The Moth: StorySLAM — BEEF

Tue. Mar. 25, 2025 at 6:30 pm - 9:30 pm

Five-minute stories about bad blood. The petty grievances that drive you mad, the cold wars waged, long-standing grudges to petty spats, tell us about the rivalries that pushed your buttons. Whether it’s a feud with a neighbor, an old friend turned frenemy, or a silent standoff that’s gone on way too long. Blood-boiling showdowns to simmering passive-aggressive battles. Montagues and Capulets, Sharks and Jets, tell us about the grudges that just won’t quit.

6:30pm Doors Open | 7:30pm Stories Begin

Join us the fourth Tuesday of each month for the Boston Moth StorySLAM! This community-focused, open-mic storytelling competition is open to anyone can share a story on the night’s theme (changes every month).

The Arts at the Armory bar will be serving a special food menu including a selection of delectable house-made appetizers, in addition to wine, beer, and snacks.

*Seating is not guaranteed and is available on a first-come, first-served basis. Please be sure to arrive at least 10 minutes before the show. Admission is not guaranteed for late arrivals. All sales final.

Media Sponsors: PRX and WBUR

But: Life Isn’t Like That, Is It? with Boff Whalley

Tue. Mar. 25, 2025 at 7:00 pm

Boff Whalley performs But: Life Isn’t Like That, Is It? at the ROOTED Armory Café.

But: Life Isn’t Like That, Is It? is a new collection of stories by Boff Whalley, musician, author, and one of the founding members of the anarcho-punk band Chumbawumba and Commoners Choir. Join us for part reading, part gig, and part conversation.

This is a free event. Please click here to RSVP.

Life’s stories are always prone to disruption and digression, thwarting the neat storybook narrative we love so much.

Almost all of our stories follow the same basic pattern: beginning, middle, end: exposition, action, and climax. It’s a neat and tidy way of telling a story. But life’s not like that, is it? It doesn’t obey the rules. Life’s stories—like the stories told here in But, personal and impersonal, historical and contemporary—are punctuated by disruption, derailment, and digression.

Stories where the good guys lose. Stories where the bad girls win. Stories that just stop in the middle. Stories that fizzle out or simply never get going. Stories that don’t make sense. Stories that start where they should end and end where they start. Stories that go round in a cyclical loop, forever. Unfinished stories. Unstarted stories. Stories that stutter and mumble, that cough and splutter.

That’s what we have here in this book: real stories, that do all of the above. That’s why this book is called But. Because the but is there to disrupt the easy normality of the way we tell our stories. This book is a collection of stories about real lives, real people, and real life. Stuttering, wayward, disjointed, funny, ridiculous, and unplanned.

Get the book from PM Press or the night of the event.

www.boffwhalley.com