Lower than two years in the past, a pricey buddy launched me to Higher Stated Than Achieved once they advised me concerning the Girls’s Storytelling Pageant. That single advice sparked a journey that fully reworked my relationship with the artwork of spoken phrase.
Attending my first Girls’s Storytelling Pageant in 2025 was an eye-opening expertise, beginning with the digital kickoff and shifting to the nice and cozy, sunlight-filled afternoon showcase on the Sherwood Group Middle in Fairfax. I used to be fully caught off guard by the visceral connection I felt. Listening to uncooked, intimate tales from outstanding storytellers, together with Founding Government Director Jessica Robinson herself, introduced a full vary of feelings: I sighed, I laughed, and I cried. It opened me to a brand-new world of artwork and left me feeling profoundly peaceable and linked.
Returning for my second yr on the 2026 competition solely cemented my love for the occasion. Over 4 days that includes greater than 16 hours of phenomenal materials, a various group of storytellers and emcees wove a wealthy tapestry of the feminine expertise. From lighthearted yarns to heartbreaking reminiscences, the competition served as a therapeutic reminder of how storytelling cultivates empathy and bridges generational and cultural divides.
My ardour for the group grew even stronger after attending their Rainbows and Unicorns – Tales of Love and Hope occasion in Falls Church in June. By that time, I had fully fallen in love with Higher Stated Than Achieved, its welcoming group, and the timeless artwork of storytelling itself. So after I heard that Jessica had been nominated for a well-deserved award, I jumped on the probability to interview her, permitting me to spotlight the visionary chief behind the group that has introduced a lot heat, connection, and inspiration to my life.
Under is a part of the dialog I had with Jessica Robinson, the latest recipient of the Nationwide Storytelling Community’s ORACLE Award for Distinguished Nationwide Service on the NSN Convention in Texas. This recognition highlights her devoted work in creating platforms for underrepresented voices by the artwork of storytelling.
My Dialog with Higher Stated Than Achieved’s Jessica Robinson
Kendall Mostafavi: How was the occasion in Texas? Are you able to inform me just a little bit concerning the award?
Jessica Robinson: It’s an annual convention, and the ORACLE Awards ceremony is held there yearly and contains speeches and a live performance for the storytellers. The Nationwide Storytelling Community is a very nice group. They’re very progressive, which I admire as a result of our values align.
It was a heartwarming award ceremony. The one that went proper earlier than me acquired an award for regional service. He acquired up there and thanked the Nationwide Storytelling Community for embracing variety, fairness, and inclusion, noting that not many arts organizations are doing that proper now.
That wasn’t my speech, however I want it was as a result of it was all the things I used to be pondering. To have a complete group of individuals arise and say, “That is what we consider,” and to get an award from people who find themselves strongly dedicated to inclusivity and platforming various storytelling, was very nice.
I admire that they admire what I’m making an attempt to do, as a result of they’re additionally making an attempt to do it.
I get it. It’s validating. How lengthy have you ever been storytelling?
I advised my very first story virtually 20 years in the past. It was in 2007 at Converse Simple DC, which is now Story District.
That’s superb. Do you have got a favourite story?
Effectively, the humorous factor is that the very first story I advised is considered one of them. After I was invited to carry out at Jonesborough, which is an enormous Nationwide Storytelling Pageant, I really took that first story, made it higher, after which carried out it there.
In order that’s a enjoyable one. However at this level I’ve been telling for therefore lengthy. I imply, I’ve a guide that’s a group of 25 of simply my private tales. So it’s form of laborious to say that there’s one which’s a favourite.
My first solo present can be one other one. It was the primary time I advised a complete hour lengthy present on my own. That’s one other favourite story simply because it went properly and I preferred the problem.
Then within the final seven or eight years, I’ve been experimenting.
Within the native storytelling world with Excellent Liars, Story Collider, The Moth, and all the opposite ones, everybody tells private tales. However on the nationwide stage, everybody tells all the things. So, since going to Jonesborough, I’ve been experimenting with telling folks tales, historic tales, and myths. I’ve been actually having fun with that.
Had been you shocked to get this award or did you have got an thought it was coming?
It was fully surprising. The man who nominated me was Rishi Nixon, who you noticed at Rainbows and Unicorns. He advised the story concerning the formation of rainbows initially of that final present. Rishi is the outgoing president of the Nationwide Storytelling Community, and he nominated me for my work with Higher Stated Than Achieved and the Girls’s Storytelling Pageant. In his nominating letter, he stated the award acknowledges nationwide service as a result of Higher Stated Than Achieved’s mission aligns with the Nationwide Storytelling Community’s objective of giving various voices a platform and making storytelling inclusive.
