Tag: nonfiction

Heading into Fall with 3 Strikes

Sep 16 2015 @ 7:00PM

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We’re excited to head into fall with  3 Strikes, taking place Sept.16th at 7PM (details here). We reached out to artist Sebastian Moya to create this striking image for the show. Here are his thoughts on the theme and his process:

When I heard the theme for this installment of No, You Tell It! my first thought was, of course, baseball.  But a very close second were three strikes sentencing laws, whereby repeat offenders receive harsher sentences after their third offense.  Such policies were enacted by 24 states in the mid-1990s as part of a “Tough on Crime” movement which led to our current rates of incarceration, the highest in the developed world.

At a time when public opinion is turning against these kinds of policies, this seemed like a timely subject.  The use of sporting terminology in criminal justice seems trivializing, so I thought mixing the two, by covering a prison cell with baseball wallpaper, would be suitably absurd.  Surrounding those that have “struck out” and landed in jail with antagonistic pitchers adds a more sinister note to the seemingly childish decoration though. On a more technical note, I’ve been meaning to learn to make repeat patterns and work more with vector art, so that definitely informed the illustration as well!

About the Artist: Sebastian Moya is a New York based cartoonist and librarian with a BA in Art and Linguistics from Swarthmore College and a Masters in Library Science from Pratt Institute.  He has provided illustrations for Murmuration Theater, MGSCOMM, authors, and researchers.  As a cataloger he has worked for Gap Inc., Clinique, the Guggenheim, and Smithsonian. His webcomic, comics.sebasm.com, updates weekly.

Event Information

Sep 16 2015 @ 7:00PM

Jimmy's No. 43, East 7th Street, New York, NY, United States, 40.728293, -73.98855100000003

Meet Our REVIVAL storytellers

Apr 15 2015 @ 7:00PM

We hope you’ll join us on April 15th at 7pm for Revival and to celebrate and support Jimmy’s No. 43 reopening! Click here for additional info and to  RSVP. Now, let’s get to know the four storytellers who’ll be swapping their stories on Wednesday.

Jessica Cannon is a New York City based actress and voiceover artist whose voice can be heard in national television commercials and radio spots for major brands such as Twizzlers, ALL, Citibank, AT&T, Hershey’s Kisses, Coffee Mate, Nexxus, Smirnoff Ice, Nesquik, and many others. Her work also includes voicing promos, cartoons and video games. She is an avid reader and a classically trained musician. If you’re young enough, you may remember her from your potty training days as the host of Potty Power, the number two best-selling potty-training DVD on Amazon (no pun intended, Elmo beat us to the number one spot).

Mark Pagán is an award-winning filmmaker, comedian, and writer living in Brooklyn. His performances and films have been showcased at places such as PBS, Slamdance Film Festival, Upright Citizen’s Brigade Theater, The Moth, People’s Improv Theater, Studio Theatre, Le Poisson Rouge, and Kramer Gallery.

Matthew Trumbull is an actor and writer, and was featured as a storyteller earlier this month in Soundtrack Series at QED in Astoria.  He will next be appearing in the play The Butter and Egg Man produced by Retro Productions at the Gene Frankel Theater, opening May 15th, and the feature film ‘The Spike’, written by Mac Rogers.  Previously this year, he starred in the opera/theater piece The Velvet Oratorio by Edward Einhorn and Henry Akona, and the play The Temple by Nat Cassidy, at the Brick Theater.

Barbara Christina Witmer is co-editor of the 99 Pine Street online literary journal (99PineStreet.com). She received her  degree in English: Creative Writing from the University of Rochester. Since then her work hasbeen published in The Golden KeyEunoia ReviewFarther Stars Than TheseWhole Beast Rag, and Xenith. She is also working on finishing her first novel. Find her on Twitter via @bwchristina.

