Megan Stielstra's Blog

This week I'll be presenting for Columbia College's Creative Nonfiction Week which, outside from being an enormous honor, is also making me drool a little because of all the amazing writers and artists in the line-up including Art Spiegelman (!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and Alex Kotlowitz (!!!!!!!!!!!!!), both of whom are heroes of mine.

I'll be a part of a panel discussing the telling of stories through sound and image, speaking specifically to the personal narrative storytelling and music collaboration we do with 2nd Story (this does not mean, for the record, that I'm going to speak all scholarly about the fundamentals of storytelling. It means I'm going to tell a story with a DJ about sex and music. Like how I lost my virginity to Purple Rain. And how now, in my thirties, I'm worried that maybe losing one's virginity to Purple Rain is a cliche. And also I got dumped one time to Soft Cell's Tainted Love, which is just sad. Very sad. There was also an unfortunate incident with Peter Gabriel's In Your Eyes, but you'll just have to come, people; I can't give away ALL my secrets on the internet! Some of them have to be given away during a scholarly presentation concerning the fundamentals of collaborative storytelling!). Also on the panel are Chicago Tribune photographer Antonio Perez, Chicago Public Radio senior content developer Justin Kaufmann, Chicago Public Radio reporter Natalie Moore and documenter Ted Hardin.

If any of you are free that afternoon, it should be a good time (and ART F'ING SPIEGELMAN reads afterwards, which is maybe the most exciting thing in the UNIVERSE!), and I'd love to see some familiar faces in the crowd.

Thursday, October 18th
3 pm, Film Row Cinema, 1104 S. Wabash, 8th floor
FREE!

There's more information (including the entire week's schedule) here.