Tag: snapped

Eight-Year Anniversary Celebration on DP TV!

Today, May 8th marks eight years of No, YOU Tell It!  Celebrate with this special look at last year’s Lambda Literary team-up show by filmmaker and alum storyteller Ariel Mahler. Then join the party on our NYTI FB page.

Comment on and/or share this featurette by 11:59 pm (Cinderella time!) for a chance to win a $100 Bookseller’s Choice Book Bundle from The Astoria Bookshop.

Our virtual May 8th anniversary celebration is being featured on DP TV. Spread the word! Like our Facebook page and/or follow us on Instagram and invite friends to do the same. If we receive 80 new followers on May 8th, we’ll donate $100 to Dixon Place. 

DP TV programs are free to watch, and your kind donations offset the loss of ticket and beverage sales that keep the visionary fires burning! Support DP

Episode 50 – Pride and “Snapped!” Bonus

In celebration of Pride and the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising, for this, our 50th podcast episode, we wanted to share some of our favorite LGBTQ stories from years past.

First up, from our recent “Snapped!” show at Dixon Place, a drag queen offers handy advice about standing one’s ground in “Lessons from The Queen,” written by Robb Leigh Davis and read for us here by story partner and Lambda Literary fellow, Mariam Bazeed.

Pride. Drag Queens. Courage. It’s all in there.

Click here to read Robb’s story, recently published on The Good Men Project.

Left: Robb Leigh Davis and story partner Mariam Bazeed. Right (top to bottom): Nicholas Maistros, Jeff Wills, Ariel Mahler, and Erika Iverson directs Molly Touger.

Next up, we revisit a show from our previous longtime home, Jimmy’s No. 43 in the East Village.  Author Nicholas Maistros writes of unexpected revelations during a visit with his mother in “Collecting.” Read for us here by his story partner, Jeff Wills, as part of our “Outdated” show.

Click here to give a listen to Nick read Jeff Will’s story “Lost Track” in Episode 41. 

Finally, a superfan desperately wants to connect with the Wonderful Wizard of YouTube, Todrick Hall, in Ariel Mahler’s story “Under the Rainbow, Over the Sea.” Presented here by Ariel’s story partner Molly Touger for our “Blowback” show.

Switching it up, click here to hear Ariel’s performance of Molly Touger’s “And in Local News…” in Episode 37

Speaking their partner’s piece aloud gives a No, YOU Tell It! storyteller the chance to step into another person’s shoes and experience their story on stage, a powerful way to amplify queer voices at a time when their true-life tales need to be heard and shared more than ever.

If you enjoyed these stories, please help us spread the word and share them with your podcasting-loving friends!

Episode 49 – Snapped! Queer Storytelling with a Twist

What begins as a simple cab ride to the airport becomes a shifting contest of power, imagination, and identity in Naomi Gordon-Loebl’s “Can I See It?” read by Kent D. Wolf in the first half of this special team-up show with Lambda Literary in celebration of Pride and the 50th Anniversary of the Stonewall uprising.

This story swap, recorded live at Dixon Place on June 11th, 2019, was directed by Mike Dressel who was also our host for the evening.
Story partners Naomi Gordon-Loebl and Kent D. Wolf

Top left: Naomi Gordon-Loebl and Kent D. Wolf; Top right: Naomi Gordon-Loebl; Bottom left: Kent and Naomi; Bottom right: Hugs! Photo credit: David Trudo

Switching it up, in Kent D. Wolf’s story, escape from the isolation of Midwestern farm life lies in a plane ticket for a semester abroad, but first, he must negotiate permission and withstand the disappointment of both parents. Here is Naomi Gordon-Loebl reading “July 1995.”

Click here to see the full set of “Snapped!” photos and LIKE our page on Facebook for more!

Oh, What a Night!

4 storytellers, 3 creative team members, 2 story workshops to develop the pieces on the page, 1 personalized rehearsal session with each storyteller to help them embody their partner’s story on stage = an invigorating evening of “Snapped!” stories last night.

Huge thanks to Lambda Literary for helping us bring this special night of Queer Storytelling with a Twist to Dixon Place. Happy Pride all!!

Pictured left to right: Mike Dressel, Robb Leigh Davis, Mariam Bazeed, Erika Iverson, Kent D. Wolf, Naomi Gordon Loebl and Kelly Jean Fitzsimmons. Photo credit: Ariel Mahler

Click here to visit our No, YOU Tell It! fundraising page to learn more about how you can help us keep the switched-up storytelling going and more! 

Meet “Snapped!” Storyteller Kent D. Wolf

Our “Snapped!” show is tonight. Join us In the Lounge at Dixon Place at 7 pm for drinks. Stories start right at 7:30. First, meet our final storyteller Kent D. Wolf.

