GRAND RAPIDS, MI — A popular National Public Radio (NPR) storytelling stage show is coming to Grand Rapids.
The Moth, a live storytelling project and podcast, will host a mainstage event at GLC Live at 20 Monroe on Thursday, June 15. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and the storytelling will begin at 7:30 p.m. The theme is “Lost and Found.”
A mainstage show from The Moth includes two acts with up to five storytellers and a notable host.
According to Michigan Radio, the NPR affiliate station presenting the event, the host of the June 15 Moth Mainstage is Angelica Lindsey-Ali.
Lindsey-Ali, a native of Detroit, is a cultural activist, dancer and writer. According to The Moth, she recently returned from a five-year stint in the Middle East where she taught urban homesteading and African dance to teenagers. She is also the host of an annual monthly Moth event in Phoenix.
Five storytellers have been announced for the Grand Rapids show. These include Kelli Dunham, Gabriela Fernandez, Hanif Abdurraqib, Latricia Trice and Esmond Fountain.
Storytellers at The Moth tell personal nonfiction stories without notes.
Dunham is a former nun, a nurse and nonbinary stand-up comedian. She has written and performed extensively about death and grief after losing two partners to cancer within five years. Her book of essays, “Freak of Nurture,” includes stories about her time hitchhiking across Haiti to provide disaster relief and her journey volunteering at a Sarah Palin convention, all sprinkled with comedy and a bit of chaos.
Fernandez is a Miami-based improv and comedy theater collective artistic director. She studied theater is Spain and is the host of the local Miami chapter of The Moth, where she hosts a monthly storytelling show.
Abdurraqib is a Columbus, Ohio, poet, essayist, cultural critic and New York Times bestselling author. His most recent book, “A Little Devil in America,” won the 2022 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction and was a finalist for the National Book Award.
Trice, of Grand Rapids, is the supervisor of corporate social responsibility at the Amway Corporation and is a former Grand Rapids Chamber director and communications specialist for Experience Grand Rapids.
Tickets for The Moth Mainstage event are available online here and start at $39.50 per ticket.
Later this year, The Moth’s “Popup Porch Tour” event is scheduled for Ann Arbor and Detroit. These popup events include a more one-on-one storytelling experience in a tiny custom-built home with a porch designed for sharing and listening to stories. The Michigan portion of the porch tour, sponsored by General Motors, is set for Sept. 27-Oct. 8.
More information about The Moth and its mission is available at themoth.org.
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