The Wound & The Woo:
An Open Mic Storytelling Affair

Where Death & Dismemberment Meets the Sublime & Storied Verses of Our Lives

The Wound & The Woo is an invitation, a call. Can you hear it in your bones? Perhaps in your dreams? Is there a story within you that's longing to be shared? Perhaps a story of a time you were blown to bits, when the bottom dropped out? And in that next moment, the next breath, filled with synchronicity or miracle? Was it a time of darkness and then, suddenly, out of nowhere... sweet relief, a gift from nowhere, an intervention from the cosmos? Do you have a story where the BRUTALITY of being human MEETS the unending BEAUTY?

Let's gather around the sacred storytelling fire to share our most tender and true stories, the unbelievable and other-worldly. So often in our lives when things fall apart, we discover an unexpected sweetness. Wildly the pain and the profound travel together, intertwined. And in moments we realize that without that loss, that devastation, we would not be who we are now... that some part of us had to die, fall away, for there to be more room for all that we are, for the present fullness of this one precious life.

This will be an OPEN MIC affair. People will be invited to share stories that are anywhere from THREE TO SEVEN MINUTES LONG. Some will share from the mic on stage and there will be playful opportunities to share from your nest on the floor, if you choose.

What to Expect:

• A warm, welcoming container for storytelling in community

• An open mic format with 3–7 minute time slots for sharing

• A mix of stage sharing and optional floor-sharing from your cozy nest

• A sacred space to witness and be witnessed in your most tender and true stories

• An invitation to hold space for the brutality and beauty of being human
  

Please bring:

• A snuggly blanket

• A favorite pillow

• A yoga mat or cushion for extra coziness

• Any nesting elements that will make you feel comfortable and held

• A story (3–7 minutes) to share—or simply come to listen and receive

Meet Mela

Mela Bangs is a storyteller and the architect/midwife of STORIED SPACES. Whether her one-woman show, "Playing Monopoly with God & Other True Stories" or her and her hubby's show, "The Bangingsons: A Love Ballad", it is the terrible, tender and true stories that call her name. Mela is deeply moved by the way in which our true stories, especially those drenched in shame and rarely talked about, can liberate, shift and heal us profoundly simply by sounding them out loud with one another.

For more than a decade she has dedicated vast effort to holding radically nonjudgemental spaces for people to excavate, discover and share their true, vulnerable stories. Perhaps you've seen MOMedy, IneXplicable Sidenote or, most recently, INBETWEEN? Each of these storytelling endeavors, in their own way, sought to transform the audience and the many storytellers themselves. THE WOUND & THE WOO also sounds this call. Come let your story heal and shift you and others! Come set your story free!

Connect with Mela

Registration for this event is $21

Pre-registration is strongly encouraged to help ensure this event can move forward as planned.

Tickets are non-refundable. However you may graciously send someone else in your spot if something should come up.  

Thank you for helping us create well-supported, successful events.