“The Moth is true stories, told live and without notes. We celebrate the ability of true, personal storytelling to illuminate both the diversity and commonality of human experience.”
Bamboo Ridge author and poet Christy Passion will be one of the featured storytellers for The Moth Mainstage in Honolulu on October 3, 2025 at the Hawaiʻi Theatre Center.
We asked her to share a little bit about the process of preparing for this event and how it’s different from writing poetry.
- What feels different about shaping a personal story for spoken performance versus writing a poem for the page?
- If you had to choose one song to walk on stage to, what would it be and why?
A personal story has no gaps — itʻs prose. There should be a recognizable beginning, middle, and end. Poetry is the opposite. Poetry hangs in the gaps. In poetry I accept that the reader will get ‘it’ even if I donʻt spell it out. In fact, if I spell it out, I ruin the poem. The poem exists in the person reading it.
This storytelling, however, requires a full account. I’m the storyteller and you as the audience are listening. The story remains mine.
Christy explains (in that heart-ful and authentic way only she can) that it’s less show and more sharing:
The request for this event was a story of an authentic happening/event that transformed me in some way. It’s a story I could tell you on the bus or at a tailgate party. It just so happens that Iʻll be on stage telling it. Yes, there was definite crafting because itʻs more than just a memory Iʻm retelling, but Iʻm really hoping itʻll come across as a way of connecting.
What feels different about this? Writing poetry for the page, I have to go inwards — poems have infinite regression. Preparing a true, personal story for a spoken performance feels more like an export, itʻs packaged and has a known destination. It opens outward.
As for what song she’d want playing before stepping into the spotlight? It depends.
There are so many. I guess it depends on the audience and where I’m walking on stage. ‘How It’s Done’ by Huntrix is pretty solid, but so is the Imperial March (Darth Vader’s theme song). It would depend on my era — hero or villain.
You’re always a hero to us, Christy. So we’ll take this opportunity to share one of our favorite prose poems from your book Still Out of Place
Poi
by Christy Passion
Every night Mama would say, No talk stink—the poi going get rotten.
So I held my tongue about Sister, Papa stopped talking about the job, and we ate. Dinners started quiet but ended with laughter; her admonition clearing away the day. Then came the shortage: taro and construction. Dinners became moody. I went to college and learned about the recession. I ate instant potatoes by myself, letting the dishes pile up till the smell drove my roommate out. I didn’t call home. I was rotten. Once I craved poi, but the market only had day-old, too sour to hold down.
from page 27 of Still Out of Place (Bamboo Ridge Press, 2016)
Talk story