For the first time, Union Theological Seminary partnered with the Peabody Award-winning storytelling organization the Moth to host an official StorySLAM.
Sponsored by Union’s storytelling initiative and held at the Church of St. Paul and St. Andrew United Methodist Church, the StorySLAM brought together Union students, alumni, faculty and partners with the wider public for an open mic storytelling event on the theme “keeping the faith.” As is the case at every Moth StorySLAM, all in attendance were invited to place their name in the hat for a chance to tell a true, personal, five-minute story on the theme of the night. However, this particular SLAM was unique in a few ways.
First, in the weeks leading up to the event, Union community members were given access to story coaching by Casey Donahue, the director of Union’s storytelling initiative. Second, narrative strategist and Union student Aryana Alexis Anderson, in partnership with Navigo Productions, designed multi-media installations that invited the audience to create drawings and offer interviews inspired by the theme “keeping the faith.”
The result was an unprecedentedly packed hat: thirty-five audience members offered to tell true, personal stories in front of the approximately 300 people in attendance. The ten storytellers randomly selected from the hat included a pastor, a rabbi, a current Union student, a Union alum, and two congregants of churches in partnership with Union. The stories featured encounters of radical love between strangers, a heroic brigade of church ladies, grace offered to a mother on her deathbed, a family’s cross-country trip to befriend an incarcerated pen pal, a mystical experience in Jerusalem, and a spiritual care encounter that deepened the faith of all involved.
Moth StorySLAMs are technically competitions: each story is judged by teams of volunteers selected from the crowd. The winner of the SLAM is invited to tell another story at one of the Moth’s GrandSLAMs. TJ Douglas, Union alum and hospital chaplain, was the winner of the night. Reflecting on this experience, TJ shared:
“I understand Jesus primarily as a mystic and a wisdom teacher, whose life reveals a way of love, presence, courage, and radical belonging. Casey’s coaching helped me translate that spiritual grounding into story form. At the SLAM, I shared a story drawn directly from my work as a hospital chaplain, accompanying a Catholic mother as her daughter was dying in the emergency department. The story bears witness to compassion across difference, to grace in unexpected relationships, and to the living, human face of faith. It is, at its heart, a story about loving one’s neighbor when it matters most. The experience of this SLAM was transformative for me. I discovered a new way to turn my spiritual care work into art, which helps to make my work sustainable. I can’t wait for more.”
Sarah Jane Johnson, the Director of Creative Operations at The Moth, was present along with many members of the Moth’s creative team. All agreed that the feeling in the room reflected the shared humanity that is core to the Moth’s mission.
“What’s most exciting for us is that these stories had both a wider and a warmer range than you tend to find at our SLAM’s. And I think that’s because faith leaders, seminarians, congregants and chaplains took the mic. In a time when many are feeling hopeless, there was a lot of hope in the room. We’re delighted and inspired. I hope that we can partner with Union again in the future!”