STORYTELLERS

AZ Storytellers is throwing a 4th anniversary party, 7/13

Megan Finnerty
The Republic | azcentral.com
"Republic" reporter Megan Finnerty (left, with Chary  Edsitty of Channel 12 in November 2014) is the host of Arizona Storytellers Project.

Most people who give weddings toasts are happy to get through it without dropping an F-bomb or embarrassing anyone. Then they move on with their lives like normal, emotionally healthy people.

Not me.

I gave a nine-minute toast at my twin sister's wedding reception and it changed my life.

I was so exhilarated by the experience of recounting my sister and her groom's love story, expressing my love for her, and making people laugh and cry, that I was moved to think of new excuses to stand up in front of people and tell stories while they ate and drank.

So I worked with my editors at The Arizona Republic to launch the Arizona Storytellers Project in June 2011 as an excuse to do just that. But the project didn't go the way I thought it would. I had underestimated it from the start.

With that in mind, Monday, July 13, we celebrate four years of helping Arizonans tell true stories live and on stage with a big anniversary show at the Crescent Ballroom. The theme: "That didn't go the way I thought it would." (Get tickets at tickets.azcentral.com.) Proceeds go to The Republic's journalism-training and -education programs.

The Arizona Storytellers sprang from a video project launched in 2011 to mark the state's centennial. It featured stories from Arizonans each day leading up to Statehood Day, Feb. 14, 2012.

When the live-storytelling nights launched, my editors and I thought maybe 50 people would attend, and that we might hold the events quarterly, for free. I thought they'd be a lark, something fun to do during summer's hot, slow months. I figured we'd attract my newsroom colleagues as well as theater people, writers and others used to subjecting themselves to public judgment.

Instead, we've hosted more than 60 nights with more than 450 storytellers from across the social spectrum. We've heard from Arizona notables, including Olympic gold medalist Amanda Borden, Dream Act advocate Erica Andiola and Arizona Diamondbacks superstar Luis Gonzalez. And we've heard from regular Arizonans like you.

We've seen that the stories we tell define us. They make us who we are as individuals and as a community. In telling them, we affirm the lessons we've learned. In listening,

Rachel Egboro says participating in the project "pushed me to be really honest in front of real strangers. ... It made me want to be really true with my telling and my feelings."

we deepen our connections to those around us. We've learned that oral storytelling and journalism are dedicated to the same goals: Serving and reflecting a community while fostering empathy among us.

We learned that when invited to share publicly, most people will tell you one of two stories: One will be a story about how great they are, in which only great things happen, and everything turns out great. The other is about some key life event that shaped them deeply, typically a trauma. Both kinds of stories, it will turn out, are central to the teller's identity.

The first kind of storyteller will need coaching and encouragement to be vulnerable, turning the story from a victory-lap-style "Blah, blah, blah" narrative into something with risk, heart and catharsis. The second kind will need coaching and help in choosing what parts of the story feel safe and relevant to share so the story isn't a plea for sympathy, but rather something with strength, charm and universality.

As it turns out, both kinds of story development take about five hours of work on behalf of the speakers, and require them to be highly self-aware. To explore actions and motives. To think critically and make connections in new, unexpected ways. To work on being entertaining.

We didn't realize we'd be asking so much of so many people.

We also didn't realize what the effort and the experience would mean to them. So we asked some of our storytellers to share their stories.

A modeling gig and a new daring

Rachel Egboro, 28, of Phoenix, community-outreach coordinator for First Things First.

After telling a story about her father in 2014, Egboro was asked to model in a shoot for the Phoenix Suns Team Shop at US Airways Center. Today, a larger-than-life photo of Egboro modeling a Suns look greets visitors at the arena. Since 2014, Egboro has told stories two more times.

Egboro wasn't new to storytelling when she joined the project. But she was new to telling in front of more than several dozen people. Egboro is the co-founder of Storyline, a series of late-night, intimate storytelling shows at Space 55 in Phoenix.

"Confidence-wise, participating in Arizona Storytellers really helped me be able to power through stories and to feel confident about my own stories," she said. "It pushed me to be really honest in front of real strangers. For the first time, I really showed myself in front of people I had no connection to. It made me want to be really true with my telling and my feelings.

"It was really hard. And I didn't enjoy it," Egboro said with a laugh. "But it was a really great experience and a great opportunity for growth."

A new sense of obligation and opportunity

Lorenzo Perez, 42, of Phoenix, principal at Venue Projects and Venue Builders.

Perez does a lot of public speaking in his roles as a developer and architect. So he thought he'd be able to wing it when he agreed to speak at a recent night at the Newton, a former steak house he helped redevelop.