Event Information

Apr 15 2015 @ 7:00PM

Jimmy's No. 43, East 7th Street, New York, NY, United States

Revelation Recording at QED

Here is the recording of our recent workshop showcase at QED: A Place to Show & Tell in Astoria. Thank you to our five switched-up storytellers, Alessia Donati, Jessica Cannon, Carrie Haugh, Katie Johnston, and Violet Olds.


Curious about taking our switched-up storytelling workshop? Press play and enjoy the whole evening to see what we’re all about, or you can cue up the individual stories:

Casper Evelyn Birdie by Alessia Donati (2:38)

– performed by Violet Olds

Swipe Right for Humanity by Violet Olds (15:03)

–  performed by Alessia Donati

The Photo by Carrie Haugh (27:24)

–  performed by Jessica Cannon

California Dreamin’ by Katie Johnston (40:28)

–  performed by Carrie Haugh

My Guilty Heart by Jessica Cannon (54:35)

–  performed by Katie Johnston

Our next session starts on 3/1, click here to register and save your spot!

Mourning Becomes Elijah by Merritt Minnemeyer

Switching it up, here’s Peter Tinaglia performing Merritt Minnemeyer’s story “Mourning Becomes Elijah.”

Ms. Lorimer…If You’re Nasty by Peter Tinaglia

Beginning the second half of Uproar, here’s Merritt Minnemeyer reading Peter Tinaglia’s “Ms. Lorimer…If You’re Nasty.”

November 24, 2014 Post Comment News Tags: , ,

Folie à Deux by Minna Proctor

Now, switching it up, here is Noah Diamond reading Minna Proctor’s “Folie à Deux.”

November 24, 2014 Post Comment News Tags: , ,

Gabriel Santorum Meets the NYPD by Noah Diamond

Starting out our evening of stories based around the theme Uproar, here is Minna Proctor reading “Gabriel Santorum Meets the NYPD” written by Noah Diamond.

Meet the Uproar Storytellers

Nov 18 2014 @ 7:00PM

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Well, here we are. It’s somehow mid-November?! Pretty soon we’ll be tucking in to a turkey (or tofurky or whatever your preference is) dinner with relations and friends, having to negotiate thorny topics like #TaylorSwift and #Feminism and #TheWarOnChristmas without completely alienating our table mates,and then drawing straws for who’ll be the muscle when rolling up on a Black Friday sale. Which is all a lead-in to the minefield that is December, with awkward office holiday parties and end-of-year malaise and the promise of “quality family time” and oh mercy. We are on the brink of that territory, oh yes, but before we slide headfirst into the season, we offer you our next storytelling joint of 2014: Uproar. And it will be uproarious indeed. These stories run the gamut from heart-stirring to outré. Think of this show as a safe space and final chance to engage with words and feeelings that aren’t explicitly motivated by holiday insanity!

And with that rather ominous intro, let’s meet our Uproar storytellers. (Seriously, how can you go wrong with this talented slate of writer/performers?)

Noah Diamond spent years researching and adapting I’ll Say She Is, the lost Marx Brothers musical of 1924, and played the role of Groucho Marx in the show at Marxfest and FringeNYC. I’ll Say She Is will return in 2015. Other credits, as author, songwriter, performer, and/or producer, include Groucho on the Air, Travesties of 2012, Moral Value Meal, and Life After Bush. He is the author of the book 400 Years in Manhattan, based on his stage show. In 2013, he wrote and illustrated the daily comic strip Love Marches On, set in Times Square in 1925 and 1975. Discover true happiness at noahdiamond.com.

Merritt Minnemeyer is an educator, writer, performer and advocate. She holds a BFA in Acting from NYU and has nearly 20 years experience teaching and producing theater in and outside of New York. She is most passionate about employing those skills in the social justice arena, and is currently pursuing a Masters in Humanistic/Multicultural Education at SUNY New Paltz. Most recently she founded Tipsy Gazelle, LLC with a focus on developing a community arts space in a 200 year old home in Beacon, NY where she resides with her three children. Merritt is deeply grateful for and honored to work with NYTI.

