Story Luck, 1191 Huntington Drive, Chicago, IL (2026)

04/13/2026

04/07/2026

What’s one of your fears of relocating to a new country? Mine is finding someone who can do my 4C African hair perfectly. And I know that sounds silly, but how do I move from paying a maximum of $20 for a full head of butt-length braids to paying hundreds of dollars? So I made up my mind. If I ever relocate to the west, I will get my hair locked. Not because that’s what I’d want under ideal circumstances, but that’s the most logical decision.

And for the longest time, I used to feel bad about my thought process, until I met McKenzie. If you have been to any of our Story Luck shows, you might have seen her at the entry. So last year, she got a chance to travel to Kenya from Chicago and we met for lunch. And that's when she gave me the story of her $1000-dollar hair cut. She’d fly to Japan once a year to get her hair done (well, to visit her family but get a hair cut while at it). And it became a running joke with her friends.

So, this hair story got me thinking about how our geography shapes our reality. And that’s how this project was born.
At Story Luck, we’re starting a small global storytelling project, and I would genuinely love for you to be part of it.

We’re inviting a few thoughtful contributors from different parts of the world to respond to one question:
What is a story that is only unique because of where you are telling it from?

In other words, what experience, moment, relationship, conflict, or quiet reality could only exist in your country, your culture, your economy, your political climate, or your community?

It could be:
A friendship shaped by local culture
A creative project influenced by limited (or abundant) resources
A moment defined by politics, religion, or class
A social norm that outsiders wouldn’t immediately understand
A small everyday detail that says everything about where you live

We’re especially interested in how places shape people. How geography, systems, and culture quietly influence the human condition.

Submissions can be:
A short personal essay or story (800–1500 words)
A poem
A piece of visual art (with a short artist statement)

You’re welcome to write under your name or a pseudonym. Selected pieces may be published on the Story Luck platform and possibly featured on the Story Luck Show (with your consent).

Your perspective, from exactly where you are, is the whole point.
If this resonates with you, we’d be honored to hear back from you. Please do not hesitate to reach out with questions or ideas.

You can reach out to Dan via email: [email protected] / [email protected].

You can also write to us on Instagram and Facebook.

We hope to hear from you soon
- Jules.

03/18/2026

http://eepurl.com/jB2baw

03/18/2026

Maggie was underappreciated.

She stared at the shared Google Doc where her carefully crafted process improvements disappeared into an endless sea of comments and suggestions. Three months of research condensed into, “Looks good. Will review more next week.” Which would invariably lead to a shifting initiative. Just in time to make sure no project completed.

So it was, she found herself fidgeting with her phone as she left Chicago’s cold Belmonte street for Theater Wit’s warm lobby....

Click through to read the rest of the story!

Maggie was underappreciated. She stared at the shared Google Doc where her carefully crafted process improvements disappeared into an endless sea of comments and suggestions. Three months of research condensed into, “Looks good. Will review more next week.” Which would invariably lead to a shift...

02/26/2026

We write today with heavy hearts to share the sad news of the passing of our beloved friend and colleague, Michael Caga-anan Aguhar. Michael died unexpectedly on Friday, February 20th, after a sudden medical emergency. We are holding close to all who loved him, especially his partner, Irina, and their toddler, Zoya, whom Michael loved beyond measure.

We are supporting Michael’s partner, Irina, as funeral arrangements are made and as we plan a celebration of Michael’s life later this spring. We will share more details as they become available.

We have joined family and friends to establish a fundraising page to support Irina and Zoya as they navigate this profound loss and the long road of healing.

🖤 With love from all of us at Crossroads Fund,

Read the complete message and how to support at: crossroadsfund.org/michael-caga-anan-aguhar/ or link in bio

10/13/2025

Last night was the Story Luck Show

Yesterday a friend grilled me, “Wait a second, what does my ticket money go to?”

I told her, “It’s not like 1 to 1. It goes to the non profit’s general operating budget.”

“Yeah but, like what’s rent? Because if you don’t pay the walk up tellers, they are basically paying to create your show.”

This is something that bothers me.

Currently we are paying our features $25 and we usually pay 1 techie. Sometimes it’s a sound person, but usually it’s to have photographer come and take shots during the show.

Rent is the biggest expense at $375 a month but… there’s also food, (Usually we spend $50-100 depending if we need utensils and napkins etc.)

Marketing is the next biggest expense, we usually spend $60-$125 on digital ads and we like passing out postcards, so we have thousands of those. Meetup costs us $60 a month. There are also other sunk costs that are harder to categorize. I use adobe to podcast and create graphics so we have a subscription to that, the website is like $120 every three months, we pay $120 a year for drop box, and $100 for soundcloud. 30 a month for various video sotware services outside adobe’s suite… which I spend more time on. Oh! Mailchimp is $39 a month.

There’s probably little things I’m not thinking about…

But it's not a lot… but most of that stuff gets used for EVERYTHING we do, not just the show.

For us there are two paths to victory, both of which will work in a virtuous cycle, we either need to get the show to be sold out, or we need to get 12 sponsors for next year. (At any combination of levels.)

In terms of marketing… I feel like I’m at a bit of a loss. Emotionally, it feels like the show should be growing. We have decent retention, but we don’t have the growth you’d expect given that retention. We aren’t getting good word of mouth. So maybe that’s the answer, I need to empower or activate the audience… I need to tell people who’ve come to 3-5 shows to tell more of their friends.

In terms of sponsorship… I am feeling confident we will get Angry Octopus to sponsor us again next year. And we have a pledge from Lunch Heros. It’s not sponsorship but we have two donors who have pledged 100 dollars a month through out next year. So there is some movement there. Still, I’m frustrated with my work ethic… I really wanted to have 12 lined up by this show.

So, hopefully I’ll be doing some accountability posting over the next 4 weeks as we move into December.

Do you think we can get to a sold out show for Dec 14th?

Last year, our Dec show was our biggest. So, it might happen. But seems bigger than an uphill battle.

In my mind, I’d like the show to be monthly and bringing in 10k a month. (This would mean getting a larger venue and more people to watch the live stream.) I’d like to be paying all the volunteers as well as the open swap tellers. I think what we will do for next year, is all the open swap tellers will get a voucher ticket for next month’s show. That seems a good idea.

Doing the ego death work of door knocking local businesses is the first step to being the biggest storytelling show in Chicago.

Wish me luck.