Once comedy shows, live music, improv, and produced theater were the primary jewels in our town’s nightlife crown. But now, live storytelling—evidenced by shows produced not only at clubs, black box theaters, coffee shops, and bars, but also at Powell’s City of Books and the Portland Art Museum’s Center for an Untold Tomorrow at Tomorrow Theater—is one of the most accessible art forms the city has to offer.

And in an era of community reconstruction, perhaps these storytelling events are what the city needs.

“A comedy audience leans back in their seat, but a storytelling audience leans forward,” says Frayn Masters, founder of seminal story event (and now podcast) Backfence Storytelling . “They’re with you. You could have a famous actor and a first-time storyteller on the same stage, and

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