Feb 27 :: day-long story retreat :: online

Join us for a one-day storytelling retreat. Come solo or bring a key leader or two who might also be interested. The day will be a fun, conversational (but structured!) introduction to this style of true, first-person storytelling, or an invitation to think about it more deeply. We’ll generate ideas and get some tools in the mix to craft your own stories. Leave with ideas you can put to work in your community right away, and some inspiration for even bigger plans down the road.

Registration and schedule here. $50 for the day (9 - 4 with an optional story theology lunchtime hour). Need a discount? Email us, no questions asked, at EarshotStories@gmail.com. Gilead-ites, reach out to us at church for a (deep) discount code.

Oct 5 - 11, 2020 :: Kansas-Oklahoma Conference :: online

This year, for their Annual Meeting, the Kansas-Oklahoma Conference is telling stories and Earshot will be there — virtually (whomp-whomp!). Conference Minister Rev. Edith Guffey saw Rebecca as part of Thursdays for the Soul (a pandemic-era offering by the UCC) and reached out — and we are so glad it’s happening!

Oct 22, 2019 :: Border Crossings :: 7 pm

Join us for a night of award-winning storytelling, world class music, and local beer (thanks, Marz Community Brewing!) to raise money toward the $8000 it takes to sponsor a family.

Music from Nick Photinos of Eighth Blackbird and Northwestern's Yasuko Oura (Lyric Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera). Stories from Moth Grandslam champion Nestor Gomez (80 Minutes Around the World, Immigration Storytelling), Jitesh Jaggi, and others who now call Chicago, and the U.S., home.

Invite a friend and come make Chicago a more welcoming place. All proceeds go directly to the Bethany-Pilgrim Project (Bethany UCC and Pilgrim Lutheran Church and School), welcoming refugee families to Chicago.

Oct 15, 2019 :: Out At Work :: 6 pm

Join us for a riveting, hilarious, and at times heartbreaking night of storytelling, Out in the Workplace: Stories of Telling (or Not Telling) the Team/Client/Contractor of Our Sexual Orientation, and Lessons Learned. Featuring an amazing line-up of tellers from The Moth | Radio Hour and beyond.

The Bulthaup showroom opens at 6pm for food and drinks. Arrive before 7pm to hear the story series tailored for the LGBTQI+ architecture community! 

Organized by AIA Chicago's LGTBQI+ Alliance.

SPONSORED BY: Bulthaup, with support from SCB
HOSTED BY: LGTBQI+ Alliance of AIA Chicago
MEMBER PRICE: Free / NON MEMBER PRICE: Fre

June 24, 2019 :: UCC General Synod :: 930

Join us Monday night after worship, off site, for the first ever General Synod NEW CHURCH STORY SLAM. Hosted by Gilead Chicago, the United Church of Christ, and Faith INFO. Come, grab a beverage of your choice, and listen to what’s going on in the UCC from the mouths of the new communities themselves! The Gospel is alive in surprising places, lighting the way forward — and sometimes leading us right off the map of what we know about church:

bar church? farm church? the only queer space in the village? a college campus partnership that WORKS?! Listen, imbibe, and witness alongside those who are on the frontlines of faith outside the institutions we (well, some of us) know best.

With stories from new church by Rebecca Anderson, Al Lopez,Leah Robberts-Mosser, Ryan Hart, Sam Chamelin, Chris Davies, Aaron Wade, and Vince Amlin.

Listen to Ryan’s story here.

April 28 - May 1, 2019 :: NW Washington Synod

Y’all know who you are (Rostered ELCA Ministers of the NW Washington Synod)! Earshot is so glad to be heading to the Pacific Northwest to explore stories as spiritual formation. We’ll dream together about why and how storytelling matters in congregations (in worship and beyond), generate ideas for our own stories, gather some tools to craft them, and imagine how to help others get at their own stories.

July 12 - 15, 2018 :: Wild Goose Festival :: Hot Springs, NC

Earshot is going back to North Carolina! (Maybe we're regulars now?) Come find Rebecca:

- telling a story as part of opening worship (Thursday night)
- leading "Build a Story" in the Studio Tent (Friday morning at 10)
- hosting a StorySlam in the Studio (Saturday, 4 - 6 pm). Bring your story!
- hosting a story open mic in the Cafe (midnight on Saturday)

May 16, 2018 :: Interfaith Story Slam (Shavu'ote and Pentecost!) 

Some fantastic partners in faith-based crime (Gilead Chicago, Mishkan Chicago, Lincoln Park Presbyterian Church, Chicago, SVARA, Reboot, and Friendship Presbyterian Church) are teaming up for another interfaith story slam.

Celebrate Pentecost (a few days early) and/or Shavu'ote, with dairy food for dayz and stories of Revelations (ah-ha moments, not the apocalyptic book of the bible). Wednesday, May 16. Chicago Theater Works (1113 W. Belmont). Doors at 6:15, stories at 7. Get tickets here.

Feb 23 - 24, 2018 :: The Inspire Conference

In the Vancouver area? This one might be for you. INSPIRE is an ecumenical gathering for leaders of children, youth, and young adults to connect, rejuvenate, learn, and grow. Find lots more info here!