a recipient of a 2012 John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation MacArthur Award for Creative & Effective Institutions (MACEI). Through its ongoing programs— The Moth Mainstage, The Moth StorySLAMs, The Moth Community & Education Programs: Workshops and High School StorySLAMS, and Moth Corporate Programs: Workshops and Events —The Moth has presented more than three thousand stories, told live and without notes, to standing- room-only crowds worldwide. The Moth podcast is downloaded more than 15 million times a year, and the Peabody Award-winning The Moth Radio Hour, produced by Jay Allison and presented by PRX, The Public Radio Exchange, airs weekly on radio stations nationwide. The new Moth Mobile App for iOS and Android, and the New York Times bestseller, The Moth: 50 True Stories (Hyperion), are available now. themoth.org