And the MASTER MOUTH OFF STORYTELLER IS…!

A heartfelt thank you and congratulations go out to all our competing storytellers who braved the stage at The Rondo and shared their souls at our First Annual Master Mouth-Off!

Here she is! Our first Master Mouth-Off Winner – Storyteller Jodi!

What a thrill it was to hand Storyteller Jodi the Master Mouth-Off microphone trophy! She is our first Master Mouth Off Winner – and she won our hearts again!

The evening was all that I hoped it would be – we had a full-house audience, entertaining and heart-felt stories followed by incredible live music!

Feast your eyes on the photos that show what I’m talking about! Thank you to our photographer, Lauren Hedges!

The evening’s stories began with a song. Guest Storyteller Satori Shakoor (not Shakira! #insidejoke) opened her mouth and let out a stirring, soulful, powerful anthemic prayer that had us all barely breathing and tearing up. She spoke of her journey into the life of an artist storyteller, and how she holds her passion and power for change on her sleeve right there beside her glowing heart.

Our competing storytellers were all nervous! Each of them did an outstanding job – those nerves didn’t win! The first storyteller was Joe who shared a very personal growing-up story about his family trips to Ottawa for the holidays. Joe shared with a courage that brought tears to our eyes. Thank you Joe!

Next up was storyteller Nathanya. Nathanya’s story was short and sweet, well-crafted, humourous and quite lovely. Her theme was Love. Storyteller Danah shared a holiday story about her scented licence, raw tarts and playdough filled gravy!

Guest Storyteller Dameon Wilburn had us gasping for air we were laughing so hard at her story about ‘Dark Vadar’. Both Dame and Satori took the stage and lit.it.on.fire!

Storytellers Jodi and Natasha rounded out our evening of stories, and shined a light on how human emotions – love, fear, and self-love – can move us to be our best.

In the end, our judges chose Storyteller Jodi as the first annual Master Mouth-Off Winner!

After a quick staging switch, the Soul Delegation blew the roof of the Rondo with their covers of hit funk songs by the greats like Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye. Indeed, we could not control our dancing!

Thank you again to the ACHF grant, the Rondo family, our sound guru Scott, Lauren, DJ Cam, the Soul Delegation, Satori, Dameon, our storytellers and all their family and friends, and to our long-standing, couldn’t-do-this-without-you sponsor Suede Productions.

Stay tuned for the podcast of this first annual Master Mouth -off, and details about our forthcoming shows!

PODCAST – THE LOVE EDITION!

Sweet goodness I know it’s taken three forevers to get these podcasts up and posted, but by golly, we’re on a roll!

Here is Mouth Piece Storytelling – The Love Edition!

The Love Edition took place on Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2015 at The Foundry Pub with special Guest Storyteller John Wing.

Click here for a blog post with photos about the incredible night!

The Master Mouth Piece for the Love Edition was Storyteller Natasha!

She will be competing at our Master Mouth-Off event on Sunday, December 4th, 2o16.

Please settle in and listen to our podcast for the Love Edition!

Click here for the Love Edition podcast! This podcast is posted via Soundcloud.

Thank you to our podcast guru Miss Lauren!

Mouth Piece – The Music Edition – Guest Storyteller & Musical Guests Announced!

Check it out rock stars! Our line-up for Mouth Piece Storytelling – The Music Edition is here! This will be a night of music and stories the likes of which you’ve never known!

Yes, we’ll be gathering at Phog Lounge (157 University Ave. W) in downtown Windsor to pump up the jams – and the stories. Special Guest Storyteller and the best dang radio host (from 93.9FM The River) around, Dan MacDonald will be delivering a story about music we will never forget. Dan has graced many stages including the Grown Ups Read Things They Wrote As Kids (if you’ve never heard of this incredible storytelling [remembering!] show, be sure to click on the link!) show stage as well as the hottest drag queen ever in the DRAG Trilogy by playwright Christopher Lawrence Menard over at the Korda Artistic Productions stage…and, well, golly, there’s just too many to mention! Let’s just say, Dan’s the man, and you’re gonna love him!

Because the theme of the event is MUSIC, we thought it would be fun to sprinkle some live music in the show between the storytelling (you think that’s a grand idea too! Super!). We’ll be starting the event at 7:30pm sharp with a surprise musical performance, followed by Dan’s story, and then we’ll get into the storytelling with YOU dear storytellers!

