About Us

ABOUT StorySlam Oakland

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. 

In 2023, Julie left Oakland and moved up north to Fort Bragg on the Mendocino coast. But she just couldn’t give up on the creation she had nurtured along with her co-host Inanc. Every month she would make the 3.5 hour drive to the Bay Area from Fort Bragg to host StorySlam Oakland.

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.

Before moving to the North Coast, Julie developed and hosted other true-storytelling shows for a variety of venues, including the former Layover in Oakland, Slate Bar in San Francisco, Tiger’s Taproom in Jack London Square, Oakland, and Rosenblum Cellars, a wine bar also in Jack London Square in Oakland, just to name a few.

StorySlam Oakland has inspired a community of creative storytellers to put together fresh new shows and events. We encourage all to check out the Northern California Storytelling Calendar to sample other peoples’ shows around the Bay Area and beyond.

Starting in 2026 we will be at The Sound Room less-than-monthly, on these dates:

Feb. 18

March 25

May 27

July 29

Sept. 30

Follow the Sound Room on Eventbrite or subscribe to StorySlam Oakland’s mailing list to get notified of upcoming StorySlam shows.