Agata Popęda here. It’s a big year for Carl Cherry Center for the Arts, an almost 80-year-old arts and culture Carmel nonprofit which this April received a Champions of the Arts award from the Arts Council for Monterey County. The center is also introducing two new series of events this spring; its music-centered Portraits in Song launched in late March. Now the time has come for the second premiere: an event rooted in storytelling.
Porchlight Stories is inspired by The Moth Radio Hour, a radio program and podcast from The Moth nonprofit, founded in 1997 in Georgia. “Hence the porch light,” says Ellen Osborne from The Cherry’s board of directors. Writer George Dawes Green, the Moth’s founder, was inspired by evenings he spent staying up late with friends, exchanging stories, while moths flitted around the lights.
The idea is simple—one person climbs the stage to share a personal story that is five to seven minutes long. No notes. But it cannot be any story, it must be a story in which something important is genuinely at stake.
“Lots of people have good stories,” Osborne says. “It is whether you are brave enough to get on stage and share it.”
The Cherry didn’t get as many submissions from potential storytellers as organizers expected. On the other hand, the hunger to hear the stories seems huge—the event is sold out. “Of course we are excited," Osborne says. “We didn’t know what to expect.”
The inaugural event takes place at 7pm on Thursday, May 14. Storytellers for the inaugural show include Henry Miller Memorial Library Executive Director Magnus Toren, artist Elizabeth Murray, Michael Lojkovic, Hans Lehmann and Polly Osborne, among other guests. Mark Governor, a musician, composer and theater producer, hosts the event, making a special return to Carmel for this one-night event.
Two more shows in the series are planned for July and September.
Interested in taking the stage? Call Porchlight Stories at (800) 437-3009 and enter invitation number 102486. Follow the prompts to leave your contact information and record your entire story up to seven minutes from beginning to end.
The hope is for an evening of raw, unscripted storytelling that is hilarious, heartbreaking and deeply human.
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