How Atlanta’s version of the Moth offers ‘safe space for everybody’s story’
On the third Monday of every month, storytellers and story lovers gather in Theatrical Outfit’s 200-seat theater gazing up at the stage equipped with one mic and a spotlight.
Although the space is open to a range of stories from participants, there are a few rules: no spoken word, no jokes, no -isms, and no faiths. These are the Moth’s monthly storytelling events.
“We create a safe space for everybody’s story,” said Gena Williams, regional producer of the Moth’s Atlanta StorySLAMs. “Whoever you are, you can come and you can tell your story with us. You can tell us your story about whatever you want to talk about, whatever’s on our theme, we want to hear it and we want to experience it with you.”
The Moth was founded in 1997 by Georgia native and novelist George Dawes Green. While living in New York City, Green had an idea to recreate the feeling of Georgia summer evenings in his youth, when moths congregated around a porch light as he and his friends would gather to share stories. The first iteration of this concept was held in Green’s New York living room and has since traveled around the globe, spawning New York Times bestselling books, a podcast, Peabody Award-winning Moth Radio Hour, workshops, live and virtual programming.
The most popular of its live events are the Mainstage, StorySLAM, and GrandSLAM, reaching more than 25 cities around the world.
In Atlanta, the first Moth show was a Mainstage event that took place in June 2007 at 7 Stages Theatre. The Mainstage events are noncompetitive curated programs featuring five storytellers sharing 10-minute tales. The Moth StorySLAMs are open-mic storytelling competitions, featuring 10 audience members, who are picked at random, and given five minutes to share personal stories on the spot. These events use specific themes as story prompts. The winners of the monthly StorySLAMs have a chance to compete in the annual GrandSLAMs, held in select cities.
Atlanta’s next Moth StorySLAM on Sept. 15 is themeless. This is a rare opportunity for storytellers to spin tales about whatever their hearts desire. Participants are free to use past Moth themes as inspiration, as well.
“I’ve had storytellers tell me a theme can be constraining. I’ll ask if they have a story for the night, they’ll shake their heads and say that they couldn’t come up with one to fit the night’s theme,” Williams said.
“No matter what, it’s gonna be a whole lot of fun,” she said.
Atlanta Moth StorySLAM regular Chetter Galloway is president of Kuumba storytellers of Georgia, an affiliate of the National Association of Black Storytellers. He believes that telling one’s personal story requires being transparent and vulnerable.
“I think when people come to the Moth, they understand that they’re going to get a real piece of a person that they didn’t expect to hear or something that might inspire them to share their story the next time around,” he said.
One of Galloway’s stories won him a Moth StorySLAM competition in 2024 on his birthday. The theme was “Elbow Grease,” and he shared a story about working at the Old Spaghetti Factory, which closed in 2010. The staff dreaded waiting on an extremely difficult customer who often complained because he liked his food prepared a certain way. Staff members initially avoided waiting on him, but once they understood his story, and that his pickiness was because of his challenges with using false teeth, the customer eventually became one of the family.
The moral?
When people realize the “why” behind the actions of others, it creates space for more grace and empathy. It also makes for a good story, something Galloway knows from decades of experience.
“Something has to happen in that story to make an impact, not only on the teller, but also the audience, because in fact, the most important element of the storytelling experience isn’t the story or the teller, but the listener and how the story lands on that listener,” he said.
Atlanta Moth StorySLAM host and storyteller Al Wiseman is no stranger to a microphone. Wiseman discovered the Moth’s in-person events roughly five years ago. Having been a regular at the public speaking nonprofit Toastmasters for more than three decades, he thought sharing a story would be easy.
Wiseman wasn’t afraid to speak in front of a live audience, but he slightly misjudged the challenge. “That five-minute Moth-type format was really different, and I found I had to use a different part of my brain to switch over from giving speeches or workshops to telling personal stories,” he said.
Gradually, he was able to make the adjustment, tell more stories and started volunteering. When host Jon Goode stepped aside for other opportunities within the Moth’s broader organization, Wiseman stepped in.
“I tell people when you go on stage and tell your story, you never know who’s in the audience that’s going through that same thing that may be affected by that … that may be helped by your story,” Wiseman noted. “And when you tell a story, you don’t necessarily have to be the hero. I think people need to see that you’re human and that you make mistakes, and you have the ability to learn from those mistakes.”
No matter how many stories are told, from different themes and many different angles, there is a constant that keeps audiences returning month after month: the feeling of connection and belonging.
“In this day and age of all of this technology, people will come to an auditorium and pay money to sit and hear a person get on stage and tell a story. That is the oldest form of entertainment in the world,” Wiseman said. “People want that sense of community, and they want to be in an environment where they can share and learn from each other.”
IF YOU GO
The Moth StorySLAM
7:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 15. $17.50. Theatrical Outfit, 84 Luckie St. NW. themoth.org/events
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