How did we get here?...
Joan Afton grew up in the suburbs of Chicago and started training in improv and acting in high school. She’s told stories in LA with Shine, Write Club, Story Salon, Rogue Machine, and VAMP, among others, as well as the special series Hands Up: Body with Tellin’ Tales in Chicago.
She is the creator of the solo show 30jj or Bust: the World is Your Underwire, which appeared at the Hollywood, Santa Monica and Chicago Fringe Festivals, and has been a contributor to The Forward, Book magazine, and the play No Place Like Home at Steppenwolf Theater.
She’s been a consultant in user-centered research for product and web design, and copyediting: eliciting and honing stories in the corporate space for, she cannot believe it, over 20 years.
Joan and her cat Gigi (The Notorious GIG) are also deeply involved with a no-kill nonprofit animal rescue, The Santé D’Or Foundation. Ask her about cats: there’s bound to be a story there, too.
“So, funny thing happened to me…”
“Did I ever tell you about the time…”
“You know what sucks? Here’s what…”
“I wish I knew how to tell you…”
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These are our stories to tell... and ours to share!
Tell It!
I was a person who had one million stories, and one million reasons why it was not ok—I was not ok!—to tell them.
Turns out of course: that is not true. Neither the number of stories, nor, more importantly the reasons why not.
These are icky-to-actually-perilous times, for many of us. It might seem, time to shut up, head down, say nothing. Not a time to spend on frippery and self-indulgence! Oh, the voices for why NOT.
How loud they are. And annoying.
May I suggest (well, I’m gonna) that maybe what we all need is some space and time to just TELL THEM? No time like the present, indeed.
Welcome to “Inside Voice.”