Chennai Storytelling Festival 2023
Fri 3rd to Sun 26th Feb 2023
Festival theme:
Storytelling and
Growing, Maturing, Gaining Freedom from
Oppression, Teaching and Learning, Playing,
Creating, Transforming, and/or Healing
in Individuals and Groups --
and the Healing of the Environment."
Festival Homepage.
In the list below, Yellow indicates
a Storytelling event.
Workshop Leaders and Storytellers (101)
1) Aaron Conklin (Missouri).
Workshop:
"Storytelling
as a Conduit for Growing through Grief".
Starting
at
9am (India time), Sun 5th Feb.
9:30pm (Missouri time), Sat 4th Feb.
10:30pm (Canada and USA Eastern time), Sat 4th Feb.
---
An old Celtic proverb states,
"Death is the middle of a long life."
The great Sufi poet and mystic Rumi said,
"Die before you die."
When composing the Holy Longing,
novelist and poet Johann
Wolfgang von Goethe concludes,
"...so long as you haven't
experienced this: to die and so to grow,
you are only a troubled
guest on the dark earth."
To truly experience the mysterious and nourishing depths of
life's offerings, the human psyche has
to confront death, as both
the finality of one’s physical existence
and as the ending of
experiences, relationships,
opportunities, and stages in one’s life.
Many of the hardships and difficulties
that can befall a person in
their lifetime can each feel like a form
of dying, as they often signify
a permanent change to deeply held
perspectives in the psyche.
In all its myriad forms, death brings
change and grief, and the
human psyche must learn to process it,
preferably in physically,
mentally, and spiritually healthy
manners. Storytelling can be one
such manner.
Several cultures worldwide tell stories to remind us that death
and grieving are merely a sequential
part of a continual cycle of
initiation. Using a version of "The Cat Who Lived a
Million Lives"
by Yoko Sano, this workshop explores the
grief that accompanies
those smaller "deaths" that we
have to grow through in the seasons
of life so our newest and better selves
can continually emerge. It is
the intention of this workshop, and the
belief of its presenter, that
when experienced in a group setting that
safely encourages
participants to share personal
interpretations, reactions, and
connections, this story can become a
conduit for transforming loss
and heartache into supportive
scaffolding for healthy human
development. We will experience the story in two parts,
with a
moment for reflection and sharing in the
middle and at the end.
Afterward, participants will be invited
to design and illustrate
personal "death" masks.
---
ajconklin1983 (at) gmail.com
2) Allison Quaid (Germany).
Workshop:
"Create a Healing Fairytale".
Starting
at
3:30pm
(India time), Sun 12th Feb.
11am
(Germany time), Sun 12th Feb.
5am
(Canada and USA Eastern time), Sun 12th Feb.
---
Creating your own healing
fairy tale
is a
magical experience. It can put
you
in touch with your fairy godmother
whose
wise words can soothe old pain
and
turn them into insight, compassion,
and
empowering beliefs. Creating a tale
is
easier than you might imagine. In this
workshop,
you'll receive a guide for writing
a
healing tale and you'll start writing your
own.
No experience is needed.
---
Examples
https://www.healingfairytales.com
aquaid (at) gmail.com
3) Ambujavalli N. (Chennai).
1
Workshop:
"Animating a Story with Gestures, Sounds,
and Humour".
Starting
at
5pm
(India time), Fri 17th Feb.
6:30am (Canada and USA Eastern time),
Fri 17th Feb.
---
The flyer is here.
---
A movie has a crew working on different
things
such as screenplay, acting, music, and
dance
A storyteller is like a one-man/woman
army
who has to play all the above roles to
grab and
retain the attention of audience
members.
Elements that can make storytelling more
engaging and entertaining are sounds,
gestures
and humour. This workshop aims at providing
a glimpse of how and where these
elements
can be added to a storytelling to make
it a more
lively experience for the teller and the
audience
members.
--------------------------------------------
2
Workshop
with other members of Springboard
Tales:
"Various Methods of Storytelling, and
Activities Listeners Could Do After
Storytellings".
Starting
at
5pm (India time), Sun 19th Feb.
6:30am (Canada and USA Eastern time), Sun 19th Feb.
---
This workshop presents demonstrations of
storytelling
methods such as, 1) Tandem, 2)
Theatrical, 3) Through
poetry, and 4) Weaving personal
narratives with folktales.
However, the storytelling experience need not stop with
just the telling of stories. What we do after a story is shared
can also be very important. Thus, participants in this
workshop would be coached in activities
the listeners
could be invited to do after they hear
and see storytellings.
Through these activities, listeners
could churn and stir
within themselves the feelings and
thoughts brought on
by storytellings.
