What is the point of Storytime?
A justification.
Hello, yes, finally, the time has come to justify our little night and argue for its continued existence in a multipolar, increasingly incandescent world.
Storytime is a night where people tell stories1. It really is as simple as that.
Sometimes the stories are true, sometimes they are not.
Sometimes it’s all open mic, sometimes it’s entirely curated.
Sometimes stories are told accompanied by music, sometimes entirely through mime.
That last one is admittedly rare but the point stands: all varieties of storytelling are welcomed and encouraged at our night.
We are not doing anything new or ground-breaking.
We did not invent storytelling and nor did anyone else. It is a key part of the history of our species and our emergence from more primitive modes of being to the chaotic, confusing, wonderful and terrible lives we live today.
Anyone who lays claim to storytelling as a mode or means of expression is either a fool or a charlatan. We are simply adopters and custodians of an ancient behaviour. We are a species of speakers and listeners - these things predate and will long outlive any modern trends to remain stranded in your room.
We want to keep building what we do to make Storytime more of an ecosystem than just a night. That is why we will continue running our main night once a month but have plans for a series of spin-offs and satellites as the year progresses. These are intended to cover different parts of the city and give different people more opportunities to tell their stories. They will also allow different members of our collective to put their own stamp on different versions of the night.
We will be building out everything we do online here on our website, hosted by the glorious folks at Substack. There will be story competitions and workshops coming rather soon…
I sometimes wonder about why I’ve continued running the night as it has become increasingly financially illogical for me and mentally, creatively and administratively draining. A seductive and quite viable explanation in my lower moments is that it is all one big ego trip and I enjoy being the centre of attention. That is probably at least partially true. But I think more important is to have a sense of home and warmth. I have always struggled to know where home is, having moved around quite a lot as a child. I can’t really confidently claim to be from London or Auckland or Cumbria or anywhere else that I have felt attached to over the years.
More importantly, I come from the people I love. And Storytime is now the biggest hub for those people. So I suppose that’s the point of Storytime: to have a space that is warm and receptive for people to share stories that they have crafted.
Or - to find a home.
We hope you’ll join us at some point. See you at the night.
NB: We’re running one tonight at Pedaller’s Corner. Come along and join us.
NB #2: You can also still RSVP to volume #1 of Unplugged next week by sending us an email.
Credit: Jesse Bateson, March 2026