Galley Tables Kicks Off Fifth Season

Kayla Desroches/KMXT

Community storytelling event Galley Tables kicks off its fifth season tonight.

Appropriately for both Friday the 13th and for Halloween, ‘Spooked’ is this week’s theme, and the convention center is the venue.

Organizers experimented with where to hold the event for a while.

Galley Tables started in the drama pod, but overcrowding drove them to find another home base.

Astrid Rose, one of the original Galley Tables organizers, says they tried the auditorium, but it wasn’t a good fit. She says it made storytellers feel like they were performing.

“And that’s not what we’re going for with Galley Tables. It’s not necessarily a performance. It’s just a place to share stories and not criticize or not be criticized. Just the feel was very important for us.”

She explains how every show brings an element of surprise.

“I really love that people are willing to come forward and share their stories and a piece of their life with us that we wouldn’t have otherwise known. There’s people that I don’t know and I get to learn a little bit about them and their experiences, and there’s people that I’ve known forever and I get to hear a piece of their life that just doesn’t fit in with what I thought.”

This season’s Galley Tables continues over seven shows.

Tonight’s event begins at 7 p.m. and the next theme will be ‘What’s Cookin.’