KSWorkshop
Storytelling for artists, scientists, businesspeople, nerds, performers, and even shy people
Who should take this? Anyone who has to pitch (themselves, a product, or service), perform, present, talk in public, or persuade/sell/impact others through stories and the art of telling stories. Note: priority given to APIAA-identified attendees and POC-identified attendees, although this workshop is open to any and all people.
Class Schedule: MONDAYS 8/7, 8/14, 8/21, 8/28 7:00-9:00pm
Tuition: $150
Note: If the class does not meet the minimum number of registered students, it will be canceled.
Taught by Dhaya Lakshminarayanan host of The Moth in San Francisco. She has appeared multiple times on NPR’s Snap Judgment and The Risk Podcast. Previously, she has taught storytelling at Adidas, Reebok, Intuit, Marin Public Library, and 1:1 to clients in both the businessworld and performance world.
At night Dhaya is a professional comedian who has opened for Greg Proops, Norm MacDonald, Maz Jobrani, Janeane Garofalo, Dick Gregory and more. She is the 2016 winner of the Liz Carpenter Political Humor Award (previously awarded to Samantha Bee, Wanda Sykes and satirist/humorist Mark Russell) presented by the National Women’s Political Caucus. KQED named her one of the twenty “Women to Watch” a series celebrating women artists, creatives and makers in the San Francisco Bay Area who are pushing boundaries in 2016. The SF Weekly named her one of the “16 Bay Area performers to watch in 2016.” She was named one of “The Bay Area’s 11 Best Standup Comedians” by SFist. The San Francisco Bay Guardian named her Best Comedian 2013 in the “Best of the Bay” Readers’ Poll. Comedy Central Asia crowned her the Grand Prize Winner of “The Ultimate Comedy Challenge” filmed in Singapore. You can watch her clips or attend a show by checking out www.dhayacomedy.com
Philosophy: Storytelling is an art and a science. Stories are powerful because they make us feel and imagine, therefore:
• Best practices and tools are ubiquitous, but the best way to become a better storyteller is to do it and iterate
• The class will be about telling not writing
• The days will involve laughing, listening, moving, and group participation
• Most people attend way too many meetings and stare at too many PowerPoint slides. This class is not about sitting on our butts and taking notes or looking at slides. It is after all, taught by a comedian
• Each member of the workshop a particular strength or style in storytelling, so Dhaya will not teach everyone in the same way way. We will look for the strengths in others, not “constructive criticism” which is you have ever taken a class is almost always awful.