Lesson #29: ANTICIPATION: "Wild Womxn and Dancing Queens" - Lex Jade

Welcome back to Storytelling School with The Moth! As of this post, we will be moving to a once-a-month blog for the rest of the year, coming out on the second Tuesday of the month. We hope you continue to enjoy, learn, and connect with each other through this series. For this month’s blog, we’re taking a look at a story about defining beauty for yourself.

This week’s Storytelling School story is:

“Wild Womxn and Dancing Queens” by Lex Jade

You can read the transcript of Lex’s story here.

After you’ve watched and read the story, you can do the following activities:

Talk to each other about Lex’s story. 

For each post, we’ll highlight a different crafting strategy for how to make your story compelling. For this post, we’ll focus on ANTICIPATION. When there is a difference between what we expect to happen and what actually happens, it usually makes for a good story! In The Moth EDU program, we tell our storytellers to let us in to their thoughts and feelings, especially in high stakes moments in their stories. 

• Lex does an amazing job in this story with building tension and expectation around what’s to come- particularly when we learn about ‘staff night’ and the senior lodge tradition at camp. What details or techniques does Lex use that help raise the stakes?
• The first and last lines of this story define a very clear change for Lex. How can a well-chosen first line hook in the audience and make them immediately start wondering where the rest of the story will go?

Let’s Play “Have You Ever”

Raise your hand if…

• You’ve ever redefined what ‘beautiful’ means to you

• You’ve ever felt uncomfortable with your appearance

• You’ve ever been to camp 

• You’ve ever used compliments to try to make friends 

• You’ve ever broken the rules 

• You’ve ever participated in a new tradition

• You’ve ever anticipated something so intensely you couldn’t concentrate on anything else

• You’ve ever had a moment when you weren’t worried about how you looked

• You’ve ever felt like a wild person of the woods

• You’ve ever felt brave and free

Did you raise your hand? If you raised your hand even once, that’s a story you could tell! Find someone to tell it to and try out a draft!

Activities

• What is something you love about yourself, that isn’t about appearance or “body talk”? Show it off, share it with someone, and then tell that person something you love about them!
• Do you have a song you love to sing and dance along to? Maybe you already have a choreographed routine to it? Perform it for a friend, your followers, or even just your mirror! Sometimes we all need a tiny burst of joy and energy :)

Share this post with a friend!

And check back next month for another story.

Storyteller bio

Lex Jade (they/them) is a NY-based Q.T.enby creative currently pursuing their B.S. in Photography w/ a minor in Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies at SUNY New Paltz. They are an alumnus of The Moth EDU Program and have performed in Moth StorySLAMs since 2016. Their stories have also been heard on the Moth Radio Hour, Teen Vogue, and the Moth GrandSLAM stage. LJ's visual and performance art explores the intersectionality of selfhood, queerness, and mixed identity.

The Moth Education Program works with young people and educators to build community through storytelling workshops, performances and innovative resources. To learn more, visit themoth.org/education

The Moth Education Program is made possible by generous support from The Kresge Foundation, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association Charitable Trust, the Kate Spade New York Foundation, and Alice Gottesman. 

Additional program support is provided by Bloomberg Philanthropies, the New York State Council on the Arts, ConEdison, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.