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About Janna
About Janna
Janna writes, performs, and speaks on a variety of subjects related to personal and cooperative creativity. She teaches at The Second City in Chicago, and conducts Improv & Storytelling workshops for companies and organizations. She offers private story coaching to individuals preparing any sort of presentation. She also hosts ongoing creative community events that foster joy, connection, and mutual respect among participants. All of her offerings are designed to strengthen communities and increase individual creative freedom, while people are having fun.
Janna grew up in Tucson, Arizona where she learned things from the desert about listening. She now lives in Chicago and shares stories of what she hears. She pays attention to the life inside and around her, and is still mostly dazzled by it all when she's getting enough sleep.
"Janna Sobel is among the most uncommonly generous writer/performers it's been my privilege to know. She is that rare artist that's every bit as concerned with the craft and care so evident in her own work as she is with contributing to a broader artistic community. Her spirit of wonder, her unfailing candor and courage, and her stubborn refusal to abandon her innocence combine to make her work nothing short of dazzling. The fact that she also brings this energy and sense of artistic purpose to her work as curator, teacher, and citizen of Chicago's Live Lit scene is to our lasting benefit and good fortune."
Ian Belknap, Write Club Founder and Director
Ian Belknap, Write Club Founder and Director
"Janna’s coaching made crafting my personal stories such a joyful process. She listened deeply and cared about the life of my story. Her humor and insight made the process rich and fun. Through her perceptive attention, Janna helped me mine my story’s meaning for both me and my audience. Her mind is like a camera lens; she is able to change the angle and focus to help me see multiple aspects. By the end, I felt prepared and no longer anxious. Thank you, Janna."
Carol Kaufman-Kerman- Professional Storyteller & Story Educator
Carol Kaufman-Kerman- Professional Storyteller & Story Educator
"I had a brand new team of people with widely ranging backgrounds who would be collaborating intensely for 3 months. I brought Janna in the first week to help the group bond, practice being vulnerable, and build off each other’s ideas. In a fearless and nurturing way, Janna lead the team through a series of exercises that created an incredibly supportive environment which allowed each person to share their creativity and be vulnerable. She had a profound effect on each person individually and on the group dynamic - setting the tone for how we’d work. She was the first of 25 guests we had with us over the course of 3 months, and when I asked the team who stood out and really made an impact, it was Janna’s workshop they said would stay with them the most."
Maria Scileppi, Director of 72U at 72andSunny
Maria Scileppi, Director of 72U at 72andSunny
"People talk about community all of the time and Janna lives it, she radiates it. She creates an environment where even the most frightened find strength to tell. She opens doors for people to change the way they connect; in real, grounded and respectful ways. She opens herself in a way that shows all of us it's okay to do the same. Here Chicago has become my default “you must go see this show” for storytelling, and she is the reason why."
Deanna Moffit, Co-Founder of This Much is True
Deanna Moffit, Co-Founder of This Much is True
"Janna Sobel's stories are remarkable for what they unearth about the reader/listener's own hidden agendas toward love, sorrow and triumph. It is not often that a writer - and here i speak of the whole writer; read or listened to - can create such 'seeing eye' works. Janna's stories undress and affirm at once.
You will be transformed."
Roger Bonair-Agard, Cave Canem Poet & Two-Time National Poetry Slam Champion
Roger Bonair-Agard, Cave Canem Poet & Two-Time National Poetry Slam Champion
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