Storytellers and listeners packed Fair Trade Cafe Wednesday night to attend The Final Show from local storytelling show Chatterbox after it was announced last week it would be retired.
“Chatterbox is retiring because I am looking to do something a little larger but more intentional with the community surrounding mental health which is something I’m very passionate about,” said Jessie Balli, the founder and creator of Chatterbox.
While Balli has not fully come to terms with the show’s retirement, she still greatly appreciated the community and the people that attended Wednesday nights to speak or listen.
“I’m thankful for the opportunity. It’s been such a huge part of my life,” Balli said. “A really good, wise friend told me, ‘It’s always hard to walk away from something you created because it’s a part of you. So when you walk away, you walk away from a part of yourself.’”
Balli started a storytelling open mic Yarn Ball with two friends in 2014. As the group evolved, the three of them creatively split paths and Balli took Yarn Ball with her to The Grand on Central Avenue and changed the name to Chatterbox. The open mic has been held at the Fair Trade Cafe since 2017.
“I was in a really abusive relationship when I came to storytelling five years ago and it really kind of silenced my voice,” she said. “I really wanted to find out who I was again, so through storytelling it helped me find my voice again and my identity of who I was.”
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Chatterbox is one of a few storytelling groups in Phoenix, but unlike other groups, Chatterbox puts a twist on their criteria.
While anyone can step up to the mic and tell their story, Chatterbox puts one rule on the table; the story has to fit with the theme of the evening.
Past themes have been long distance, birthday and dirty little secrets.
The theme for the final show was empowerment.
Storytellers took the mic, one shared a memory of when she fought against the Federal Aviation Administration after they changed commercial flight paths to fly over her neighborhood. Another told of how she left New York City with her son after witnessing the September 11th terrorist attacks through her kitchen window.
Estevan Piña joined the Chatterbox team as a co-host with Balli last year, and became interested in storytelling from watching Balli speak one night.
After attending a few shows and watching other storytellers, Piña helped with setup and takedown for the show until Balli asked him to co-host with her.
“It’s a community based in honesty and transparency,” he said. “We encourage people to tell their own story, their truth.”
Piña said his favorite part of Chatterbox was how unique their shows were and having the theme allowed storytellers to get creative and build off of each other’s stories, taking the theme in a new direction.
“We have a theme in mind and then the first storyteller tells and then the next storyteller goes, ‘I have something along the same lines,’ and we just watch the show evolve,” Piña said.
After Chatterbox, Piña is planning to continue going to other Phoenix storytelling nights and to create a podcast with guest storytellers.
Sammie Sanchez, another regular storyteller at Chatterbox, became involved with the group through Piña.
“I’ve learned so much about myself through other people’s stories,” she said. “Hearing people talk about their own struggles have actually opened my eyes to things I was going through.”
Sanchez said her biggest takeaway from Chatterbox was listening to other storytellers relating to the struggles they were going through.
“It’s been such a wonderful experience to be here and to experience other people’s lives from their stories and meet people I would’ve never gotten to know otherwise,” she said. “I always leave Chatterbox with this uplifted feeling.”
Balli said Chatterbox was never about her or the stories she tells. It was more about the community and the people who come every Wednesday to tell their own stories. She said walking away from Chatterbox will be bittersweet.
“I’ll miss it but I’m really thankful for everyone that trusted me enough to run this show and open up,” she said. “I know that I’m walking away to do other things and have other projects, but it will never be like that again.”
Contact the reporter at smedwar7@asu.edu.
Sara Edwards was the executive editor of Downtown Devil. She is a graduate student at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Sara has additional bylines in Phoenix New Times, West Valley View, L.A. Downtown News and Boardwalk Times.
Sara is also the co-secretary for the Multicultural Student Journalists Coalition.
