UPCOMING EVENTS
To submit your story please email a short story synopsis and bio to secretlyall@gmail.com
NOTHING COMPARES October 16 @Brambly Park
TALES FROM THE CRYPT July 10 @Brambly Park
The roots of the word “crypt” stretch back through ancient Greek into unknown origins, generally with a meaning of “to hide,” or “hidden.” Thus, we are seeking stories of who is hiding what from whom, and why.
So do we want your spooky cemetery ghost encounter stories? Yes absolutely. Are we open to a general airing out of the skeletons that you or someone you know has kept locked away in your basement closet? Heck yes! Do we have some medical folks out there who want to share a story based on the anatomical usage of the word crypt to denote “a blind alley, a tube with no exit, a depression, or a pit in an otherwise fairly flat surface,” such as a wacky tale based on around someone’s tonsillar crypts? Yes, yes we do.
Bring us those stories of unexplainable apparitions, prophecies from the great beyond, secrets that have been locked up tight, messages wafting up through six feet of dirt, happy or hapless haints, portals to another world, and what remains when all that appears to remain are bones….
Send a brief story synopsis and bio to secretlyall@gmail.com to be considered for the Setlist.
THE BIRDS & THE BEES May 15 @Brambly Park
Spring is in the air! The flowers are starting to bloom, the bugs are beginning to buzz, and Secretly Y’all is seeking spring fever stories of all types. Tales of serotonin spikes, rebirth, renewal, and where you end up when you let that spring in your step that comes with warmer weather guide the way. Send us your stories of the birds and the bees, how you first learned about “it,” and that glorious fumbling journey…or heck, if you have a particularly stirring story about the sexuality of actual birds or bees, we want to hear it.
To submit a story for our Setlist, please send a brief story synopsis and a brief bio to secretlyall@gmail.com. Acceptance is rolling, so start getting those stories in now!
Age of (DIS)Information Jan 30 @Brambly Park
Secretly Y’all is excited to announce our first collaboration with The Richmond Forum. Nobel Peace Prize-winning journalist Maria Ressa will be visiting the Forum this January. Her program, “The Integrity of Facts,” is our inspiration for this theme, AGE OF (DIS)INFORMATION. The First Amendment of the US Constitution protects freedom of expression, but where do we draw the line between this freedom and an entitlement to truth? If a meme spreads a mistruth in the woods and no one is around to hear it (but 5000 people share it and a million people read it) is it now as true as it needs to be to alter our shared reality? Or at least as true as is it needs to be to ruin the holiday family dynamics?
SY is seeking stories of interacting with digital misdirection, fake news, lies, half-truths, and fiction in the digital world, and the very real repercussions. How do you decide what information you trust? And how does this affect your day to day interactions in the digital world, and IRL?
Please send us a brief story synopsis and a short bio to secretlyall@gmail.com to be considered for the Setlist.We are excited to be back at Brambly Park! Please be prepared to follow the latest CDC guidelines.
The Richmond Forum is a nonprofit speakers series that aims to spark important conversations in our local community and beyond. Watch Maria Ressa’s speaking engagement at The Richmond Forum with an online subscription to the 2022-2023 season. You’ll have access to stream all five season programs, including upcoming speakers John Lithgow and Dr. Cornel West. Want to hear Ressa’s remarks in person? As an online subscriber, you also have the exclusive ability to upgrade to seats in the Altria Theater as they become available. Online subscriptions are on sale now through January 10 at richmondforum.org/online.
LEGACY. November 7th @Brambly Park
The original meaning of legacy was the official passing on of something, such as money, land, or an official title, from one generation to the next. It is a concept inextricably tied up with a human desire to continue to live on beyond our own finite number of years on planet Earth. It is concerned with the person who is attempting to pass on the wealth, or knowledge, or experience. I can receive legacy/legacies from past generations, and I can choose to attempt to shape my legacy to pass forward.
Secretly Y’all is seeking stories of intergenerational communication, bequeathment, burden, and advantages. Historically generations perhaps could write a book, or bury a time capsule; with the digital age well upon us, how do we create, distribute, and attempt to safeguard our own legacies? How can/have legacies lifted up the next generation, and how can/will they weigh them down?
WAIT…WHAT?? March 28th @Brambly Park
…an IN PERSON Secretly Y’all event??? It’s been two years since the last time we have been able to hold an in person event, and man oh man, we have been through it, right? So let’s be safe and get together (outdoors) to share some stories!
We are seeking stories of real life double takes. Was that a UFO? Did someone’s pet parrot save their life? Are we actually watching live footage of American citizens storming our Capitol Building?? Send us your tales of moments and events where, despite complete incredulity, the unthinkable, the impossible, the irrational has indeed ended up happening.
We welcome all genre of submissions (funny, ludicrous, sad, paranormal) as long as they are true and are inspired by the theme.
Please submit your story synopsis, title of story and short bio to secretlyall@gmail.com to be considered for the Setlist. And don’t forget about The Hat section – where we invite any and all of you to throw your name in. Whoever is picked will get to share their “Wait…WHAT??” stories as well!
Stories will start at 7:30pm. Please remember that we ask a door donation of $5-$20 for each attendee. 50% of the proceeds we collect will go to Richmond Harm Reduction.
PAST EVENTS
AGENTS OF CHANGE: Femme Narratives, October 20th, 7pm (VIRTUAL)
Collaboration with the Virginia Museum of History and Culture
SY is excited to announce our first collaboration event with the Virginia Museum of History and Culture! The event’s theme, AGENTS OF CHANGE: FEMME NARRATIVES, is in conjunction with the VMHC’s exhibition celebrating the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment. The exhibition “explores the important legacy of female suffrage across a century of women’s civic activism in the Commonwealth—from the fight to gain the vote, through various efforts to secure equal rights and opportunities, through present-day activism surrounding persistent sexism and socio-economic disparities.”