With the Pageant, we try to supply a nationwide platform for girls. Girls are traditionally underrepresented in storytelling festivals on a nationwide stage, so we try to steadiness the scales.
How do you go about selecting who’s going to be featured in your Girls’s Pageant?
Now we have a committee consisting of most of our seven-person board. We evaluation the purposes blind to one another — although we do watch the movies. We use a 100-point scale, add the scores up, and focus on the top-ranked candidates to find out who might be featured, spotlighted, or regional tellers.
Does the board need to approve of their story earlier than they really carry out within the competition?
No. We let folks resolve what story that they need to inform. We do make a disclaimer that nothing is offensive. However for essentially the most half, we haven’t had an issue.
That was going to be my subsequent query: Have you ever ever had a difficulty with somebody being inappropriate, as a result of folks’s perspective on what’s and isn’t acceptable has such a large spectrum relying on their very own experiences?
Not with individuals who’ve been chosen for the competition. And I feel it’s as a result of in the event that they’ve been chosen they perceive what we’re searching for.
Within the early days, we had a variety of purposes from individuals who had been audio system or authors, not individuals who inform tales. It took a couple of years to weed out some individuals who didn’t perceive what we had been doing.
We put it on the market on our web site that we’re inclusive, that we now have a various vary of storytellers, and that we’ll not abide anybody being racist or homophobic. We’ve misplaced followers over time; particularly, a few years in the past, after I despatched out an electronic mail saying variety makes us all higher and as a company we embrace that, a few of our followers unsubscribed. However these folks is not going to apply to the Girls’s Pageant and aren’t the viewers we’re searching for.
You talked about doing an hour-long present, which appears like a one-woman present to me. Would you contemplate that stay theater, or do you view storytelling as a totally totally different animal? How would you distinguish the 2 — is it purely a distinction in content material?
That’s a part of the issue, proper? What is storytelling? After I educate storytelling, I inform folks that Mike Birbiglia‘s or Hasan Minhaj‘s comedy specials are storytelling exhibits. They’re known as “comedy specials” as a result of there’s extra cachet and cash in being a profitable comic, however what makes it a storytelling present is that they’re telling an entire story from starting to finish — even when there are jokes in it.
I name my performances “solo exhibits” or “one-woman exhibits,” however what makes it a storytelling present, versus The Vagina Monologues or one thing comparable, is that I’m not performing per se. I’m not studying from a script; I’m studying from a script in my head. I’m speaking on to the viewers, saying, “Right here’s my story,” and it adjustments primarily based on the viewers’s response as a result of I’m taking part in myself, not a personality. I’m telling my story immediately with no fourth wall. In that manner, it’s extra like a comedy particular than a play.
In contrast to a play, it’s reactionary and interactive. In case you are in a play — even a one-woman present the place you’re doing a monologue — you aren’t going to vary what you say if the viewers yells out, as a result of in lots of circumstances, you’ll be able to’t; you aren’t allowed to vary the script. However in a storytelling present, I’m standing there as me.
For instance, I’ve advised a variety of tales the place one thing actually unhappy occurs. I’ve a narrative that I simply advised on the NSN convention about my dad dying. In it, he’s telling me about his early years, and in his personal voice, he says one thing about being married to my mother: he would get dwelling, the home was a large number, and he’d ask, “What was she doing all day? She didn’t have a job.” Everybody all the time laughs. After I wrote that, it was my dad’s real frustration about the home not being clear, nevertheless it has since turn out to be a line that I do know persons are going to giggle at. Issues like that don’t change the story, however they modify my response as a result of I do know it’s going to be humorous, regardless that I didn’t know it will be humorous after I wrote it.
When are you aware that an expertise you have got goes to be a narrative? Is there a light-weight bulb that goes off in the intervening time? Or do you normally have an occasion that you just’re planning for and also you return and also you ponder again in your recordsdata of reminiscences for what to make use of?
Sure, each these issues. You undergo one thing and assume, “That is so ridiculous, I’ve to inform folks about it.”
However different occasions, somebody may ask if it’s okay to inform a narrative a couple of sexual assault, and I’ll say sure, so long as there’s one thing to be discovered from it or some progress within the story.
Lots of people with private tales go proper to the tragic, and that’s okay, however there needs to be a degree — progress, a lesson discovered, or one thing the viewers can take away apart from “that sucked and was terrible.”
These are the tales the place I cease and assume, “Is that this a narrative, or is it only a horrible factor that occurred?” I’ve been doing this for nearly 20 years, and I do know many different storytellers — lots of whom additionally educate — and we speak about this on a regular basis. We focus on the concept of telling a narrative out of your scars, not your wounds. I didn’t make that up, however you must by no means get on stage and work by an damage. Try to be getting on stage and telling us about one thing you have got discovered, grown, or healed from, not one thing that’s nonetheless an open wound.
