Your Stuff. Your Story. Your Shelf Life.

Shelf Life tears down walls, one story at a time

Shelf Life: a modern show and telling is a live storytelling event, where tellers share the stories behind the weird and wonderful objects that have shaped their lives.

Shelf Life Presents: Home

February 17, 2022 at The Brick

Tickets Available Now!

*For the health and safety of the storytellers, staff, and audience, all attendees will be required to show proof of vaccination or negative COVID test within 48 hours of event. No refunds will be made at the door or day of the event.*

“We hope this Shelf stays fully stocked.” – Pitch, Best of Kansas City 2017, “Why We Love KC Now”

Past Shows:

Season One

September 17, 2016: Winning

November 5, 2016: Election Season

December 10, 2016: Unwanted Gifts

February 25, 2017: Idol Worship

April 15, 2017: Wanderlust

June 10, 2017: Cotton

Season Two

September 16, 2017: Tools of the Trade

November 18, 2017: HELP!

December 16, 2017: Toy Stories

February 10, 2018: Lost & Found

April 7, 2018: Stolen Goods

June 9, 2018: Wood

Season Three

October 4, 2018: Rituals

December 6, 2018: Family Traditions

February 7, 2019: Guilty Pleasures

April 4, 2019: Odd Jobs

June 6, 2019: Failure

August 1, 2019: Rock Show

Season Four

February 13, 2020: Love

May 10, 2020: Mother

Season Five

December 2, 2021: Time

“I sent the prayers back and that is what my sto

“I sent the prayers back and that is what my story is to you all tonight. It is a blessing, it is a prayer, and it is an offering that you may know your own power to time travel, your own power to change the past, your own power to heal the past, and to intervene in the future. I send healing to us that we may know our own time, our own purpose, and our own power that we may make ripples with our energy and that impact may flow throughout time-forwards, backwards, and lateral to all those who need your medicine.”

#shelflife #time

“I’m a window seat guy. And I choose the wind

“I’m a window seat guy. And I choose the window seat every time for a very specific reason. When you are traveling six miles above the crust of the earth and looking out you can see more in that glance, in that simple glimpse, in that instant than most people in previous generations would see in their lifetime—and you want me to put the window down? No. That’s not happening.”

#shelflife #time

“This cup will never exist again. It will never

“This cup will never exist again. It will never hold water again. I may never even remember how it felt to make it. But it will also never naturally reintegrate into the earth. Ceramics is one of the most permanent and non-biodegradable materials that exists. It is galvanized in fire. And yet people produce it all the time. And there’s almost no shame in it because something that happens with clay is that you can just grind it into dust and bring it back into soil and fire it back into clay and give it new life. So when this cup is done talking to me perhaps we will become dust and I will bring it back it on that journey. Why would I throw it out?”

#shelflife #time

Host David Wayne Reed introduces the return of the

Host David Wayne Reed introduces the return of the show and Season 5! It’s about time!

“I relive that day often. I guess it's some sort

“I relive that day often. I guess it's some sort of punishment, or self sacrifice. I've replayed it so many times in my head, I almost forget about my life before then. The time when we were young and chased fireflies, when they raised us with respect and outside air and dysfunction.The days I'd let the sun go down before I went in because I could still hear screams from inside the house. I can't quite reach past that day.There was nothing before that day. It steals all the time around it. Nothing else can move or breath or grow or live. There’s nothing I can do because they took her away.”

#shelflife #time

“Aging, psychologically and chronologically with

“Aging, psychologically and chronologically without guilt or shame is central. No matter how much time goes by---it doesn’t change the way I feel about being of a certain age. Given all the different ways this life could have manifested or not, I find time to be on my side---whether I receive or give gifts. Time is a mental construct that is not linear, anyway. How our hearts use us to experience time and space is all that matters.”

#shelflife #time

“To be an adult and to be a parent is to realize

“To be an adult and to be a parent is to realize why we want to create change. We want to make a space that is safe for others: we want to make the spaces we needed for ourselves when our parents became our parents. Each day when I mother my son I am becoming the mother I needed. As I soothe him I soothe myself. And as I learn how best to love him I learn how to better love the people who love me.”

#shelflife #time

“Sometimes the tick falls silent if I am gone fo

“Sometimes the tick falls silent if I am gone for too long. This reminds me that I am responsible for my time, for this time. I am an active participant in this time. I am collaborator. I set the time. The clock just enacts it. In this way, we are interdependent. Time is about relationship. This clock reminds me that time is elastic like an accordion and like the pendulum, I can set the speed.”

#shelfife #time #cuckooclock

I don’t know that my words can match my feelings

I don’t know that my words can match my feelings about the return of Shelf Life .

What an incredible way to kick off Season 5!!

It was such an amazing time to be together in space talking about the many facets of time and it’s many interpretations. It’s been 21 months since the last show and the time has changed all of us.

We heal by sharing our stories, by incubating compassion, and allowing ourselves the place and platform to share ourselves, our belongings, and the narratives they carry.

I felt like the person that I used to remember-a stranger from the past that I’m so happy to have discovered again onstage and in audience tonight.

I am lit with gratitude.

DWR

It’s time. @shelflifeshow returns TOMORROW NIG

It’s time.

@shelflifeshow returns TOMORROW NIGHT for Season 5! There’s been a lot of lost time and we’re so glad to catch-up! The theme is TIME and we’re talking good times, bad times, hard time, cosmic time, all of the time.

Really grateful to return and be SOLD OUT!

Be sure to catch a future show!

HOME, INCOGNITO, LEATHER, PROTEST, and CEREMONY.

See you in time.

#shelflife #time #yourstuffyourstory

We are committed to being a safe space for stories

We are committed to being a safe space for stories and for our audience, staff, and storytellers.

Proof of vaccination (or negative COVID test within 48 hours of event) to enter.

See you @brickbar

“I was pregnant when I turned myself in. I had a

“I was pregnant when I turned myself in. I had a child. In prison. His name is Kingston. They took him out of my arms when he was 24 hours old. When I came home, he was almost 4. My cellmate died in front of me. She had a stroke at the age of 63. I saw a woman lose her mind and she did not know where she was waking up everyday, in that prison, and that was enough to make me realize that time is not always, but is never on our side and who are we to play with such a thing? What a bold statement. A defiant, rude act against everything we claim to love and live for and stand for. The audacity to take for granted the one thing that was never promised and is sure to fade.”

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Shelf Life returns two weeks from tonight. It’s about TIME!

Celebrate the return and the start of Season 5!!

Thursday, December 2, 2021 at 7:30 pm at @brickbar

Tickets going fast. Link in bio.

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