Just in time for Valentine’s Day, four community members told stories Monday night centered around a new live storytelling series’ first theme, “The First Love.”
A sold-out crowd of 60 gathered in Transfer Co. Work Hall for Converging Stories: The First Love, from Raleigh Convergence x Transfer Company.
ABOUT THE SERIES: Converging Stories is a new live storytelling series
Organizer Raleigh Convergence shared in an earlier post: “Live, first-person storytelling is a rich tradition to build empathy, understanding and community between neighbors.”
With the new community storytelling series, Raleigh Convergence and partner Transfer Company invite anyone who is a part of the Raleigh community to submit a story within an event’s theme to be coached and told on stage.
Each storytelling event will host 10-minute stories on different interpretations around a theme. Future events will have themes of What If, Coming Home, and Fear.
Converging Stories: The First Love gave a platform to four women to tell their stories centered around the night’s given theme.
The night was emceed by Raleigh Convergence editor and publisher Sarah Day Owen Wiskirchen, who is also one of the storyteller coaches.
Alexus Rhone, founder of Truth Meet Story LLC and Converging Stories’ second storytelling coach, was the first storyteller. Alexus shared a tale of childhood romance and fallout that changed her relationship with her mother.
The second storyteller to take the floor was Mackenzie Ames, a freelance writer based in Raleigh. Ames told about her girlhood first love, Mike, who she jokingly referred to as her “personal Backstreet Boy.” Mackenzie’s story was about unrequited love and learning to love oneself.
The third storyteller to take the mic was Sharon Desjarlais. Sharon, a hypnotherapist and business coach, gave an account of her college boyfriend and what she playfully labeled “Project Girlfriend.” “Project Girlfriend” involved making herself the seemingly perfect girlfriend. This culminated one night when she edited one of Bob’s papers, prompting her love of editing. That love helped her step into her power, leaving “Project Girlfriend” behind.
The fourth and final storyteller was Dana Phelps, owner of Clairemont Communications, a PR agency in downtown Raleigh. Dana shared her funny yet heartwrenching story of her first love, Larry, who she met at a church lock-in. While the two did not work out romantically, Larry was her best friend. After Larry passed away, Dana’s friendship with his wife continued.
The Converging Stories series will continue with three more events this year:
Updated April 1, 2020:
May 25: What If? — this rescheduled theme will be a virtual event!
Aug. 10: Coming home
Oct. 26: Fear.
Potential storytellers can submit 100-word story pitches to raleighconvergence@gmail.com
Taylor Corlew is a student at Shaw University, pursuing his degree in communications.