Storytelling isn’t remedy; it’s a efficiency. You do have to contemplate the viewers. In the event you simply have ache that you just need to share, that’s the place you go to a therapist’s workplace. After I ask, “What’s the level of the story?,” folks usually say, “I simply need to inform a shaggy dog story.” That’s superb as a result of humor is a legitimate level, so long as it’s a narrative and never only a fart joke. Giving the viewers laughter is a byproduct that counts.
Can you share what the theme is for the subsequent Lady’s Storytelling Pageant. Or is {that a} high-valued secret?
We don’t typically do themes for the Girls’s Storytelling Pageant. We did have a theme for final yr, America 250, however I don’t actually have a theme this yr. I simply confirmed our final storyteller an hour in the past, and he or she was asking the identical factor. I advised her it’s not essentially about having a theme; I like to think about it as tales that solely ladies can inform. You may inform a Jack story — that humorous character who’s all the time messing issues up — however make it a couple of girl, make a girl the primary character, or give it a twist that comes from the expertise of being feminine.
You may have your 15-year anniversary arising at Jammin’ Java. How did you choose the audio system for that occasion?
For our common month-to-month exhibits, I ship an electronic mail to everybody who has advised a narrative with us in recent times, letting them find out about upcoming exhibits, they usually attain out in the event that they’d prefer to carry out. The issue is that there are extra storytellers than we now have area for; that’s the humorous factor about storytelling being well-liked proper now. There are such a lot of storytellers who need to carry out on a regular basis, and we simply don’t have sufficient exhibits. Plus, there are different teams like Tales and Ales in Loudoun County and Story Excessive in Alexandria, and there’s a ton of exercise in DC. Since there are solely six to eight folks on stage at any given time, the exhibits normally replenish in a short time as soon as I ship these emails. In the event that they don’t, I put out a name in our publication for an open casting.
For the 15-year anniversary, we handled it a bit like casting the Girls’s Pageant, besides clearly not restricted to ladies. I went to the board and requested, “That is our celebration; who do you need to see?” Everybody chimed in with folks they needed again.
That’s actually enjoyable. I’m trying ahead to it and have already got my ticket.
Thanks a lot for talking with me tonight. I’ve beloved attending to know extra about your historical past and storytelling as a topic on the whole.
Signing Off
Getting to speak with Jessica about her storytelling expertise, her many accomplishments, and her years of laborious work and dedication to Higher Stated Than Achieved’s mission was nothing wanting inspiring. And whereas that was the tip of the official interview, we did proceed to speak about Higher Stated Than Achieved’s upcoming occasions (which I’ll hyperlink to beneath), together with a Halloween-in-the-park occasion for youths on October 30. After I requested Jessica what sort of tales she tells for the children, I acquired a non-public preview of a hilarious, spooky-light story that could be a favourite of the little ones.
Jessica presents a transparent take a look at the guts behind Higher Stated Than Achieved — a platform constructed on empathy, group, and the transformative energy of genuine private narrative. Her recognition with the Nationwide Storytelling Community’s ORACLE Award is a testomony to almost 20 years of tireless work opening doorways for underrepresented voices and elevating the craft of spoken phrase. As Higher Stated Than Achieved prepares to have a good time its milestone fifteenth anniversary, her ardour for fostering connection by story continues to light up the native and nationwide arts panorama, inviting viewers members and storytellers alike right into a welcoming group.
I’ll shut with Jessica’s personal phrases, from her acceptance speech from the Nationwide Storytelling Community’s ORACLE Award Ceremony:
After I began Higher Stated Than Achieved 15 years in the past, considered one of our core group requested, what’s our mission? What are we along with being a storytelling present? What units us aside?
Somebody stated “kindness.” After which everybody agreed. We’d create a storytelling group constructed on kindness.
Horrible branding, however nice core worth.
Over time, kindness has led us to making an attempt to create a protected area for everybody to really feel welcome to share their tales and that led to inclusion, as a result of you’ll be able to’t create a protected area if it isn’t protected for all.
To expertise this vibrant group firsthand and have a good time 15 years of extraordinary storytelling, remember to catch Higher Stated Than Achieved’s upcoming milestone present.
Huzzah! 15 Years of Storytelling performs on September 3, 2026, produced by Higher Stated Than Achieved, acting at Jammin’ Java, situated at 227 Maple Ave E., Vienna, VA. Tickets ($27 basic admission, together with a $7 payment) can be found for buy on-line or on the door. For extra details about Higher Stated Than Achieved, go to their web site and take a look at their calendar for different upcoming occasions.
