2015
This past August, as a part of our work with The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, The Moth’s Artistic Director Catherine Burns and Producing Director Sarah Austin Jenness went to Uganda to work with African women writers. I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Catherine and Sarah to hear about their experiences. Here’s an excerpt from our chat: Had you ever envisioned The Moth – or yourself – in Uganda? Catherine: Going to Uganda to work with The Africa...
I’ve never had any trouble getting students to be quiet, take notes, and look at me while I talk. Most of my literature classes are devoted group discussions in which I am more moderator than participant. Yet when I do speak, students take their cues and appear to be all ears. Being quiet and dutiful, however, is not the same as listening. Listening requires intention and offers a kind of unspoken invitation to the speaker. Listening is the result of an exchange between speaker and audience t...
Hey there, my name is Diamante Ortiz and I am a senior at The Young Women’s Leadership School of Brooklyn and I am a school storyteller thanks to the Moth Educational Program and I had the honor of presenting my story at the New York Public Library for the GrandSlam on June 5th, 2015. The week preparing for the GrandSlam week was utterly mind blowing. That Tuesday, I arrived to The Moth office in Soho and I met 9 other AMAZING, talented and all around terrific storytellers from all around t...
When I stepped into my first Moth meeting, a sheer wave of nerves took over my body. I saw the students in the classroom and they were from all different backgrounds, people that I rarely had a conversation with. I wondered, “How can I trust these semi-strangers with a personal story?” I still look back on what I was thinking that day and I laugh at myself. The Moth has been the most creative and supportive group that I’ve been a part of in high school. The strangers that I met that day bec...
I first heard The Moth in 2008; two days before I lost my job at a national broadcaster. Those two events are not unconnected. My employers were launching a series of radio stations and I was tasked with listening to hours and hours of these new ‘podcast’ shows that people were talking about. I’d trawled through a lot of terrible, terrible shows before I heard The Moth. I loved the fact it was ordinary people, the kind that you never heard in mainstream media, getting up...