But when he attended the group practice session three nights before the event, he realized this wasn't a typical speaking engagement. He talked for 12 minutes without

Lorenzo Perez of Venue Projects dug deep to find a story that would resonate with the audience. And he's determined to pay forward the opportunities he enjoyed as an ASU student on a scholarship.

zeroing in on a turning point or moment of catharsis. Winging it wasn't working.

So he went home and culled through his memories.

"The challenge that (the nights) put out there, to dig deep and to stop and have a pause is a hard thing to do, and a neat thing to do," Perez said.

He remembered something that had happened 24 years ago, a moment that was transformative in his career and life but which he had let fade into the background of obligations to his relationships, children, business projects and friends.

Perez remembered being Arizona State University's first recipient of the Rushia G. Fellows Scholarship, named for a mentor who had been pivotal in young Perez' academic career. Fellows had died while Perez was still a student, and his widow had created the scholarship in his memory.

Perez said the memory, and the shock at having forgotten it, made him cry as he prepped his story. "I was a mess," he said.

"Before this, I'd never thought about (the scholarship) in terms of my evolution. I can say that it was a pretty key moment in my personal development," Perez said.

"The experience made me remember always writing in all these scholarship applications that when I was in a position to pay it forward I will. And I haven't really done that. Now, this will really help hold me accountable. I made a promise. And I've been so busy building things up... But now, I'm almost 43, and it's time to give back."

Perez has promised to donate his time, and his money, toward supporting ASU's architecture students.

Spreading the love, connecting people

Kathy Cano-Murillo, 50, of Phoenix, aka the Crafty Chica, blogger, novelist and craft educator.

Cano-Murillo has told stories four times, so when the We All Grow Summit hosted by Latina Bloggers Connect asked for people to pitch them session ideas, she proposed an Arizona Storytellers Project-like event at which a curated group would share stories on the theme of personal growth.

"I loved going through the storytelling process; it was so meaningful. And blogging is all

Blogger and storytelling have much in common, says the Crafty Chica, Kathy Cano-Murillo,

about storytelling, so it was such a natural fit."

Cano-Murillo's idea was chosen to be the keynote of the four-day conference in February, with underwriting from Dove and Vive Mejor that covered the speakers' travel and hotel accommodations.

"In the end, we had about 75 entries, and it was so difficult to choose just six people. But they were so amazing. And I got to host. It was just a really special time," Cano-Murillo said. "And I mentioned how I got inspired by Arizona Storytellers ... and what we do here to celebrate our community. And it was an amazing way to connect with this whole other community — the Latina-bloggers community."

One of those storytellers was travel blogger Carol Cain, who was separated from her mother when she was 5. Cain ended up reconnecting with her mother through her involvement in the storytelling event.

"It was the best story of the night," Cano-Murillo said. "Her mom flew out to be with her at the conference. I'm not saying Storytellers takes full credit, but in the universe's way that things happen, everything played a part."

New skills, new perspectives

Dan Hull, 47, Phoenix, teacher, playwright and co-founder of Storyline.

When Hull agreed to be part of a 2015 Valentine's Day show, he was already an experienced comedian and storyteller, confident in his abilities and his sense of self.

"It was a Valentine's Day story and I don't generally consider myself that romantic of a human being. I consider myself a pragmatist," Hull said.

But on this night, he wanted to do something more challenging than the kind of heartbreak stories he had told before. He wanted to do a romantic story as a gift to his wife.

"I'd remembered that when I proposed to my wife, she'd said yes, and then she'd said no. And I hadn't thought about it in a long time. What it brought up for me is that I'm

Telling a Valentine's Day tale about how he proposed to his wife made Dan Hull, co-producer of Storyline, more vulnerable.

kind of a romantic fool and I always have been. I just didn't see myself that way," Hull said.

He had bought into the archetype of men being tough and unemotional, the ones dragged into marriage. But after telling, he realized how inaccurate that felt.

"Now I think I'm much more honest with myself about that part of myself. And just getting up there and doing a story that was more vulnerable, that was really interesting."

After he told his story, a segment of Hull's story aired on KJZZ-FM (91.5) as part of a partnership between The Republic and the NPR affiliate.

"And hearing the KJZZ version, whoever did that did an amazing job because that was a 12 to 15 minute story ... and they got the main elements even in just a few minutes. It really got me to think about editing and story structure. I will tell that story again, and it really showed me new ways of thinking about what to put in and what to leave out."

Arizona Storytellers Project: 4th Anniversary Party

What: The theme is "That didn't go the way I thought it would."

When: 6 p.m. check-in, stories from 7-9 p.m. Monday, July 13.

Where: Crescent Ballroom, 308 N. Second Ave., Phoenix.

Admission: $10.

Details: Full dinner menu from Cocina 10 and bar available. 602-444-8770, tickets.azcentral.com.