First Person Arts 2016 Grand Slam

While throngs of people made their pre-Election Day pilgrimage to Independence Mall for the rally with President Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, former President Bill Clinton and former presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, along with a couple of singers you may have heard of, I strolled up to Callowhill for opening night of the 15th annual First Person Arts Festival (FPA): the 2016 Grand Slam at Underground Arts.

Big stories, little package

The theme of FPA’s 2016 Grand Slam was an appropriate counterpoint to the Obamas, Clintons, Bruce Springsteen, and Bon Jovi: “Small but Mighty.”

Eleven storytellers (12, counting a tale from host comedian Chip Chantry) each shared a five-minute true-life anecdote that took top honors at previous 2016 Story Slams. In line with the night’s theme, one thing at least was clear from a diverse line-up of urban raconteurs: the best stories do not emerge from being the tallest, coolest kid in the class, with perfect health and a stable family.

Scott Hansen recalled the time he went swimming in St. Croix with his fiancée, who insisted that fresh urine would help remove a sea urchin spine, despite his insistence that “I wanted there to be some magic left on the wedding night.”

Gabrielle Shae recounted her Haitian father’s epic walk to Port Au Prince after the 2010 earthquake. Sara Ray charmed the house with her story of a hair-raising 1992 ride in a Barney-inspired homemade cardboard car, when she was six years old. Brittaney Taylor (a.k.a., SisterBritt) convulsed the crowd with the time “taco night reared her ugly head” during what was meant to be a Zipcar joyride with a down-and-out brother.

Geoff Jackson battled the curse of being the shortest kid, before a grabby big kid at the pool table taught him he had more fight in him than he ever would have guessed. Bea Cordelia offered a lyrical ode to the body, and its ability to outstrip even the aurora borealis in its beauty. Young Harry Flax confided his path to the words that healed in the wake of his parents’s painful secret.

Corita Brown let the crowd in on the time a plumbing disaster in her Barcelona yoga studio was the last straw in her determination to kill herself, and what led her back to brighter days. Ronald Metellus remembered acts of kindness flowing from his Haitian heritage. Liz Ray shared the searing day she found out, at age 16, that her father was not dead, but alive and absent.

And the winner is...

And the night’s top honor went to Amrita Subramanian, who told a beautifully textured multifaceted story about a crisis during Diwali at age four. She told the truth about abuse at the hands of family members, ran to hide, and then found the courage to step out again, and stay in the light.

“It is so easy to go back to that hole,” she said of that lifelong stand, and the choice to tell the story.

Subramanian seemed almost tearful when her speedy win called her back under the lights. She hovered at the back of the stage as if, her heartfelt story told, she might flee the applause.

On Monday night, Philadelphians surged to cheer for some of the most powerful voices in the world. After a bruising election night that leaves my respect for the institutions of our country horribly shaken, I feel like the only thing to do is take a break from the national politicians and pundits and hold onto the things and people around me. I’m not sorry I spent the night in the company of homegrown storytellers sharing the painful, funny, brave, vulnerable truth about their own lives.

Click here for our What’s New, What’s Next preview. A new season of Story Slams begins this December.