Philly’s long-running StorySlam events canceled due to NEA funding freeze

First Person Arts, the local nonprofit dedicated to live storytelling and community building, has canceled the entire season of its marquee StorySlam events, which had been scheduled to run through June.

“Sadly, due to the current pause in NEA funding, we have canceled all StorySlams until further notice,” executive director Jamie J. Brunson wrote in an email on Monday to First Person Arts supporters.

The National Endowment for the Arts has funded the storytelling competition events for the past few years through its Grants for Arts Projects program. This year, the agency awarded $35,000 for StorySlams, but in late January, President Donald Trump’s administration froze trillions of dollars in grants and loans, including those from the NEA, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Institute for Museum and Library Services.

The White House reversed the decision, but these funding streams have since been in limbo as several states have sued to block the administration’s funding freezes in federal court.

“What’s going on with First Person Arts is an illustration of the impact that these federal freezes are having at the local level,” said Patricia Wilson Aden, president and CEO of the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance. “This is just one instance of a phenomenon that is widespread, and spreading across the region, as we’re seeing this cascade of federal actions.”

These shifting federal policies could lead the Philadelphia region to lose major funding streams across the arts sector. The Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance found that, from 2020 to 2024, the NEA, National Endowment for the Humanities, and Institute for Museum and Library Services dispensed 967 grants totaling a little over $111 million across Pennsylvania. About $42.5 million of those funds went to organizations in Southeastern Pennsylvania.

On March 14, the Trump administration announced plans to eliminate the Institute for Museum and Library Services, among other programs. Last year, the agency contributed upward of $2.25 million to Philadelphia museums and libraries, including the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Over the last decade, PMA has received $871,000 in funding from the Institute for Museum and Library Services, according to WHYY.

As arts organizations have struggled to navigate the fast-changing landscape of federal funding, the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance has been lobbying Congress to protect these opportunities and restore these critical funding streams. Since January, the alliance has been surveying arts groups in the region to better understand the impacts, with 140 organizations responding so far.

While the survey period ends on March 31, Aden shared some preliminary results:

“It is a demonstration of how the cultural community has been put in an untenable position with these changes in federal funding,” said Aden, adding that the region has lost essential resources. “Arts and cultural organizations are pillars of our neighborhoods, and they provide touchstones for our seniors and for our younger people. There is a real case to be made about the social impact of the arts, as well as the economic impact.”

The grant for First Person Arts is still under review, Brunson told The Inquirer. The precarious situation is the latest in a series of financial challenges for First Person Arts, which needs to raise $400,000 over the next 21 months to stay afloat. Brunson said the organization, which operates on a $1 million annual budget, did not receive sizeable grants from local philanthropies that had covered general operating costs in past years. First Person Arts laid off three of its 10 full-time employees, as well as four contractors, while the remaining staff has taken salary cuts.

“We had counted on new money that just did not materialize, and it’s led us to a place where we are having a serious financial issue,” said Brunson, who has led First Person Arts for 13 years. “We realized at the end of [2024] that we were not going to have enough general operating support. Then the NEA did their freeze … We do not, as an organization, have the additional cash to lay out for these events, as important as they are, so we had no other choice but to cancel the rest of the season.”

Four StorySlams had been scheduled through June. The events made up one-third of First Person Arts’ annual programming, which includes the annual First Person Arts Festival. “It is the most consistent way that we interact with our audiences,” Brunson said. She added that it’s the first time the organization has had to cancel a Slam season.

StorySlams operate like open mics, where anyone from the audience could get on stage to tell their true story for five minutes at a time with a chance to win a cash prize and participate in bigger storytelling competitions. One of the more popular events is an anti-Valentine’s Day Ex-Files StorySlam.

“These are theme-based events that turn individuals into artists, that foster an environment of empathy, inspiration, vulnerability, and the outcome is community building — that really resonated with the NEA. We were so thrilled that they got it, they saw the value in the work,” said Brunson. “I am not blaming the NEA. The NEA has been there to support the work, [but] they are at the behest of higher authority.”