StorySlam  Oakland

The Sound Room is aptly named. The focus is on the sound or the music. Unlike clubs where the performance may be peripheral to the experience, at the Sound Room the performance is the experience.  We are an all-ages listening room. We exist to present great music and promote jazz as an art form.The Sound Room is the home of Bay Area Jazz & Arts, a  501(c)3 non-profit organization focused on promoting the Arts.

Bay Area Jazz & Arts at The Sound Room

Oakland's longest-running true storytelling show

The Sound Room

An exciting new format to delight you at our next show. The theme is "Spontaneous." So you can tell a prepared 5-minute personal story with that in mind -- OR ---- come ready to tell a true story from your life on a theme thrown out by the audience at the beginning of the show. That's also why it's called "Spontaneous"! Or just listen and laugh.StorySlam Oakland was started in 2013 when Julie Soller, a longtime Bay Area resident, decided to launch an open-mic storytelling show in a tiny cafe around the corner from her house at Lake Merritt. Together with some friends and volunteers, Julie produced a very popular show. So popular that it had to relocate to a larger venue after a couple of months!StorySlam Oakland became dedicated to a community of fun, diverse people sharing their lives in a relaxed and supportive atmosphere.The popularity of the show was so much that we moved it to Sweet Bar Bakery on Broadway the following year. We outgrew that a few years later, and moved to Oakland’s popular restaurant and lounge, Luka’s. In 2019, comedian and award-winning storyteller, Inanc Karacaylak joined as co-host. He brought his comedic talents to our spinoff show “Spontaneous Storytelling” and pushed StorySlam Oakland to become even better and differentiate it from other similar shows. In 2020 and 2021, during the pandemic, we did our shows on Zoom and taught online storytelling workshops. Unfortunately Luka’s was priced out with a super-high lease renewal after the pandemic, and the owners had to close it down. Such was the story with so many Oakland businesses then.So StorySlam Oakland was adrift for a minute with no host venue. Then the owners of The Sound Room, an intimate music locale, invited us to bring StorySlam Oakland there, where it remains to this day. The Sound Room is at 3022 Broadway, Oakland, across from the Sprouts grocery store.As other story shows have come and gone, StorySlam Oakland has continued delighting audiences and growing new storytellers with our unique way of putting on a show where ordinary people feel so comfortable and welcome that they get up on stage to share true stories from their lives.

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StorySlam Oakland

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StorySlam Oakland

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