Special musical guests are cellist Nadine Deleury (have you ever heard the soul-shuddering sound of a cello?!) and blues guitarist Tom McWilliams. We’ve got classical. We’ve got blues. We’ve some surprises, and of course, DJ Cam will be spinning all nighty-night so BRING YOUR DANCING SHOES AND DANCE. That is, after you tell and/or listen to the STORIES ABOUT MUSIC!

As always, this event is FREE. Because stories need to be shared and heard with love between humans.

We’re hoping for 10 storytellers. The rules of the competition are the same. Click here to find out what they are!

We’ve got some fabulous prizes for the Master Mouth Piece – and don’t forget, if you win this honour, you’ll move on the compete in the Master Mouth Off this December.

Okay. So what kind of stories can you tell? ANYTHING RELATED TO MUSIC. The first song you *insert any magical and/or not-so-magical moment that happened with a song in the background*. The best concert you ever saw/experienced and why. Were you in a school music and you’re voice cracked – tell us this story? Did you audition for a musical and it was a disaster or a success? TELL US. Did you dream of meeting a famous musician – then you met him/her – what the heck happened?! Can you play a musical instrument – tell us the story of you learning how…oh, there are just so many stories where music is involved. Put on your favourite song – and start thinking of your story!

Oh, and did we mention we’d LOVE IT IF YOU STAYED TO DANCE? Please do! Make it a night out! Guess what – the next day is a holiday because it’s July 1st!!

Thanks all! Mark your calendars. Get your stories ready. Bring your dancing shoes. Let the stories about music rock us!

CBC Interview A Blast! #NPM2016

Our early  morning interview with Tony Doucette and the Windsor Morning team was a total blast! We were a bit bleary eyed, but nothing some Tim’s coffee couldn’t handle. (Oh, and a Nutella croissant too! Super yummy!)

Wild-eyed and ready to be interviewed!

Courtney had a few of her 15 minutes of fame reading her poem entitled ‘On The Road’.

Courtney reads her poem -LIVE!!

The interview flew by, as it always does, but we had a great conversation, talked about National Poetry Month, and the connecting of poets in the city at Mouth Piece.

Two poets!

Happy National Poetry Month! Thank you CBC Windsor Morning! Thank you Courtney!

Here’s the interview – listen in!!

Courtney & Vanessa on CBC Windsor Morning

Mouth Piece Storytelling – The Love Edition – Photos to Come!

The truth is I’m still feeling the love and emotion that exploded at Mouth Piece Storytelling – The Love Edition. From John Wing’s heartfelt and honest ‘how-I-met-my-wife’ story to goats and cats to self-love and Tinder (and everything in between!) the event was truly extraordinary!

Our gracious photographer Emma (check out her website here!) is working on all the photos she took. As soon as I get them, I’ll post them to the site!

The Master Mouth Piece of the Love Edition is storyteller Natasha G! Telling a comedic yet completely moving story about self-love, Natasha captured and squeezed all of our hearts!

Photo taken from Natasha’s FB!

In the meantime, here are a few photos that I found. If you have photos you’d like to share, please send them to shieldsvanessa@gmail.com and I’ll get them here on the site!

DJ Cam working his musical magic.

This was our first time at The Foundry Pub. It’s a match made in heaven! I hope that we can continue to hold our Mouth Piece events here!

Hosting makes me feel alive. And the Love edition – the storytellers and their stories – was a spiritual awakening for all of us! Host included!

One of the main reasons I started Mouth Piece Storytelling is because I believe that we each have stories to tell – but it goes deeper than that. As human beings who are born to  live and love, it’s a necessary human act of being to want to share our stories. That Mouth Piece can offer a theme, a stage, and an audience that is supportive and loving, means that there’s a space for storytellers to experience that deep connection to their history, to themselves and to the humans in the room!

The stories shared at the Love Edition were extraordinary. The energy in the air was magical and unconditional. I’m grateful for everyone who came to share and support. Thank you!
For the first time in Mouth Piece Storytelling history, we hit our 10-storyteller goal! As well, each storyteller was a first-time Mouth Piece participant. Let’s make that happen again, shall we? Thank you to all ten brave, beautiful, honest storytellers! We love you!