--------------------------------------------
3
Storytelling:
Starting
at
5:10pm (India time), Sat 25th Feb.
6:40am
(Canada and USA Eastern time), Sat 25th Feb.
---
Hybrid
session -- Online (Zoom) and in-person
at
British Council, Chennai.
Story titles
are here.
--------------------------------------------
https://indianstorytellingnetwork.org/Chennai.html#Ambuja
Facebook page
ambujavalli (at)
gmail.com
4) Amna Burki (Manitoba, Canada).
Workshop:
"Storytelling
for Celebrating Cultural Diversity".
Co-led by David
Heathfield.
Starting
at
9:30pm
(India time), Sat 4th Feb.
10am
(Manitoba, Canada time), Sat 4th Feb.
11am (Canada and USA Eastern time), Sat 4th Feb.
---
Through
oral storytelling we can build bridges between
cultures
within our communities. Tellers and
listeners
have
the opportunity to learn about and celebrate cultural
diversity
when they are told and tell wisdom tales from
heritages
which are often overlooked among the dominant
majority. In this workshop we'll explore the benefits
to
everyone
of choosing to tell stories which reveal to us
what
we have in common.
---
amnaburki16 (at) gmail.com
5) Amrita Chauhan (Jaipur).
Workshop:
"Creative Ways to Build Stories".
Starting
at
6:30pm (India time), Sun 12th Feb.
8am (Canada and USA Eastern time),
Sun 12th Feb.
---
Have you ever gotten stuck while
composing a story?
In this workshop, we will look at
numerous structures
and guidelines for composing
stories. The workshop
will feature a bold new approach to
accessing the
imaginative side of the mind. This approach is
designed to trigger one's
creativity and let one
add magic, as well as logic, to a
story. We will
be exploring our experiences,
thoughts, and emotions.
The workshop's hands-on activities
are designed to
promote thinking, and enable one to
express freely
and come up with new ideas
individually, and in groups.
We will also experiment with what can occur when
one tells a story one has
created. As we all know,
storytelling involves expression,
engagement, body
language, nuances, voice modulation,
and more.
---
https://indianstorytellingnetwork.org/Jaipur.html#Amrita
amritasomani (at) yahoo.com
6) Anagha Prasad (Bangalore).
Storytelling:
The Katha Krafters present "Interwoven India".
Stories about the unique weaves and patterns
from the looms of India.
Starting
at
9:30pm (India time), Sun 5th Feb.
11am (Canada and USA Eastern time), Sun 5th Feb.
---
A Flyer is here.
---
Participating Members:
1) Anagha Prasad.
3) Meera
Venkatesan.
4) Parvathy
Eswaran.
---
anaghaprasad (at) gmail.com
Facebook, KathaKrafters
7) Angela Halvorsen Bogo (Norway).
Storytelling:
Starting
at
6:10pm (India time), Sat 25th Feb.
1:40pm (Norway time), Sat 25th Feb.
7:40am
(Canada and USA Eastern time), Fri 25th Feb.
---
Hybrid
session -- Online (Zoom) and in-person
at
British Council, Chennai.
Story titles
are here.
---
https://www.transformationalplay.net/about
angela.bogo (at) gmail.com
8)
Anitha Ranjit (Kochi).
Storytelling:
Facilitating
the Malayalam Storytelling Session,
Starting at
3pm (India time), Sun 19th Feb.
4:30am (Canada and USA Eastern time), Sun 12th Feb.
Please contact Ms Anitha for the Zoom Link.
---
anisumi65 (at) gmail.com
9) Annapoorani Barani (Chennai).
1
Storytelling
Starting
at
5:10pm (India time), Sat 11th Feb.
6:40am (Canada and USA Eastern time), Sat 11th Feb.
---
Hybrid
session -- Online (Zoom) and in-person
at
Goethe Institute, Chennai.
Story titles
are here.
---------------------------------------------
2
Workshop:
"Maximising One's Storytelling Space:
Ways to Make
Best Use of One's Offline
or Online
Space to Deliver a Good
Performance".
Starting
at
Noon (India time), Sun 12th Feb.
1:30am (Canada and USA Eastern
time), Sun 12th Feb.
---
The workshop concerns maximising
the storytelling
space: ways to make best use of the
space one has
for a storytelling -- whether
off-line (with listeners
physically-present) or on-line
---------------------------------------------
https://indianstorytellingnetwork.org/Chennai.html#Annapoorani
annu199 (at) gmail.com
10) Anuradha Rohra (Mumbai).
Workshop:
"Exploring
Stories through Dramatic Activities".
Starting
at
9am (India time), Sun 12th Feb.
10:30pm (Canada and USA Eastern
time), Sat 11th Feb.
---
Effective storytelling connects to the
meaning
