My name is Lauren Russo and I live in Charlottesville, Virginia. I am part of a three-woman organization, called Secretly Y’all, that puts on a monthly story-telling show here in Charlottesville. Once a month, we invite real people to tell real stories around a theme. The stories are sometimes funny, sometimes sad, and almost always engaging for our audience (which is usually between 75 and 100 people). You can find out more about us, including listen to podcasts of former month’s shows at http://secretlyall.wordpress.com.

I am writing because our March theme is At War, and I am extended invitations to Veterans’ organizations to tell their members about our show, and encourage them to both come and consider telling a story. You don’t have to be a professional storyteller or actor to tell your story, and we only want stories that are between 5 and 7 minutes long, so doesn’t represent a huge commitment. We would love to have a Veteran’s story represented in our line-up. Considering all they have experienced and sacrificed, we would feel honored if they shared a tiny bit of that experience with our (very respectful and open) audience. Our events are very powerful for the way they open up people’s experiences to an audience of people who would otherwise have no way of knowing what something is really like.

So, I have two humble requests for you. The first is if you could pass this along to anyone you might know in the Charlottesville area (perhaps by posting something about it on your blog?) who might be interested in attending and/or telling a story. And the second is if you think of anyone, either an organization or an individual, in Charlottesville that I could contact to further spread the word about our event and perhaps directly solicit a person to tell a story, I would appreciate it greatly.

You do great work with your website, and I look forward to keeping up with it.

Thank you!
Lauren Russo
Secretly Y’all
http://secretlyall.wordpress.com