Story of the year

Jessi LeMay, among many other things, is a person who has had a great idea. She wants to crowdsource Reno's stories as a way to reflect and preserve Reno's personality through people's individual experience—sort of performance art for the common person. She's planning to do this through a series of public storytelling events. The first is “Truly Scary Reno Stories” at the Potentialist Workshop, 2275 Dickerson Road, on Oct. 29 at 7-9 p.m. Tickets are $5 and may be purchased through www.thefolkandthelore.com.

Tell me about yourself.

I am by trade a photographer. That’s the bread and butter of what I do for my for-profit businesses, like wedding photography. My background is in photography, I got my degree in it. While I’m like some photographers, and I kind of poo-poo the idea of being a wedding photographer, it is the art of storytelling. There is nothing like shooting 20-30 weddings a year that has helped me hone my craft.

Twenty to thirty weddings a year? That sound horrible!

And now that I have a child, I really would like to handpick the stories that I tell. And that’s really the inspiration behind this nonprofit. It’s me wanting to do the kind of work I want to do. Last year in March, I started The Folk and the Lore Incorporated. The purpose of it is to document, archive and retell people’s stories in our community. We do it through photographic essays, short films and live storytelling events. For this month’s event, which is October 29, the theme will be “scary stories.” Every month we’ll be hoping to have themes that kind of pertain to what’s going on. In November, that theme will be Farm, Fork, Family, kind of all about bringing food from the farmers.

Let’s go back to the beginning when you started. How did you come up with this idea?

The genesis of the idea basically was inspired by the hours of editing that I spend in front of my computer listening to podcasts. There’s a real trend in storytelling events across the country. I thought, “You know, I think I can do this.” Most of those podcasts are audio in nature, most of them don’t bring in a visual element, and I thought, “I can do this,” and it would be really beneficial to our community, too. For me, I believe that everyone’s collective stories become part of our own lore, become a product of who our community is. And so that was the genesis.

So you had the idea. Did you immediately decide you had to do a nonprofit? What was the next step?

The reason I went with a nonprofit was because I have a friend who, when he worked in D.C., he helped a lot of people form nonprofits and get tax-exempt status. He’s the one who said to me, “You know, instead of this just being a project that you work on and spend your own money on, this is something that corporations and different businesses in the community might want to donate to. It’s a benefit for the community, it has an educational purpose. Why not try it as a nonprofit?” We’re still in the process of getting our 501(c)3 status, but we are technically a nonprofit in the state of Nevada. I love that idea, that it’s sort of a contribution that everybody—you know—companies and individuals can say, “I support this.” And out of that, they get to hear and participate in these stories. I see it as a bigger project than something as a for-profit will be able to do.

I certainly see how you would not want your passion to prevent you from feeding that child, for example. I’m interested in how the nonprofit formation came about. Was this guy who was able to help you a lawyer or were you able to do this on your own?

He is a lawyer. I don’t want to divulge too much because I don’t know how much he would want anyone to know. how much he helped me. And the other part of this is, in my for-profit business, I’ve started doing short films. So I do birth announcement films, I also do short documentaries for people who want to get their legacy and their own, like, life story on film. But there are so many people out there who have really interesting history and even their short stories, would never be able to afford service, or would even consider paying for that. So that’s my goal with the nonprofit, to be able to reach everyone.

So how many stories have you collected so far?

For the nonprofit? There will be up to four storytellers on stage. And I say “up to” because people have committed, but until they get onstage, I’m a little worried.

It’s like having a party.

Exactly. And then I will be producing three short films. And we’re in the process of making those short films, and none of them will be launched until the event. And that’s why the website is a little bare.

And what kind of stories do those people have?

Because they’re based on the theme for the month—Scary stories out of Reno. They’re all sort of paranormal or terrifying stories. It’s a scary process. You know, you get interest from people who are really super excited about participating, but again, the success of the event is sort of left up to serendipity. Will it be a success when everything comes together, and people come on stage, and you have to just trust that people will not freak out when they’re onstage, and that people are excited about telling their own story, and it’s sort of a conversational moment with the audience. I have to trust that, but I also have to sort of vet their stories, and the stories need to be between 10-15 minutes, and they have to follow a format. They have to have a beginning, a middle and an end, and have a bit of an arc in the story so that people are invested in it.

How did they find you or how did you find them?

All of it has been opening my mouth about it nonstop. And asking. Asking strangers, hunting through people I know in the community, really it’s word of mouth.