The heights of a teenage crush — and a hard landing

Sara Ray remembers being the new girl in a tiny town, a 13-year-old nursing a crushing infatuation with a “hot, chiseled piece of man-meat, high-school junior.”

A few weeks ago, First Person Arts asked storytellers to tell a tale on the subject of “Where I’m From.”

It was a Grand Slam, at World Café in University City. Every performer had qualified by winning a previous Story Slam competition earlier in the year.

The audience award winner that night was Sara Ray, who is from Canton, Maine, with a population of less than 1,000.

She remembered being the new girl in a tiny town, and as a 13-year-old nursing a crushing infatuation with a “hot, chiseled piece of man-meat, high-school junior.”

WHYY’s Arts and Culture reporter, Peter Crimmins, spoke with Ray about the highs and lows of a teenage crush.

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First Person Arts is Philadelphia’s premiere storytelling organization and the presenters of twice-monthly StorySlams, the weekly First Person Arts Podcast, and the annual First Person Arts Festival. Founded in 2000, FPA believes that everyone has a story to tell, and that sharing our stories connects us with each other and the world. From such artistic luminaries as novelist Toni Morrison, activist Angela Davis, and celebrity chef Marcus Samuelsson, to emerging artists and everyday people, FPA presents a diverse array of storytellers to transform the drama of real life into memoir and documentary art.