New Spokane storytelling event Pivot helps build community

On the eve of Pivot’s first storytelling event in February, the organization’s treasurer Jennifer Knickerbocker panicked. She considered hiding some of the 300 chairs she had just rented.

“When we did the first main stage event, we had no website and only two weeks to let people know about it,” Knickerbocker said. “I thought there was no way we’re going to fill all those empty seats.”

The chairs remained. Pivot’s first event turned out to be standing room only.

“I shouldn’t have been surprised. Telling stories is cool, it’s emotional, it’s funny, it’s sweet, it’s horrible,” Knickerbocker said. “Telling stories is everything.”

A new set of Pivot storytellers are ready to give it their everything on Thursday at the Washington Cracker Co. building. The second Pivot, called “Secrets,” will feature personal stories told by Mark Robbins, Christopher Horsethief, Lynda Rypien, Eugene Jablonsky, Isaac Grambo, Liz Rognes and Ben Faulkner.

Knickerbocker’s day job as the grants administrator for the nonprofit Spokane Arts already puts her in a position to promote local arts and culture. Taking on volunteer duties in her spare time as an organizer for Pivot allows her to go deep on an art form that has a special place in her heart and heritage: storytelling.

She is an enrolled member of White Earth Nation from the Midwest, and is a descendant of the Anishinaabe peoples. Her nonfiction writing has appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies, including Chicken Soup for the Soul, Mamalode, Brain Child, Greater Days, and in live performances at the Bing Crosby Theater. She teaches her children her tribe’s stories so they can pass them on to the next generation.

“My family could not be enrolled into the tribe until we learned our stories,” Knickerbocker said. “My grandfather did that for us. Storytelling is at the core of who I am.”

The journey to learn her tribe’s stories took her family years. Her father was ripped from his native roots at the age of 10, when he was adopted by white parents and forced to work in the fields. After leaving his home on the reservation, his birth certificate was destroyed, and he stopped speaking for five years. It was not until he had children of his own that he was able to find his biological parents and connect Knickerbocker and her siblings to their tribe and its stories.

Knickerbocker believes stories have the power to change lives. To be enlightened is to change, or pivot. “It’s not just the pivot in the story. It’s the pivot caused in you,” she said. “You’ve found something or now you know something that has changed your trajectory.”

Spokane has a history of embracing the spoken word, from poetry slams and comedy slams to the beloved “Listen To Your Mother” storytelling event that happens annually on Mother’s Day at the Bing.

Judging by the ease with which seats and volunteer positions for Pivot have filled, it seems there has been pent-up demand for more venues in town where locals can throw down tales. Much of the storytelling movement can be attributed to The Moth. The original Moth is a nonprofit storytelling group that started 20 years ago in New York City.

“I think the community rallied to Pivot because so many people have already been thinking ‘Why don’t we have a Moth-like event here?’ ” Knickerbocker said.

The community members who have been working just as hard as Knickerbocker to bring to fruition Moth-style storytelling to Spokane include Joe Albert, Josh Armstrong, Luke Baumgarten, Rich Eichstadt, Debra Gore, Melissa Huggins, Brooke Matson, Eric Woodward, and Morgan Marum.

Gonzaga professors Albert and Armstrong are in charge of curating the shows and training the selected storytellers. Both Pivot organizers specialize in the areas of comprehensive and organizational leadership. Both have held storytelling exercises on campus for their students.

“We view Pivot as a community-building event,” Albert said. “What is most personal is most universal, and this theme is really at the heart of our hope to bring every voice in the community into our narrative.”

From stories about babies and families, to sex and death, the listeners at the last Pivot achieved a special sense of community. A pin-dropping silence was periodically punctuated by both tears and laughter.

“We laughed together, cried together, and when the stories were over, everyone just wanted to hug each other,” Knickerbocker said.