About Us

In 1985 Multnomah County librarian Sarah Stein posted a note on a library bulletin board

inviting anyone interested in storytelling to meet at her house. Eight people responded, including Ken Iverson, Roger Coles, Maureen Pedone, Mary Wiley, Meagan O’Flaherty, Alys Carrasco and Susan Fowles. These were the founders of the Portland Storytellers’ Guild. Ken Iverson had just been asked to tell monthly stories at Ezekiel’s Wheel restaurant in northwest Portland. He invited the other tellers to share the stage.

 

Word of mouth spread, audiences grew, and so did membership. People came wanting not just to hear stories –but to tell, as well. In honoring the centuries-old tradition of Guilds, PSG looked

beyond performances to ways where master tellers could share their craft with apprentice tellers.

And out of that, the monthly potluck/story swaps were born. Members met in one another’s

homes each month to break bread, share stories, and study the craft.

 

When Ezekiel’s Wheel closed, PSG moved through a series of venues, from coffee shops to

bookstores, to the community room at McMenamin’s Kennedy School. Within a few years, we

outgrew that venue and realized it was time to rent theater space and begin to charge for

performances. But in asking audiences to pay, we recognized the need to deliver professional level performances every month.

 

To address that challenge, PSG stepped more deeply into the function of a guild and created a

“three-legged stool” of storytelling where master tellers would pass on the craft to apprentice

tellers. The three legs include:

1. Story swap/potlucks: free, informal, fun monthly events where beginning

tellers tell a story in front of an audience for the first time, and experienced

tellers could work on new material. The Story Swaps also gave those interested,

but not ready to tell, a chance to hear a wide variety of stories told in varying

styles

2. Workshops: Topic-specific opportunities to learn various aspects of craft.

3. Professional level storytelling: When tellers are ready, they are invited to join Master and

Journeyman level tellers in our monthly paid professional venue. As of 2024, PSG has grown from the eight original tellers to over fifty members, many telling at a professional level.

 

Hipbone Studios was the first of three venues PSG rented. From there, we moved to Clinton

Street Theater in 2017 where performances were held monthly from September through May until February 2020 when, in a remarkable pivot, in response to the quarantines caused by the Covid virus, PSG quickly moved performances and swaps to Zoom.

 

With the plague years behind us, PSG is live once again. Performances are offered on the second Saturday of the month from September through June at The Artichoke; story swaps continue year-round on the second Friday of each month at St Phillip Neri Church.