Kent D. Wolf is an agent with The Friedrich Agency, representing literary fiction and narrative nonfiction–from novels to story collections to immersive journalism to personal essays. His clients include National Book Award for Fiction Finalist Carmen Maria Machado, New York Times Bestselling essayist Samantha Irby, Barnes & Noble Discover novelist Ingrid Rojas Contreras, and New York Times Notable novelist Martin Seay, among others.

Meet “Snapped!” Storyteller Naomi Gordon-Loebl

Rehearsals are underway! The storytellers have flipped scripts and are now working with a NYTI director to add a little oomph to their partner’s piece for tomorrow night’s “Snapped!” show at Dixon Place.

Meet our next storyteller Lambda Literary fellow Naomi Gordon-Loebl!

Naomi Gordon-Loebl is a writer, educator, and fellow at Type Media Center. Her work has been published in The New York TimesHarper’sThe NationComplexHazlittThe Washington SpectatorThe Toast, the anthologies The Social Construction of Difference and Inequality and Emerge, and elsewhere. She is the recipient of residencies and fellowships from Lambda Literary, Monson Arts, and the Vermont Studio Center. Before working in journalism, she spent five years as a teacher and youth development professional, helping people who had left school to complete their high school equivalency diplomas. She was born, raised, and still lives in Brooklyn.

Meet “Snapped!” Storyteller Robb Leigh Davis

Stunning second story meeting last night. Hearing the storytellers read each other’s revised drafts out loud was a thrilling reminder of what an honor it is to take part in Lambda Literary’s mission to help amplify LGBTQ voices at a time when the world needs them more than ever.

See you at Dixon Place on June 11th. Drinks/Door at 7 pm. Stories right at 7:30. FREE & and in the words of our next “Snapped!” storyteller Robb Leigh Davis, “oh have we got some stories for you…”

Robb Leigh Davis is a writer/performer, residing in Brooklyn. He is creator of the performance series Meditation on a Theme (www.meditationonatheme.com), co-creator of the podcast Takin U Back, and has worked extensively with the NYC Department of Education overseeing arts education across the five boroughs.

Commissioned for performance pieces by Brooklyn College, he has performed as part of the National Network for Education Renewal Conferences in CT and TX, and was a selected playwright for the Tectonic Theater Project’s LGBT Theater Artists of Color Training Lab. A featured performer – in partnership with Brooklyn College/GLARE (GLBTQ Advocacy in Research &Education) – at the 18th Annual Shepard Symposium on Social Justice in Laramie, Wyoming, his plays include The Homosexual Agenda, The Glam Factor, We The People and AMERICANBLACKOUT (originated at Dixon Place HOT! Festival and the NY Fringe Festival).

He is the former Director of Arts & Culture for the LGBT Center of NYC, and as a playwright/essayist continues to create work at the intersection of spirituality, sexuality and racial identity.

Meet “Snapped!” Storyteller Mariam Bazeed

Two weeks until our “Snapped!” show at Dixon Place. Join us in the lounge on June 11th. But first, meet storyteller & Lambda Literary fellow Mariam Bazeed.

Mariam Bazeed is an Egyptian immigrant, writer, and performance artist living in a rent-stabilized apartment in Brooklyn. They have an MFA in Fiction from Hunter College. An alliteration-leaning writer of prose, poetry, plays, and personal essays, Mariam is a current fellow at the Center for Fiction, and a past fellow at the Asian American Writers Workshop and the Lambda Literary Foundation. As a performance artist, Mariam has been a fellow of the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics at NYU, and Needing It! by the Helix Performance Network. Mariam’s work has been supported by residencies from Hedgebrook, Marble House Project, the Millay Colony, the Kimmel Nelson Harding Center for the Arts, and Art Omi. Mariam’s first play, Peace Camp Org, was staged at La Mama Theater, NYC (2017) in the Squirts Festival of Queer Performance Art; the Arcola Theatre, London (2018), in its inaugural festival of International Queer Playwrights; and The Wild Project, NYC (2018), in the Fresh Fruit Festival, where it won the Spirit Award. Peace Camp Org is available in anthology from Oberon Books, UK.

To procrastinate from facing the blank page, Mariam curates and runs a monthly(ish) world-music salon and open mic in Brooklyn, and is a slow student of Arabic music.

Snapped! Storytellers

Our team up with Lamba Literary for a night of queer storytelling with a twist is coming up fast! HERE are the four storytellers who will trade their true-life tales.

Mariam Bazeed (top left) Lambda Literary Fellow

Kent D. Wolf (top right) The Friedrich Agency

Robb Leigh Davis (bottom left) Meditation on a Theme

Naomi Gordon-Loebl (bottom right) Lambda Literary Fellow

The storytellers will meet each other for the first time next week when they meet with the NYTI creative team to workshop the first drafts of their stories inspired by the theme SNAPPED! 

More info on the storytellers soon. But save the date! June 11th @ Dixon Place!