Shelf Life was a popular show-and-tell storytelling series at The Brick hosted by writer and director David Wayne Reed. Throughout its five-year run, the stories at each event were sparked by an object and followed a theme, such as winning, time, and unwanted gifts.

As part of Big Read 2025, a free, city-wide reading and public engagement initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts, Shelf Life returns with a focus on soma, or the body, exploring how we live in our bodies, how we relate to our physical selves, and how our bodies carry us through the world.

The event features five new stories from Kansas City-based creatives, including Reed, Big Read featured author Rebekah Taussig, musician and amputee advocate Billy Brimblecom, actor, choreographer, and director Vanessa Severo, and visual artist and educator Kathy Liao.

There’s a “power of sharing one’s own story on stage,” Reed says, “and the palpable empathy … from the audience.”

ASL interpreters at featured presentation.

Big Read 2025 is supported in part by The National Endowment for the Arts Big Read, the City of Kansas City, Missouri Neighborhood Tourist Development Fund, and the Estelle S. and Robert A. Long Ellis Foundation. NEA Big Read is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest. El Proyecto NEA Big Read es una iniciativa del National Endowment for the Arts (el Fondo Nacional para las Artes de Estados Unidos) en cooperacion con Arts Midwest.