User:Mothbot/The Moth

The Moth is a not-for-profit group based in New York City dedicated to the art of storytelling. Founded in 1997 by poet and novelist George Dawes Green as a series of evenings in his living room, it has grown to become the "dominant name in the live storytelling scene." The Moth has presented several thousand true stories by people from all walks of life through its many stage shows, popular podcast, and Peabody Award-winning public radio show The Moth Radio Hour.

History
Before moving to New York City, Moth founder George Dawes Green lived on St. Simons, GA, a small coastal community. To pass the time, Green and his friends would stay up late into the night drinking bourbon and swapping stories on a front porch. Moths would get in through the screen, and the group adopted The Moths as their unofficial name. Once Green moved to New York, however, he found New York to be “sound-bite oriented, with cocktail-party sophisticates jockeying to be the first with a quick quip.”

In response, Green held an evening of storytelling in his Manhattan apartment, similar to the nights on St. Simons. The event was a major success. After a failed attempt at a storytelling-based bar and arts center, Green decided to hold more of these storytelling nights at various lounges and bars throughout the city. ‘’Stories at the Moth’’, as it was known, was hailed as “New York’s hottest and hippest literary ticket” by the Wall Street Journal.

Since its 1997 premiere, The Moth has presented thousands of stories to audiences around the world. Past notable storytellers include Andy Borowitz, Margaret Cho, Joe Lockhart, Jonathan Ames, Ethan Hawke, Malcolm Gladwell, Darryl "DMC" McDaniels, George Plimpton, Gay Talese, Mira Nair, Moby, Lili Taylor, Sam Shepard, Garrison Keillor, and Salman Rushdie.

The Moth Mainstage
‘’The Moth Mainstage’’’ is the oldest of The Moth’s many programs and continues to be it’s flagship. Each Mainstage is a curated and directed storytelling event; The Moth’s directors work with storytellers to help shape and craft their stories.

Mainstage storytellers include a mixture of celebrities, literati, and people from all walks of life.

StorySLAMs and GrandSLAMs
Created to give more people the opportunity to tell their stories, ‘’The Moth StorySLAMs’’ are The Moth’s recurring open-mic storytelling series. Modeled after poetry slams, potential storytellers put their names in the “hat”. Ten storytellers are selected and given five minutes to tell their stories. Judging teams, selected from the audience, give each storyteller a numeric score. The highest-scoring storyteller is declared the “winner,” although there are no prizes.

The winner of the StorySLAM is brought back to ‘’The Moth GrandSLAM’’, a championship round held every 10 SLAMs. The format of the GrandSLAMs are similar to the StorySLAM, though they are usually held at higher-end venues.

StorySLAMs are currently held weekly in New York City, three times a month in Los Angeles, and monthly in both Chicago and Detroit with plans for expansion soon.

MothSHOP Community Education Program
Since 1999, The Moth has been reaching out to underprivileged and underserved members of New York City by holding ‘’MothSHOP’’ workshops. These workshops