When applying for one of the five visiting artist slots at a Flynn storytelling festival, Gina Stevensen submitted an account of making the semifinals in a Burlington backyard queer Jell-O wrestling competition last summer. "I found this sort of internal sense of confidence and pride in who I am that then helped me with the next part of the day," Stevensen said, "which was driving to Maine to visit my parents" for a difficult discussion about Stevensen's gender identity and new pronouns. A jury selected Stevensen to tell the story of that momentous day at the second-annual *snap* First Person Arts Festival, held Friday to Sunday, January 24 to 26, at Flynn Space in Burlington. The three-day event unspools like it did last year: opening with a headliner, continuing with the five visiting artists and closing with an open-mic story slam. Susanne Schmidt, Vermont's regional producer and a national instructor for the Moth StorySLAM competition, returns to give a two-day storytelling workshop. New York City-based headliner Ryan J. Haddad will perform Hi, Are You Single?, his 90-minute, solo, autobiographical show exploring the complications of romance for a gay man with cerebral palsy. Haddad, who played a recurring role on the Netflix series "The Politician," was named one of four rising playwrights by the New York Times in 2023. He won the 2023 Obie Award for best new American play for his autobiographical work Dark Disabled Stories, which played at the Public Theater in New York City. By presenting artists at all levels — amateur, rising and professional — *snap* is designed to celebrate and nurture the ancient art of storytelling. Flynn executive director Jay Wahl said the inaugural fest served as a reminder "that when people get onstage and tell you their story, when they really share their experience and their joy and their heartache and their perspective on the world, something about that opens something inside you." What surprised Wahl most last year was that some people attended all three performances and participated in the workshop. "I just didn't realize that there were going to be a handful of folks who really were hungry for this," he said. More than 50 people applied for the five visiting artist slots, double last year's number, Wahl said. Each will tell a true story. In addition to Stevensen, the sole Vermonter, storytellers include Emmy-nominated actor, singer and writer Kaitlin Becker,…