September's Storytellers Canvas | Axis Mundi

Storytellers Canvas | Axis Mundi 🌀

📚 Wednesday, September 23rd, 2026 — 7:00 PM
Doors & Story Sign-Ups at 6:30 PM
Tiki Steve’s Backyard Oasis
1287 W 8830 S
West Jordan, Utah

Where art meets imagination under the moon.

Two of our Lunatics are back from Burning Man and brimming with inspiration. To celebrate, we are bringing the Burning Man theme Axis Mundi to a place that truly is a connecting point and portal to the heavens, the earth, and the underworld... Tiki Steve's Backyard Oasis, aka Tiki Island.

Thirteen people will step forward to share stories, poems, songs, movement, and art. Storytellers Canvas is a narrative-driven open mic wrapped inside a new aesthetic world each month, designed as a place for artistic cross-pollination, community, and the discovery of your inner artist.

This September, Storytellers Canvas transports you from Utah to a tropical island, an Axis Mundi where your art will open portals to new worlds.

For one intimate evening, we gather inside the legendary backyard world of Tiki Steve; artist, storyteller, architect of atmosphere, and keeper of a hidden island tucked quietly into a West Jordan neighborhood.

You'll find yourself captivated beneath swaying palms, glowing lanterns, and the hush of warm night air. This home is a portal to Paradise: a dreamlike refuge where we as spectators and storytellers will traverse the axis, into the wonderful.

What is an Axis Mundi? It's the intersection where heaven, the underworld, and our world connect. You can enter an Axis Mundi through many ways. 

Real Places

Physical places that have functioned, or are imagined to function, as sacred centers or cosmic connectors.

• Teotihuacan
• Catalina Island
• Mount Hara
• Ziggurat of Babylon
• Tenochtitlan
• Chichén Itzá
• The Kaaba
• Devils Tower
• Mount Fuji
• Angkor Wat
• Mount Tai
• Delos
• Pyramid Lake
• Kunlun Mountain
• The Great Pyramid of Giza
• The Hanging Gardens of Babylon
• Burning Man

Implements & Objects

Things used to cross, communicate with, reveal, or manipulate the boundary between worlds.

• Totem Poles
• Talismans or Amulets
• Divination Tools
• Prayer Beads or Rosaries
• Mirrors
• Magic Wands
• Ouija Boards
• Sacred Geometry
• Psychedelics
• Alchemy

People

Human beings who function as intermediaries between worlds.

• The Shaman
• The Witch
• The Druid
• Monks
• Priests and Priestesses
• Storytellers
• Artists

Fiction

Fictional places or objects that perform an unmistakable Axis Mundi function.

• The Dark Tower
• The Wardrobe
• Platform 9¾
• The Emerald City
• The Monolith
• The Tree of Souls
• The TARDIS

Mythology & Sacred Tradition

Cosmological locations, beings, symbols, and sacred structures whose Axis Mundi quality comes from mythology or religious tradition.

• Mount Meru
• Mount Olympus
• Bodhi Tree
• Omphalos at Delphi
• Yggdrasil
• The Ceiba Tree
• Wakan Tree

Our Guest Artist

We invite you into this living Axis Mundi, a place, and a practice. You, as the storyteller, will bend time and space, connecting your art to the now. 

Our guest artist, Jakob Jennings (Moonwind), arrives as our resident Djinn. He'll listen to your art, and reflect back what type of Axis Mundi your art has conveyed and why. Then, at our halfway marker and again at the end of the night, we will burn the totems given to us by our resident Djinn, Moonwind, to create a literal bridge between worlds.

Our hosts Tiki Steve and Janilee have created a safe, beautiful haven away from the bustle of everyday life. We can't think of a better space for your stories, art, and authenticity. A true portal to paradise.

The format for Storytellers Canvas is as follows:
13 storytellers.
7 minutes each.
Audience favorites for each round.

An intimate gathering of artists, romantics, weirdos, and wandering souls.

Dress Code:
Come dressed in your burner best. Goggles, Festival Wear, Whatever makes you feel like your authentic self, don't hold back.

🎭 Audience Favorites
At the end of each round, the audience will vote for the storytellers who moved them most. Whether this be through beauty, vulnerability, absurdity, laughter, or emotional crossover. The awards are presented by our sponsor, Bell Book & Candle, who also uses this opportunity to feed our local community (literally)

🗓️ Event Details
When: Wednesday, September 23rd, 2026
Doors & Sign-Ups: 6:30 PM
Show Begins: 7:00 PM
Ends: 10:00 PM

Where:
Tiki Steve’s Backyard Oasis
1287 W 8830 S
West Jordan, Utah

Capacity: Only 50 guests

This gathering will sell out.

Story Slots: 13 performers | 7 minutes each
Sign-Ups: First come, first portaled. (No exceptions, even for friends)

🌀 Step out of the ordinary and into a portal to new worlds.

It’s Storytellers Canvas | Axis Mundi