Minna Proctor is an editor and essayist. Her first book, Do You Hear What I Hear? came out in 2005. She has published a number of translations from Italian, including the award-winning Love in Vain: The Short Stories of Federigo Tozzi. Her essays and reviews have been published in Conjunctions, BookForum, BOMB, The Nation, Aperture, NPR.org, American Scholar, The New York Times Book Review, Time Out, New York, and others. She teaches in the Creative Writing Program at Fairleigh Dickinson University and is the Editor of The Literary Review. She is currently writing a collection of linked personal essays.

Lyric tenor Peter W. Tinaglia is a recent graduate of the master’s program in voice at Manhattan School of Music. He was seen as Fatty in MSM’s Spring 2013 opera Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny and was featured in MSM’s Spring 2013 musical revue Side by Side by Sondheim. Also while at MSM, Peter participated in the Opera Scenes program, Mr. Ken Merrill’s seminar on the music of Kurt Weill from 1927-1933, and the American Musical Theatre Ensemble’s production of Ragtime. Favorite opera scene work includes Alfredo (La Traviata), Pinkerton (Madama Butterfly), Edgardo (Lucia di Lammermoor), and Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni). Favorite regional opera and operetta credits include The Rape of Lucretia, Così fan tutte, Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Kismet, and The Great Waltz. Peter is a proud graduate of Northwestern University (B.A.) and Boston University (M.S.). In addition to performing, Peter maintains a private voice studio in New York City. He also works as a non-profit project manager and teaches introductory project management courses online at Boston University.

No, YOU Tell It!: Uproar will take place on Tuesday, November 18th at 7PM. Do click on our Facebook invite for more info.

Event Information

Nov 18 2014 @ 7:00PM

Jimmy's No. 43, East 7th Street, New York, NY, United States

Register For Our Storytelling Intensive at Q.E.D. Astoria

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Write your story. Perform someone else’s. Two days, two ways to explore storytelling with No, YOU Tell It! 

We’re excited to offer a switched-up storytelling intensive at Q.E.D., a new workshop and event space located in Astoria. You can learn more about Q.E.D. here.

We believe everyone has a story to share, and our two-part intensive provides a supportive space to experience the creative, vulnerable, and ultimately elating process behind both writing and performance. There is limited enrollment, so participants will receive individual attention from the NYTI creative team.

Some nitty-gritty on the way the workshop will be conducted:

Session 1 (11/15, 2-6 p.m.) Participants will be guided through a series of writing exercises to help them draft an impactful nonfiction story.

Between sessions, participants will work on their story. While they are busy writing, we will pair the stories – and switch-up the storytellers – based on how they complement each other.

Session 2 (11/22, 2-6 p.m.) Flipping scripts, participants are coached through performing their partner’s story. Then, the paired partners perform one another’s stories for the group.

You will leave the intensive with a draft of your true-life tale on the page, experience performing someone else’s on stage, and feedback on what direction you want to take your piece in next.

The fee for the workshop is $50. NOTE: Class is limited to 8 students and advanced purchase is mandatory. If you cannot attend both sessions, you will not be refunded so please keep this in mind when signing up!

Click here to register. As always, you can email us with questions or concerns. We love to hear from you!

Storytelling Workshop in Astoria

We had such a terrific time with our Alumni reading at the Astoria Bookshop that we’ve gone ahead and planned a storytelling workshop in our favorite neighborhood. Maybe that’s something you’d be interested in attending? Sessions will be held on Sunday afternoons beginning September 7th, and the five-week workshop includes a public reading at the bookstore. We are finalizing our participants but still have space if you want to take part. Further details, including times, fees, and all the fine print, can be found here on Facebook or by emailing us

Looking ahead, our next proper storytelling show, Wild Card, will take place on September 17th. More info to come. 

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