BEMIDJI — Several storytellers spoke on their “sparks” at an inaugural StorySlam event hosted by Watermark Art Center on Tuesday at Bemidji Brewing, but perhaps the most serendipitous story came before the actual event and wasn’t a part of the evening’s competition.
For Watermark’s outreach coordinator Leah Grunzke and Bemidji Brewing’s Tina Kaney, a friendship formed during the time they both lived in Missoula, Mont. According to Grunzke, both worked at the Montana Natural History Center as camp counselors 10 to 15 years ago and would spend some off time together until Tina moved to Bemidji.
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Tina’s husband, Justin “Bud” Kaney, was dating Tina back in Montana and Bud knew Bemidji Brewing co-founder, Tom Hill, from their time at Bemidji State University.
“That’s how we ended up here (in Bemidji),” Tina said. “We were cooking up our idea (of Bemidji Brewing) for years before we actually moved to Bemidji and the very first person I told that I was quitting my job in Montana, moving to Bemidji which I had never been to before, and starting a brewery, was Leah.”
Once Grunzke moved to Bemidji, the pair was presented with an opportunity to collaborate once again.
“We both ended up in Bemidji and we’ve been talking in the past year of how we can do community-building activities like we were daydreaming about decades ago,” Grunzke said.
As it turns out, the success of local Poetry Slam competitions paved the way for StorySlam, which allows public participants to share their own five-minute true story to a crowd for the chance to win cash prizes.
“There are a lot of performers with things to share, but a lot of people may be intimidated by the poetry format,” Grunzke added. “Because Bemidji is such a creative town and storytelling has really taken off in the past five to 10 years nationally, we wanted to open this up to more than just poets, (to) people with stories to share.”
Grunzke referred to in New York that “celebrates the commonality and diversity of human experience through the art and craft of true, personal storytelling,” as another source of inspiration for the StorySlam series, which includes another event at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, May 2, at Bemidji Brewing.
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The series is funded in part by a grant from the Region 2 Arts Council funded by an appropriation from the Minnesota State Legislature from the state’s general fund.
Along with the StorySlam events, two-day workshops give spoken word artists of all experience levels an opportunity to work with professional storytelling coach Ann Marie Newman — also the event’s emcee — prior to each StorySlam.
Workshops entail interactive games, improvisation exercises, group work and practical techniques to help participants create engaging stories with the audience in mind. Those who participate in these workshops are guaranteed a spot in the following StorySlam event, though workshop attendance is not required to perform.
Participants could either pre-register or volunteer on the spot to tell stories that related in some way to the “spark” theme of Tuesday’s event. Playing into this theme, it was only fitting that the first StorySlam competition took place at Bemidji Brewing given the previous decade that sparked a business and a friendship.
“I’m really excited to host this event, and also really excited that Leah is the person I get to work with,” Tina said. “It’s kind of coming full circle.”
Speaking their stories
With judges randomly selected from the audience, storytellers took turns telling their stories and bringing the audience along for the ride.
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First-place winner Judith Zatkin eased her way onto the stage in a spur-of-the-moment decision to detail the origins of her dislike for stairs. This came after she fell down a flight of stairs in school and told her mom that an eighth-grade kid pushed her down despite the fact that she fell down on her own and was embarrassed about the situation.
Ten years later, Zatkin’s mom asked her if she remembered the time “that kid pushed (her) down the stairs,” a question that Zatkin’s little sister debunked.
“My sister goes ‘mom, nobody pushed her. There wasn’t even an eighth-grade kid in the whole school.’ That’s how my mom found out I lied about being pushed down the stairs because I was very embarrassed,” Zatkin told laughing audience members. “People learned how to be nicer that day, so maybe there was a happy ending after all. And I still don’t like to go down stairs.”
Though some stories were humorous, others took a more somber tone. Throughout all stories of the evening, storytellers were encouraged to leave off with a healing message or what they learned through their experience.
By the end of the night, second-place winners Liz and Jake Letson and third-place winner Tami McMenimen joined Zatkin as the top three storytellers. Following the naming of award-winners, Newman emphasized the value that each storyteller provided through their stories regardless of placement.
“Just because you maybe didn’t place, don’t think that your story wasn’t needed by somebody in this room. You never know if that one story you told was for somebody who really needed to hear it,” Newman said. “Tonight, I told my story and many of you told your story. Together in this room tonight, we created our own story that took place in the last couple of hours. That is our story.”
Grunzke hopes the StorySlam events grow in popularity as additional events are planned moving forward.
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“The more people you see up there (telling stories) the more people say ‘I can do that too,’” Grunzke said. “(StorySlam events) only work if people participate. They’re not something that we’re putting on, but rather something that everyone is creating in the moment.”
More information on StorySlam events and workshops can be found at
The Trust Project
