On Saturday, March 8, 2014, the All Y’all podcast took a giant, flying leap forward, into the realm of live storytelling events. Sara and I recruited nine storytellers, all of whom told entertaining, true stories with the theme of “New ‘Round Here.” A capacity crowd of about 100 heard stories of “first times, relocations, revelations, arrivals and more.” Some stories were funny, some stories were heartbreaking, and others were a little bit of both. By the end of the night, Sara and I were certain of a few things:

We know some incredible, fearless people – people who were kind enough to share tales from their personal lives with a room full of strangers, just because we asked. Thank you, storytellers! There’s definitely an audience for live storytelling events in Shreveport-Bossier. We’re hard at work right now, planning an All Y’all Live event for June 2014 with the theme “Mistakes Were Made.” If you’ve got a true story that fits this theme, drop us a line at hello@allyallblog.com. People really want snacks at intermission. They told us in polite ways (“I’d be happy to donate some money for snacks at intermission.”), in not-so-polite ways (“It was nice of you guys to bring some cheese from your house, but…”) and in flat out rude ways (“Next time, order some fucking pizzas.”) We heard you. There will be snacks next time! There may even be fucking pizzas.

In the mean time, please enjoy live storyteller Esther Kennedy’s hilarious tale of love and how it blooms, like an onion, in the strangest of places.

Sara and I wish to express our sincerest thanks to Alan Dyson and Dana McCommon for making our maiden voyage so painless, and for providing an excellent recording of the evening.