GM and The Moth partner to bring storytelling venue to Detroit and Ann Arbor

General Motors is taking storytelling on the road this fall with The Moth’s Pop-up Porch coming to Detroit and Ann Arbor trailing behind a Chevrolet Silverado heavy-duty pickup built at the Flint Assembly plant.

The Moth is the storytelling nonprofit behind the popular Moth Radio Hour and The Moth Podcast. As the Detroit Free Press first reported two years ago, GM partnered with The Moth to hold storytelling workshops at GM for groups of GM employees and to sponsor other Moth events. The carmaker wants to create a culture of inclusion and it views storytelling as a tool to help build empathy among colleagues.

“We are still doing the MothWorks workshops with employees,” Chloe Kerr, director of GM’s DEI Communications, told the Free Press. “We did four workshops last year, supporting dozens of employees in the development of their personal stories.”

Turn on the porch light, tell a story

The Moth Radio Hour is a weeklyseries aired through the Public Radio Exchange that features people telling true stories live onstage without scripts, notes or props. The national show is carried on 572 stations in the U.S., according to The Moth in a news media release. It can be heard in Detroit on WDET-FM (101.9) and Michigan Radio (91.7 FM). There is also a podcast available to download.

This fall, GM is sponsoring The Moth’s second annual Pop-Up Porch storytelling tour. The tour is inspired by The Moth’s origin, which is telling stories in the evening by porch light where the light draws moths.

The Pop-Up Porch is a custom-built home. By day, it is used for sharing stories, listening to tales from The Moth’s archives and participating in one-on-one coaching with The Moth’s staff. By evening, it turns into a stage to feature performances, collaborations and engagements with community groups and local radio partners.

Share a story and form a connection

As part of the local programming, The Moth will also host a special one-off StorySLAM, which is a storytelling competition. Anyone can put their name in a hat to be chosen to share a five-minute story on that evening’s theme.

“Our goal with the Pop-Up Porch is to inspire people across the country to tell their stories,listen to those of others, and experience the sense of connection that is fostered through thisexchange,” Sarah Haberman, executive director of The Moth, said in a statement. “Last year, The Moth Pop-UpPorch toured the South, engaging with over 5,000 storytellers and community members for afirst-of-its-kind storytelling experience.”

Last fall, the Pop-Up Porch and GM traveled to Tulsa, Oklahoma; Jackson, Mississippi; Birmingham, Alabama; Dallas; New Orleans, and Atlanta.

“As we continue our journey to be the most inclusive company at GM, we believe thateveryone has a story,” GM’s Kerr said. “It’s the power of those stories that continues to influence change and become a unifying force in society.”