Secretly Y'all

Could you stand in front of one or two hundred people--most of them strangers--and tell a true, personal story? You can! Colin King and Kathleen Brady have created a space for you to do just that--and to make connections you may have not otherwise made. Secretly Y'all says they exist to "encourage people to tell true stories in front of an audience, bringing people together through storytelling." If you've ever been to one of their events, you know they are achieving their mission each and every time.

High Five RVA caught up with Colin and Kathleen and Colin had this to say about their project.

H5RVA: Stories connect us, indeed. How have you seen Secretly Y'all bring Richmond together?

Colin: After each event people are chatting about their own stories on the theme.  People talk to the storytellers themselves. People come up to us and say "Dang, I wish I could have told my story about my neighbor who was building an Apocalypse Machine" or whatever the case maybe. Then we are like "you can in the Hat Portion of the show!." But for real, history or herstory (they should change that word, maybe??), its how we learn and change and progress. We love listening to the audience members talk about their own personal experiences at our event.

H5RVA: How was Secretly Y'all developed?

Colin: We had some friends in Charlottesville that started Secretly Y'all.  We decided to open a chapter here, and they disbanded soon there after for personal reasons. We took the format and made it Richmond. We have been grateful and fortunate to have a good crowd and plenty of willing storytellers.Lots of interesting people, doing cool things here.  Even uninteresting people have interesting stories.

H5RVA: How has Richmond responded?

Colin: Guess I kinda already answered that question above, but real well.  Thanks to everyone.

 H5RVA: What has it taught you about the people who live and play here?

Colin:They cool.

H5RVA: What are you going to do with this giant High Five?

Colin: Probably do that thing where you are like, "Up high. Down Low. In the space. In your face."

Excellent plan, Colin.

If you are reading this before July 9, you have a chance to see your first Secretly Y'all then! Details on the event can be found here.