VALLEY VOICES PODCAST

NEPM’s latest Valley Voices podcast presents the winners of our Story Slam on the theme “Elementary”. We let the storytellers elaborate on what that meant to them, and then invited them up on stage at the Shea Theater in Turners Falls. The audience favorites that night were Nina Brand, Jeff Conant and Ami Jackson.

NEPM’s latest Valley Voices podcast presents the winners of our Story Slam on the theme of Valley Folklore that we hosted at the Iron Horse in Northampton. The Pioneer Valley of western Massachusetts is a very particular place, with lots of folks who have tales to tell about it. The audience favorites that night were Susan Cocalis, Bryan Tawney and Molly Snyder.

NEPM is celebrating 10 years of hosting nights of live storytelling that we call Valley Voices Story Slams. For the first slam in our 10th season, we figured we wanted to be “toasted” - whether that’s a clink of champagne glasses, or something very different! Here are the three winners from that night in Studio A at NEPM in Springfield, MA - Ann Marie Zanfagna, Chris Bell and Julia Mitchell.

This time on the Valley Voices Story Slam podcast: We had 10 winners of season 9’s Story Slams up on stage at the Academy of Music in Northampton. And now we present to you - the Best of Season 9! There were great stories all year long, but Angela Combest, Julia Mitchell and Dave Fromm were the audience’s favorite that night. Enjoy!

For our final Summer Short story of the 2024 season, we bring you Susan Bartfay and her story “Bad boys are my weakness”. Some people just have to recount things that happened in their life to bring a really incredible story to the stage. Susan told this one at our “Pot Luck” story slam that we held at our NEPM studios in Springfield. We’re making plans for season 10 of Valley Voices Story Slams at venues throughout western Mass. this fall - hope to see you there!

Rachel Leventhal Weiner is up next in NEPM’s Summer Short podcast series. She takes out an old personal memory set to the back drop of a quite public memory that we all share. Enjoy “Girl Meets Boy” from our “Missed Connections” story slam last fall.

This week in NEPM’s Valley Voices Summer Shorts podcast series, we reach back to our Whodunit? story slam last fall to hear from Judy Gutlerner and the life perspective she got from a household mixup.

Kenneth Mulder is up next in NEPM’s Summer Shorts podcast series with his quirky story “Lost in Translation”. Kenneth brings us his secret of talking to the animals, and listening to them too. Extra bonus points for the sound effects!These stories come from our Valley Voices story slams throughout the year — even if you didn’t make it to the slam, we didn’t want you to miss them!

Andrew Shelffo was part of a night of stories on the theme “Pot Luck” that NEPM hosted at our Springfield studios last spring. His story “A family reunion” spanned many years and almost as many emotions.NEPM’s Summer Shorts podcasts are taken from our Valley Voices story slams throughout the year — even if you didn’t make it to the slam, we didn’t want you to miss them!

Lila West takes us to Europe this week for our Valley Voices Summer Shorts podcast. Told at our Road Trip story slam last fall, “Putting the international into harvester” is a story about a family trip, but it’s also about learning to accept some things that she thought she never would. NEPM’s Summer Shorts podcasts are taken from our Valley Voices story slams throughout the year — even if you didn’t make it to the slam, we didn’t want you to miss them!