The Story Bean welcomes listeners and tellers to our events. You don’t need to plan to tell a story to attend and your presence as a listener is a valuable contribution to the community.

The first 30 minutes of every event is Teller sign up. There are 12 slots available at each event with alternates (if the other stories go short and there is remaining time). Sign ups are first come, first served, and you need to sign up in person.

Tellers will begin at the top of the hour and storytelling will continue for 90 minutes. Stories are first person and should be (mostly) true.

There is no minimum age to attend or contribute to an event for The Story Bean, however, if you plan to bring a young person to one of our events consider:

  • The Story Bean events are open mic and we don’t control the content of each story and don’t know the story that is going to be shared in advance.
  • Some stories are raw and may contain explicit details and/or language that aren’t necessarily content for ages 16 and younger.

There are a few additional things to keep in mind as a listener.

Please Do:

  • Listen, laugh, applaud: Feedback to the story while it’s being told is encouraged.
  • Connect: Love a story? Did it resonate? Please talk to tellers after the event and let them know.

Please Don’t:

  • Heckle/Interrupt: This is an open community event. There will be tellers of all ability levels. No negativity from the audience please!
  • Table talk: If you come to listen, please do. Please don’t talk to other people at your table during stories.
  • Leave in the middle of a story: We understand things come up and people will need to leave, use the restroom, get a refill during the event. Each story should be less than 8 minutes, please wait for one of these breaks to exit or enter the telling space.