A man and a woman fall in love, with another woman.

A man and a woman fall in love, with another woman. A camp counselor learns about more than just teenage angst. A Los Angeles publicist seeks deeper truths in New York. These are the stories that will be told this Sunday, June 30, during a free performance at the Greenwood neighborhood’s Makeda Coffee beginning at 6:00 p.m.

The showcase is part of the modern storytelling outfit the Verbalists, which is a curated group of storytellers who perform original work under the rehearsed collaboration of a director. Verbalists’ storytelling shows bear resemblance to The Moth and This American Life, and have been produced in venues across the Pacific Northwest, including at 826 Seattle – the Greenwood writing and tutoring center created by the author Dave Eggers.

The Verbalists creator, Wesley K. Andrews (a personal friend who cast me in a prior Verbalists showcase, Hey Wes!), founded the collaborative to bring live, original, modern storytelling to the Seattle area.

Sunday’s particular event at Makeda’s will include three stories: two opening acts, one from Jacob Brown-Beach and one from the Verbalists’ founder Andrews. It will also include a new, feature length story from M. L. Lyons, who holds an MFA from the University of Washington and who moonlights as a faculty member at Shoreline Community College.

Brown-Beach will read, “Wounded Knee Revisited,” which chronicles his time working at a summer camp for teens, and the spiritual growth he gained along the way. Andrews will showcase portions from his show, Everything Everything Everything, which premiered last year during Seattle’s Heineken City Arts Fest. The full-length version of Everything Everything Everything is best described by the show’s subtitle – “a love triangle, a buddy comedy, a road movie” – and is booking a touring schedule now, with some dates set for this fall.  

But the evening’s foremost story, told by Lyons, recounts a brave undertaking. In her story, Lyons leaves the shallow Los Angeles publicity world – where she spent time “Living in traffic,” sidestepping screen plays slid beneath bathroom stalls, and chasing celebrity baby bumps – for deeper meaning in New York city.

For Lyons, Los Angeles was a kind of “reverse Dante’s hell” in which people live “to leave a lasting memory that looks good in classic black and white photos and reads well in the obituary column.” In New York, Lyons’ tells us, “It positively reeks. Every scent clamors for your undivided attention like teenagers on steroids and you can’t help, but give it.” There she mingles with fact checkers from The New Yorker and “Slavic models feigning indifference” in pursuit of her writing dreams.

Even if the east coast versus west coast rivalry might be a bit overplayed in Lyons’ story, her written word is sincere and illuminating. The best stories are often honest ones. And Lyons is most certainly that.

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Trent Latta is an attorney and Seattle-based writer. He can be contacted at TrentLatta@gmail.com.