First Person Arts Festival: Stories of us all

Philadelphia's First Person Arts organization revels in the power of the biographical tale, the traditions and innovations of the memoir, and all aspects of documentary.

Its second-Monday Story Slams and RAW workshop events throughout the year focus on everyday people telling extraordinary stories.

Yet, when it comes to letting its hair down, the nonprofit FPA goes full monty for its annual Festival - this year, its 12th, with 11 days of truth-telling and myth-making from pros and amateurs alike in venues from West Philly (Drexel University) to Old City (Painted Bride Art Center, Christ Church Neighborhood House).

"I want FPA to be a platform to tell compelling personal stories," says executive director Jamie J. Brunson. The festival's programming includes local artists, novices, and luminaries in the field of the biographical tale. Along with its slate of story performances are Story Slams and workshops, choreographed dance events, and food-based soirees.

This year's festival opened Wednesday with literary laureates Toni Morrison (Nobel and Pulitzer winner), Sonia Sanchez (poet laureate of Philadelphia), Rita Dove (Pulitzer winner, poet laureate of the United States), and spiritually minded vocalist, pianist, and photographer Ruth Naomi Floyd in a program called "Conversation and Song: Walking the Laureate Road."

"FPA creates and provides opportunities for people to share their narratives," says Floyd. "They continue to educate, entertain, and preserve historical and cultural events so that we can stay connected to each other's humanity."

Nothing is more human, in Brunson's view, than allowing the voices of those imprisoned, literally and figuratively, to ring free. So she set her mind on Chicana poet, novelist, and essayist Ana Castillo, whose So Far From God was banned in Tucson, Ariz., when that city's school district cut ethnic studies from its curriculum.

"To deny an entire culture study in the schools is to deny them their first person," Brunson stresses. "I wanted to talk about that at FPA, so I called Ana and she said she'd be here. Then I told Sonia Sanchez, and not only did she want in on the conversation, she said her friend, Angela Davis, wanted to be involved," Brunson adds, rhapsodizing about the African American activist and author who has devoted her attention to feminism and prison reform. Sanchez, Davis, and Castillo will take part in a panel discussion, "The Politics of Poetry," on Thursday at Christ Church Neighborhood House, 20 N. American St.

Another of Brunson's dreams was expanding FPA's reach into theater with the hiring of Steppenwolf's Ed Sobel as artistic adviser, and inviting Pig Iron Theatre's Dito Van Reigersberg and Alex Torra to present solo projects at the festival.

Reigersberg trots out his femme alter ego Martha Graham Cracker for "Dear Sir or Madam," an evening of song with members of Philly's drag community, on Wednesday at Christ Church Neighborhood House.

On Friday and Saturday, also at Christ Church Neighborhood House, Torra presents a work-in-progress, The Sincerity Project, from Team Sunshine Performance Corporation, a company he shares with Benjamin Camp and Makoto Hirano.

"There's a reason this sharing of real stories is popular," says Torra, a recent 2013 Barrymore Award runner-up. "It's a funny way to get to know your neighbor, to be reminded we're not alone." Like Pig Iron, Team Sunshine does original theater. Sunshine's pieces are "purposefully ultra-contemporary" in reflecting and responding to the world and its culture now, Torra says. "Plus, it's goofy and funny, and welcoming, but you have to be careful with a Team Sunshine project. Humor is a means to prepare our audiences to receive and consider darker and sadder things."

Few essayist/performers are more exuberant than Mike Daisey, as skilled as a modern Will Rogers. Daisey was known positively for his snaky monologue "The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs" until he was found after a 2012 airing on NPR's This American Life to have fabricated several facts. Daisey's response has been that what he does is not journalism. Brunson says she had to ask herself whether Daisey still has "a unique perspective and captivating storytelling style worth sharing with Philadelphia artists and audiences, despite the controversy. The answer is a resounding yes."

"What I love about storytelling is its universality and ubiquity," Daisey says. "We all tell stories, every day: novels, street-corners, memoirs and newspapers." There is nothing more newsworthy than the topic Daisey has chosen to share with FPA audiences: The Secret War, about those who have blown whistles throughout time, from the present (Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning) to the past (Daniel Ellsberg). No sooner had the news broken this summer on Snowden's NSA leaks than the monologuist knew what he had to do, without laying blame or judging whether crimes had been committed: "I needed to create a performance that spoke of the lineage of whistle-blowing, the evolution of our secrecy state, and examined how we all keep secrets."

Ask him if he divulges his own secrets in The Secret War, which he'll perform at 9 Friday and Saturday nights at Christ Church Neighborhood House and Daisey says audiences will have to show up to hear the story. "I hope we push back the darkness a little bit, and through the old arts of the theater tell a story together that makes us again believe human beings are capable of and called to something greater," he says. "Even if only a little bit of light is cast, that's the goal - to connect us more fully to each other and our selves."

Sounds like a First Person Arts party.