- run 100s of story slams on set themes and filled venues to capacity.
- introduced 1000s of people to the art of storytelling as listeners and tellers
- convinced venues and audiences that 'nobody famous' telling a good story is fine entertainment and worth the ticket price
- taught over 3,000 high school students the art of storytelling in 9 public high schools
- organized the only inter-mural high school story slam in the country
- raised and distributed $10K in awards to our high school students, two years running
- taught workshops at dozens of nonprofits and educational and cultural venues
More information and high resolution photos are available on request.
History 2008 on:
massmouth, inc. was founded by local storytellers Doria Hughes, Norah Dooley, Andrea Lovett, and Stu Mendleson in 2008. Storytellers from all over the state joined in to help promote storytelling at non-traditional venues. Now a 501(c)3, massmouth, inc. has been been teaching storytelling and producing story slams for three seasons.
Since fall 2009, massmouth has held storytelling events and slams in Somerville, Cambridge,
Jamaica Plain, Quincy, Worcester and Lowell (just to name a few). Real estate agents, lawyers,
teachers, scientists, homeschooling moms, journalists, grad students, artists and professional
storytellers—nearly a thousand people in all— have bared their souls on topics ranging from
“supernatural” events to rolling on “wheels” to “cupid’s” antics.
In 2010 we were honored with the Hugh Morgan Hill (Brother Blue) Award from the LANES.org -- a regional non-profit that promotes storytelling. In July 2012, we received an Oracle Award from the National Storytelling Network (NSN) for our contribution to storytelling in our community. Also in 2012, massmouth received several LCC grants; the most significant of which was an organizational grant from the Boston Cultural Council. These grants have helped us produce dozens of low-cost/ free storytelling events across the Boston area.
This summer, we hosted a series of fun slams based on breaking regular season rules.
Starting in September 2012, we have two dozen slams scheduled at Doyle's Café in JP, Club
Passim in Cambridge, The Rosebud Bar and Grill in Somerville and a series of folk and fairy tale slams at The Puppet Showplace Theatre in Brookline.
HIGHLIGHTS: FY 2011-2012 DIGITAL MEDIA & WEBSITES
We have over 600 members on massmouth.com. Membership is free and connects listeners and performers. We ‘Tweet’ to over 900 followers, post on Facebook, where we have over 600 group members and 'likes'. We maintain two MeetUp sites and our educational activities are featured at massmouth.org.
VIDEO We now have nearly 700 videos posted on our website.
PODCASTS We have posted nine podcasts from Season I, First Night 2011. Season II is in production.
BLOGS We post regularly and keep up-to-date on news and ideas in storytelling.
EDUCATION STORIES LIVE®
Working in nine high schools, we taught over 1,800 students to tell their stories this year alone.
WORKSHOPS & COACHING
“How to Tell a Kick-Butt 5-Minute Story” was held at Worcester 1st Night, Harvard University and on a regular basis throughout the year.
LIVE PERFORMANCE
SLAM SEASON III:
SEP 2011 – APR 2012 -- From Quincy to Lowell, from Somerville to Worcester with a regular series at Club Passim in Cambridge and Doyle’s in Jamaica Plain, we produced over 20 story slams.
FIRST NIGHT, 2011 In Worcester and in Boston, we entertained and encouraged listeners to tell their own stories at a total of 3 shows.
BIG MOUTH OFF III Sold out the 440 seat Coolidge Corner Theater and raised over $5,000 for scholarship awards for StoriesLive® winners.
1ST BOSTON STORYTELLING FESTIVAL We organized an entire day of storytelling and free workshops at the Copley branch of the Boston Public Library (Rabb Hall, Saturday in April 21, 2012) Over 30 storytellers performed -- everything from folk and fairy tales to contemporary slam winners -- all free and public.