We are seeking stories of and by femme folk. Of the good, the bad, the challenges, the beautiful, of what it means to NOT be a dude. Of times you’ve smashed into the glass ceiling, and ways you’ve successfully broken through. In celebration of achieving the right to vote 100 years ago, send us those stories of hard working, status quo questioning, prejudice busting femme folk who you’ve known or who you know paved the way for you to be where you are now. Email story synopsis to secretlyall@gmail.com.
Please be sure to register for the event – no charge to register, just so we can make sure a reminder email goes out! https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_LZGPhtOpSSGmbTd7oxMbbA
Make sure to go and visit the exhibition – it has been extended until November 1! Our “door” donation will be going to Girls For A Change – check out the awesome work they do.
QUARATINED, April 21, VIRTUAL
So we’re really reaching here, but anyone out here ever lived through, or currently living through, some sort of QUARANTINE situation? Eh? Eh?
In this unprecedented and unsure time we are experiencing, we have decided to launch our very first live streamed event and we need stories. So yes, please, stories of what you have been dealing with now, but also stories of any times when you’ve noticed that you’ve been shut off limits, pushed to arm’s length, excluded from, and generally not allowed to…do what previously seemed pretty normal things to do.
TWISTED LOVE Feb 10th @ the Hofheimer Building
“Love is like a flame, it burns you when it’s hot/Love hurts/Ooh love hurts”
But IS it better to have loved than to have never loved at all?? We are seeking sorrowful (or sardonic, cynical or maybe just surprise) tales of love gone awry: whether it was romantic or platonic, whether it was being in love or falling out of love with something or somebody; whether it was being in love (or not) with something about yourself. Or maybe the twist came when something/somebody went from seeming like the worst to … the one??
PEOPLE vs THE WAR ON DRUGS Jan 7th @the Hofheimer Building
The war on drugs has devastated lives and communities for decades. Marijuana Justice VA (MJVA), has been part of the movement to bring reconciliation and redemption to antiquated and racist policies that have led to incarceration and trauma for so many folks.
Join us for a special night that uplifts the voices of those that have been impacted by the war on drugs. We will have stories hand-selected by MJVA and us that illustrate the effects of these policies and the resilience of those that overcame.
All proceeds will go the Marijuana Justice VA and their fight to pass legislation that decriminalizes weed, expunges past criminal records, and releases those still incarcerated. Visit their website www.marijuanajustice.org to learn more.
(chance)ENCOUNTERS Dec 3rd @the Hofheimer Building
Oh, wow, funny running into you here!
Well, since we’re here, Secretly Y’all happens to be looking for stories for our December 3rd event, the theme is (chance)ENCOUNTERS…so tales of titillating run-ins with that cute neighbor, terrifying experiences with extraterrestrials, and “isn’t this a coincidence” moments that resulted in memorable outcomes.
See y’all at the Hofheimer Building on the 3rd!
PRIDE & PREJUDICE Sept 24 @ Rainbow Ballroom
Secretly Y’all is excited to collaborate with Diversity Richmond in presenting PRIDE & PREJUDICE.
Normally “Pride & Prejudice” brings to mind Victorian romances and oppressed women with sharp wits. However, at this Pride & Prejudice event there will be no Jane Austen allowed. Each September Virginia celebrates its local Pride Month, and this year we want to hear from Richmond’s vast, diverse LGBTQ+ community about their experiences as queer people in the formal capital of the Confederacy. How do we overcome the prejudice others spout or that we ourselves internalized and take pride in who we are and who we love?
The event was held in the Rainbow Ballroom, the main event hall at Diversity Richmond (1407 Sherwood Ave).
ILLEGITMATE July 16 @the Hofheimer
We at Secretly Y’all believe that everyone is legitimate. However systems are set up that dictate what is recognized as good and proper. We are interested in stories of those who have felt ostracized, have been deemed other or not part of, or have struggled to find legitimacy for themselves in a larger group. Lets continue the conversation through stories of finding spaces for recognition.
HOOK, LINE & SINKER July 23 @Pale Fire Brewing Co
Secretly Y’all is looking for fishing stories and we aren’t just talking about fish here – times when what you were trying to catch got caught, times when you caught nothing, times when you caught something entirely different than you were expecting…What was the worst April Fools Joke you ever got taken in by? What was the best lie you ever got away with in school to get out of an exam? Have you found you get away with more stuff by under exaggerating or by making sure the whopper you’re telling is ridiculously unbelievably huge? Seeking tales of deceiving and being deceived, of getting to know your quarry so well that you know just what will get them interested, of being the sucker who swallowed the bait whole….And just how big WAS that fish you said you caught anyway?
Secretly Y’all is a live storytelling event where we invite real people to tell true stories. No experience needed…just need to have a story that wants to be told! Every event we have a theme and look for 5-7 stories that relate to that theme to fill our Setlist. (Submit by emailing a brief story synopsis to secretlyall@gmail.com.) The only three rules are that the stories must be true, told within the time limit (7 minutes) and without notes.
During intermission we will leave out the Hat and some slips of paper – anyone who hasn’t told but still has a story (relating to the theme) can throw their name in. We select 2-4 names at random and these folks get to tell their stories too! (Same rules apply).
Stories begin at 7:30pm.