If you have a five-minute story on the theme of "Neighborhood," and a burning desire to tell it, you're in luck. Starting Tue., Oct. 11, the nationally acclaimed storytelling series The Moth brings its StorySLAM to Pittsburgh.
It works like this: Prepare your story, show up at Club Café, and drop your name in a hat. If you're among the 10 names chosen, you'll stand (without notes!) before the audience, a three-judge panel and Dan Kennedy, who hosts The Moth's popular podcast. The highest-scoring teller joins the winners of nine subsequent monthly slams at Pittsburgh's GrandSLAM championship.
The Moth, founded 14 years ago in New York, has branched out with road events (including three SRO installments in Pittsburgh) and with slams in four cities. Pittsburgh is one of three additional towns with new Moth slams, the others being Louisville, Ky., and Ann Arbor, Mich.
Don't like "Neighborhood" as a theme? Try "Busted" (Nov. 15), "On the Road" (Dec. 13) or whatever comes after. 7 p.m. (8 p.m. stories). 56 S. 12th St., South Side. $5. themoth.org/events
-- Bill O'Driscoll
As anyone who visited pop-up bookstore Fleeting Pages this past spring knows, small presses thrive in Pittsburgh. Just around the corner from that month-long East Liberty project arrives a concentrated, one-day dose of books, chapbooks, mags, zines, journals and more from that same indie sensibility. The third annual Small Press Festival features the likes of Caketrain, Weave, The New Yinzer, Encyclopedia Destructica and Cyberpunk Apocalypse. Journal and fest-presenter Open Thread also hosts writers, comics artists and sellers, representatives of online literary journals and more. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sat., Oct. 8. 162 Sheridan Ave. (third floor), East Liberty. Free. www.spfpittsburgh.com (BO) … In his new exposé Dark Market (Knopf), best-selling author and journalist Misha Glenny examines the realm of cyber crime and how shifting trends in software development and information-sharing influence U.S. defense strategies. "The Obama regime regards America's largest digital companies to be strategic assets for national security, and so we see protection of commercial entities spilling over into the area of national security," says Glenny. World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh presents Glenny at the Bricolage theater space. His other books include McMafia: A Journey Through the Global Criminal Underworld. (Amy Kuhre) 6-8 p.m. Thu., Oct. 13. 937 Liberty Ave., Downtown. $15-25. 412-281-7970 or www.worldpittsburgh.org