I was given this napkin quote at the end of the show! So perfect! What a proud moment!

Our next Mouth Piece Storytelling event is Monday, April 11, 2016. (Location TBA…with hopes that it’ll be at The Foundry Pub again!) The theme is ‘The Road’ – in honour of National Poetry Month (which has the same theme!). More details to come, but you should know that our Guest Storytellers represent the three main poetry collections in Windsor: Toast Open Mic, Windsor Poetry Slam and Free Verse. I’m so damn pumped to get this trifecta of poetic bliss together under one roof!

As a reminder, all Mouth Piece Storytelling events are sound recorded. We are editing our December and February shows currently. Thanks for your patience regarding the podcasts!

Mouth Piece – Home For the Holidaze Edition – A Wild Success!

I tell ya – Windsor Storytellers – YOU ROCK MY WORLD!! We had another incredible storytelling event this past Tuesday at Vesta Pizzeria! The restaurant was packed! Folks came to eat, drink and tell stories! We had eight brave storytellers take the stage and share stories that made us think, laugh, cringe, oooh and ahhh!

Our day began dark and early in the CBC studios with the Windsor Morning team to talk about Mouth Piece. As always, the studio was warm and cozy, and the questions were great! Thanks to Peter Duck, Mike Evans and the rest of Windsor Morning Team!

Here’s a link to the show so you can hear it! Thanks again CBC Windsor Morning! (You too Jonathan Pinto!)

Our set up at Vesta Pizzeria & Antipasto Bar was warm and festive. DJ Cam brought his sweet gear, and we set for the show!

We pride ourselves on making our set-up match the theme! All for you storytellers and audience!!

The magic mic. Work it!

The gear!!

Starting the storytelling with an honest, vulnerable, heart-felt story about her wanderlust beginnings, photographer/tour guide and Guest Storyteller Sandi Wheaton quoted Pico Iyer and reminisced about sailors. Such a wonderful story! Thank you Sandi!

Guest Storyteller Sandi Wheaton.

Sweet Sandi also told us a very funny joke – here’s the visual punchline!

We had 8 storytellers (well, 9 if you count when my hubby got up to share!) who were a bit shy to start, but after several musical interludes by DJ Cam, folks signed their lives away and took to the mic!

Our list of storytellers for the Home for the Holiday edition is:

Melissa

Tracey

Collin

Alice

Abriel

Cheryl

Danah

Judy

Storyteller Abriel – Being an ‘adult’ at Christmas isn’t all it’s cracked up to be!

Storyteller Alice – holding her head over spilt wine!

Storyteller Cheryl – a repeat Mouth Piece participant (we love that!) – shares her Griswald-esqu holiday dinner story.

Storyteller Collin – another repeat Mouth Piece participant, and the only male to share! – recounts a questionable comment from his grandmother…and a flash photo of his soon-to-be mother-in-law!

Storyteller Danah shares about her almost-criminal pre-Christmas brush with the law…and other oopsy moments!

Storyteller Judy is sure she was the sexiest gal to ever have her garders snap and her stockings fall…

Storyteller Melissa learns the loud way – not to toast raisin bagels for her father-in-law!

Storyteller Tracey tells us about a Christmas in Cali…booze, bikes and a-ha moments!

It was a close competition with everyone sharing entertaining and beautiful stories. Poor audience has a hard task to choose a winner!

The Master Mouth Piece for the Home for the Holidaze edition is:

STORYTELLER DANAH!

First-time Mouth Piece storyteller Danah made the crowd roar with laughter with her winning story!

Oh such fun we had! Hosting, as usual, was a complete blast! I told some bad jokes, quoted our favourite holiday films, and shared a story about my soggy childhood leotards !

After the stories were told, DJ Cam played some of our favourite music and we danced into the night!

A Mouth Piece thank you to everyone who made this event another grand success! To the storytellers, the audience, the staff at Vesta (Orlando, Rio and Alexa), CBC Windsor Morning, The Windsor Star, our sponsors Suede Productions, photographers Marty Gervais and Steve Kriemadis, and the hottest volunteer ever Nick (my hubby!) – THANK YOU!

See you at the next Mouth Piece event…