Ex Fabula is Back in Person

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Photo by Art Montes

Ex Fabula September 2021 Deaf Story Slam

Ex Fabula September 2021 Deaf Story Slam

Milwaukee’s community storytelling hub Ex Fabula has had a lot going on in the last few years. For those unfamiliar, the organization produces events and workshops where community members are invited to share personal stories in an open mic format, giving folks a place to feel seen and heard while also learning from one another. Each StorySlam has a different theme and utilizes different storytelling techniques, all without notes or props. Before COVID hit, they had just introduced the Deaf StorySlam and the Deaf Storytelling Workshop. Deaf StorySlam won the Associated Bank Trailblazer Mandi Lisc Award.

Executive Director Megan McGee shares how Ex Fabula adapted their work accordingly during the pandemic. “Our last event we were at Mr. J’s Lounge and it was right before everything shut down. I remember going ‘alright, hopefully this’ll be over in a couple weeks!’ but pretty quickly it became clear that it wouldn’t be. We got on Zoom, and honestly Alea did so much work figuring out how to shift our workshop curriculum and how to do Slams.”

Event Producer Alea McHatten added, “The very first thing I remember was actually the event before Mr. J’s, where we were in a larger venue and supposed to have had a packed house. When we got to the event, there were so many no-shows and we were wondering what was going on; we’d never had only half the crowd show up. People were paying for tickets and had been believing in our work, and for folks to not show up was very weird. The Mr. J’s Slam we had much lower attendance than we normally would and that was when we knew this was serious. We had sanitizer and Clorox bleach spray and paper towels for anybody who wanted to wipe their table off and we kept people distanced, but the energy in the space was very different. I think everybody walked away from that event at the end of the night knowing that this was it.”

Viral Disconnect

Then Ex Fabula went virtual, which McGee thinks went well at first, but then people started losing interest after a while.

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Photo by Art Montes

Ex Fabula Megan McGee

Megan McGee telling a story

“People were doing virtual school at home,” she said. “In fall of 2020 we had an all-ages Slam—which is something we’d previously done—and hardly anybody came (laughs). I think parents were just too tired to go on Zoom on the weekends. For the folks that showed up, it was meaningful, but we had to figure out how to switch it up to keep things successful.”

McHatten felt that people were on the fence about virtual Ex Fabula. They said, “People didn’t know if it’d make sense. It was interesting because most of our work with Ex Fabula we do remotely, so going virtual for us wasn’t the biggest mental switch, but for everyone else you could tell that there was an immense amount of stress that I don’t think anyone was ready for.”

McGee added, “It was better than nothing, but it was still hard to connect with people the same way. One thing I love about our events is when someone tells a story and then a stranger goes up to them and thanks them for sharing, and we missed that on virtual. I think we were all yearning for that.”

New Partnerships

In spite of such limitations, Ex Fabula still managed to have a Deaf StorySlam as well as many workshops and Brave Spaces virtually. Additionally, they’ve been able to secure new partnerships, including one with the Vel R Phillips School where they’ve been able to work with youth in the juvenile detention center.

“It makes you think about success a little differently,” McHatten said. “It might not be how many people you can cram in one place. It’s how impactful you can make that experience.”

One series of workshops they’ve done has been with Northwestern Mutual, where they’ve worked with the DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) department on workplace equity by utilizing storytelling. Their virtual format managed to connect them with folks from Texas, Hawaii, and as far as El Salvador. 2021 brought most of their events back to in-person while most of their behind-the-scenes work remained virtual, keeping close looks at COVID cases week-by-week. To top off the year, they won the first ever Unity Award from Milwaukee Magazine.

Michaela Lacy joined the Ex Fabula team in 2020; she’s now their Youth Engagement Specialist. “She started as a Public Ally with us,” McGee explained. “We’ve been growing our youth programming over the years, so we were able to bring Michaela on full-time. When working with youth, there’s so much reflecting about your identity and who you want to be, and it can be such a healthy habit. When talking about the mental health of young folks of color and young folks from under-resourced neighborhoods in Milwaukee, storytelling can be a super organic way to do it. Our process is rooted in trauma-informed care, and Michaela really brought an approach of making sure it’s an environment free of adultism; not telling kids what to do but holding space for them.”

Now they anticipate bringing everything back to in-person this year. Of course, it’s still unpredictable. Even when there’s been no-shows, people may buy tickets at the last minute. “Sometimes the best way to serve your community is to not ask people to know things that can’t be known,” McGee said.

Ex Fabula is rounding out Season 13 in the next few weeks. On Thursday they have their All-Stars StorySlam (where audience member favorites return) at Turner Hall at 7 p.m. Their next Brave Space (where Black, Latinx, Asian, Indigenous, and other folks of color come share stories) is at Transfer Pizza at 6 p.m. on May 17th, and then finally their Teen StorySlam is at Newline Cafe at 4:30 p.m. May 19. This Saturday, May 14, from 11 a.m.-3 p.m., they’ll be at the Youth Resource Fair at South Division High School.

This summer they’ll be resuming their Real Stories MKE series with Joel Dresang and Kim Shine on WUWM, collaborating with CORE/ El Centro on some bilingual storytelling events, and partnering with Independence First and Reflo.

“Storytelling is a gift, and being heard by somebody is a gift,” McGee concluded. “As we come out of the pandemic, we all still have a lot to process.”