The Moth debut on the Westside of LA @ Air Conditioned

Increasingly over the past several months, I’ve been getting more involved with the Moth StorySlams in Los Angeles. If you’re my friend on Facebook, you’ve inevitably received an invitation (or been hounded) to join the fun. LAist and Flavorpill have been instrumental in getting out the word. As a result, the Moth folks recently gave me the title of “LA Publicist” because of the outreach I’ve been doing.

So why am I so excited about the Moth? In many ways, the Moth represents an in-person form of “user-generated content”, the cornerstone of social media online. The Moth is uniquely participant-driven: people who attend tell stories or help judge the entrants in the contest. It’s also a learning environment where we’re all discovering what makes a good engaging story.

First-ever Westside LA Moth @ Air-Conditioned

Perhaps this is the reason that there’s been a recent surge in attendence at the Moth: we’re all getting used to collaborating and adding value to spaces both online and off. On the eastside of LA, the storyslams recently moved to El Cid and the respsonse has been so amazing (200+ people), that we’ve had to turn away latecomers because of space concerns. In New York, where the Moth was born, the same thing has been happening. I visited an event at Housing Works bookstore last week. Beforehand there was a line down the block and inside more than 3/4 of the crowd willingly stood the entire time! This month, the Moth launched on the Westside of Los Angeles (see photos) and on the first night, nearly 100 folks attended.

So what’s going on? Has the Moth reached a tipping point? Some folks speculate that it’s a confluence of several things: the Moth’s number one podcast on iTunes, being regularly featured on NPR’s “This American Life” and online outreach. A friend of mine says it’s a “cheap form of entertainment” in financially difficult times. Others wonder if something is going on in our culture right now; something about sharing heartfelt stories and reconnecting with each other.

Stories are getting more attention these days. Advocacy groups are reframing their work to focus on personal stories of injustice. Marshall Ganz, one of the founders of Camp Obama, helped campaigners refocus their efforts to come from their own personal stories.  Recently I heard a rebroadcast of an episode by NPR’s Radiolab about the global popularity of American country music. Researchers have found that it’s the story-centric aspect of country music that makes it so popular across cultural divides. There’s something primal about storytelling that we all respond to.

Whatever the reason, something’s happening at the Moth and you don’t want to miss it. Check out the podcast to listen to some stories now. And if you’re in New York or Los Angeles, participate in an upcoming StorySlam. To find out more, join the Moth mailing list and/or the Facebook fan page.

For the past few months, I’ve been attending the Moth StorySlams in Los Angeles. Even though it’s a contest for the best story that’s told on a theme, I love the sense of community that’s emerging from the open mike event. I’ve even told a few stories myself. This month I also attended a similar event The Spark in Santa Monica and it was great!

As a writer, I’m curious about what makes a good story. As an advocate, I wonder how we can harness the power of story telling to change our world.

In my quest to answer these questions, I was excited to recently learn about a new book, “Telling Stories to Change the World” that was co-authored by a new friend of mine Kayhan Irani. This is exactly the sort of thing I’ve been thinking a lot about lately: how we can use new media to raise the voices and build the leadership of communities that have been affected by injustice. I don’t have a copy yet but plan to buy one! I’ll be sure to tell you more about it once I’ve read it!

On June 20 in New York, there’s a launch party for the book.

I also recently learned about The Center for Digital Storytelling and hope to attend one of their seminars in the near future. I’m sure you’ve also heard of StoryCorps which seeks to celebrate one another’s lives through listening.

With all this storytelling swirling around me, I’ve been wondering how we could use emerging video technology (see earlier post) and combine it will effective storytelling to change the world. I’m working on some ideas and plan to share them with you soon.