Our Lineup in May Keeps the Dismay Away

Monday the 18th of May is the day! Come down to The Book Cellar at 7pm, and stay! (For a while.) Our lineup will slay with essay laser rays. And we’ll collect for 826CHI whatever you can pay. Hooray!

Britt Julious is an essayist and journalist born and bred in the city. She currently serves as a local music columnist for the Chicago Tribune and contributes regularly to The Guardian, Vice, and MTV News. She also hosts The Back Talk, an award-winning storytelling podcast featuring young women of color from across the country. She thanks Essay Fiesta for giving her a chance last year when she barely knew what storytelling meant.

By day, Britt Santos can be found at Southport Grocery dipping things in chocolate, wrapping up granola bars, and maintaining her coffee addiction. By night, she’s mostly trolling her writers group and pretending to write. Britt is currently querying agents for her young adult high-fantasy novel, The Divine Catalysts, and working on map-making tutorials for fellow high-fantasy buffs..

Ozzie Totten graduated from Loyola University Chicago in 2010 with a BA in Theatre Arts. He is a Company Member at 2nd Story, where he acts as the host and curator of the 2nd Story Podcast in addition to developing and performing his own stories. As an event producer, Ozzie has developed performance-based events at The Center on Halsted, City Winery Chicago, Webster Wine Bar, Hugen Hall, Mary’s Attic, Underground Wonder Bar, Spill the Wine, Morseland Café, Urban Village Church, and at Loyola University. He is currently following in his mother’s footsteps and working in real estate, with Access Chicago Realty in Wicker Park. Be on the lookout for the Access Podcast and all sorts of crazy e-blasts that he gets to develop for his boss. He’s having more fun than he ever thought possible. He’s also a die-hard Minnesota Twins fan, and spends his free time raising his 13 plants to grow up big and strong. He also joined a gay kickball league this summer, and has not gotten nearly as much ass as he was promised. But he’s very good at kickball, so that’s good.

David Barish has been telling stories for years in his day job representing injured people in workers’ compensation claims. He has also told stories where a suit and tie is not required. He has done so for Serving the Sentence, Story Sessions, Story Club, Oy Chicago, The Moth, and Home: a Festival of Storytelling. In June he will tell at Beth Emet’s Stories from the House of Truth. In July he will tell at Is this a Thing and in August for That’s All She Wrote.

Erin Kahoa is a professional writer, playwright, and the Co-Executive Producer of PleasureTown, a serial drama on the WBEZ podcast network. He also totally insists he’s done many other impressive things, but that list is far too long for the time constraints in which we find ourselves.