A group of eight Grinnell College students worked with experienced storytellers from The Moth, a storytelling nonprofit based in New York City, to develop their stories over a weekend. The stories culminated in a StorySLAM in the Harris Cinema where the students told their stories on stage.
The process started with a brainstorming session from 12 to 5 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 21, said Issac Vosburg `29, who first learned about The Moth from its podcast on NPR, “The Moth Radio Hour.”
The group did a series of games and activities as creative exercises while narrowing down story ideas and learning to tell their stories out loud, he said.
“You threw up a ball that had all these little tiles on it, and whatever your thumb landed on — like first best, last worst crush, first best, last worst haircut, whatever it might be — you’d go through and tell a story about that thing,” he said. “And so we just got practice getting comfortable with each other, and then also being able to tell these short stories.”
After everyone had narrowed down their ideas, the second day of the workshop on Feb. 22 was focused on refining each final story. Vosburg said the group worked on narrative structure, witty one-liners and cutting the stories down to be less than five minutes.
“Our three … guides from The Moth were all so, so helpful in both challenging you to make your story better and supporting you to feel like your story was good enough,” said Jackie Harris `25.5. “They struck that balance so well.”
By 7 p.m. on Sunday, all eight participants were ready to tell their final stories to an audience.
Harris told a story, inspired by the film “Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle,” about when they and a high school friend drove four hours from Iowa City to the nearest White Castle. When the car spun out on a patch of ice, they and their friend had to spend the night in a small town, make their way home and fabricate a cover story to tell their families.
Vosburg told a story about an injury he sustained as a wrestler in high school. “You can tell a funny story, you can tell a serious story, and I wanted something that kind of toed the line and was able to have a deeper meaning without me having to imbue it with that. I tell the story of this wrestling injury, but it’s also about my family and the complex relationship that I have with my home state of Iowa,” he said. “Wrestling embodies some of those bigger questions and concepts in my own life.”
“It was so interesting getting to hear everyone revise and deepen the meaning of their stories throughout the weekend,” Harris said. “I think everyone came out of it feeling more confident in themselves and appreciating the time we spent together.”
This is The Moth’s third workshop at Grinnell since 2021, said Jeff Blanchard, director of the Wilson Center for Innovation and Leadership and professor of mathematics. While the workshop accommodates up to 35 students, it has remained well under capacity despite extensive poster and email advertising around campus, he said.
“It’s the mission of the Wilson Center to provide this type of stuff, but it’s challenging when the messaging of students is that they don’t want events,” he said.
Though the Wilson Center views storytelling as an important skill for leadership development, Blanchard said low attendance makes large workshop events difficult to justify.
“If you don’t put it in the newspaper, and I don’t bring the Moth back, nobody will notice,” Blanchard said.
In response to low student turnout, Blanchard said the Wilson Center is considering a shift towards hosting more intensive storytelling events for smaller groups to better meet student needs.
Editor’s Note: Sam Schmidt `26, a staff writer for The S&B, participated in The Moth storytelling workshop. Schmidt was not involved in the writing or editing of this article.
