August 2024 Newsletter
Singapore’s 59th National Day is a wonderful theme for oral storytelling as we appreciate and celebrate stories of our multicultural community in Singapore.
Moreover, Storytelling Association (Singapore) would like to share with you some upcoming in-person, online storytelling events and reflections by Kala Sundaram.
Happy National Day and wishing you a wonderful storytelling month!
Best wishes,
Storytelling Association (Singapore)
Website: Storytelling Singapore
Email: storytellingsingapore@gmail.com
Calling all SAS members, come and take part in a Story Web session at a member’s home in Potong Pasir. You are welcome to try out a rough and raw story with a small group of supportive listeners.
To register, please click the following link:
Get ready for the 398.2 Storytelling Festival!
Get updates about the 398.2 Storytelling Festival 2024 through its social media links.
Award-winning Storyteller Alton Chung (www.altonchung.com) will be in Singapore to conduct a storytelling workshop about how to bring characters to life.
This workshop is open to members and non-members, and participants will be equipped with the skills and techniques needed to create compelling, vivid, and relatable characters through spoken narrative.
Date: Saturday,14 September 2024
Time: 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. (Refreshments will be provided)
Venue: Singapore Book Council
90 Goodman Road, Blk E #03-32
Goodman Arts Centre
Singapore 439053
(walking distance from Mountbatten MRT station)
To register, please click the link below:
Story Story Podcast
If you are keen on listening to stories told in the oral tradition, traditional Storyteller and Musician from the States, Rachel Ann Harding, produces a podcast that will give you all the fairytales you could want, from the best storytellers in the world. Listen to it here!
Storytelling Association (Singapore) is an institutional member of FEAST (Federation of Asian Storytellers) (www.feast-story.org). Up to 5 SAS members can register for any individual FEAST event at the member rate.
FEAST will be having their 4th Storytelling Conference in Suwon, South Korea (September 6-8, 2024).
SAS is happy to share that members Anamika Bhati, Juriah Atan, Karen Lee, Kiran Shah and Krupa Vinayagamoorthy will be conducting workshops at the conference. We wish them the very best and a wonderful time at the conference.
If you would like to join the conference, you may do so at
Conference Reg Link
https://tinyurl.com/FEASTConference24Page
For any questions, contact FEAST at feaststory@gmail.com.
THE HEALING STORY ALLIANCE
AUTHOR INTERVIEW SERIES:
When Storytellers Write About Healing
Tickets for Jim Brulé’s Interview on August 21st:
https://www.simpletix.com/e/when-storytellers-write-about-healing-an-i-tickets-176375
Join us for the first two events in HSA’s new author interview series. Live on ZOOM, through interviews and audience Q and A, we will explore together writers’ insights into the unique and powerful relationship between storytelling and healing. Through discussions with a wide array of authors from different disciplines and perspectives, we will deepen our understanding of what healing means, how it functions, and how storytelling can play a central role in the healing process.
Tickets are now available for the first event in this new Healing Story Alliance series! In this initial session, Jim Brulé will interview noted storyteller and author Laura Simms about her book, “Our Secret Territory: The Essence of Storytelling.” Laura will share the inspirations and experiences that shaped her book, offering valuable insights into storytelling as a transformative and healing art.
The conversation will explore the depths of creativity, the connection between storyteller and audience, and the therapeutic impact of sharing stories. Audience participation is encouraged, with opportunities to ask questions and share observations inspired by Laura’s work and the interview.
This event benefits The Healing Storytelling Alliance, dedicated to promoting healing through the art of storytelling, and sets the stage for HSA’s second interview event on August 21st, where Laura Simms will interview Jim Brulé about his book, “Stories of the Heart: Journey into Dying and Living,” continuing the exploration of storytelling’s profound impact.
Reflections by Kala Sundaram
Schools help our connections travel far and wide
National U.S. Postage Stamp Day and National Postal Worker Day are observed on July 1st in the USA and holds significance in acknowledging the efforts of postal workers. It celebrates and acknowledges the hard work postal workers put in to ensure our mail and deliveries reach us on time.
We may have embraced technology and social media, but postal services are still important for communication, especially in rural areas.
Observing marked days encourages people all over to take a moment from their busy lives and show gratitude towards their postal workers. Even in harsh weather conditions like extreme heat and thunderstorms they continue with their unwavering services. For those of us outside the US, we can honour postal workers on the 9th of October, World Post Day.
To quote Anatole Broyard, “In an age like ours, which is not given to letter-writing, we forget what an important part it used to play in people’s lives.” I can completely relate to this statement as I belong to that era of letter writing.
Ever since my boys came home one evening with a huge envelope as their school took part in an educational event called The Flat Stanley Project, the story of Flat Stanley has stayed with me. The aim of the project was to facilitate letter-writing between school children and encourage them to take Stanley to places of interest in their country, as well as teach children about people and cultures from different places. It encouraged creative storytelling. The kids loved playing the role of tourists in their own countries.
“To write is human, to receive a letter: Divine!” – Susan Lendroth
Below is an account of the exploits of Flat Stanley during his Singapore sojourn:
Flat Stanley comes Home
Rebecca came home from school on a Friday with a huge packet. She was excited. Every other Friday she could borrow two books from her school library.
She sounded very pompous, and told her mother, “Ma, Flat Stanley is visiting us, and we have to take him around Singapore.” Her mother was perplexed! “Who was this Flat Stanley and where was he?”
Rebecca handed the book, Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown to her mother and said, “Here is the book and a note from my teacher.”
Her mum opened the book and began reading. Stanley was flattened under a Brobdingnagian bulletin board that was a Christmas gift from his grandma. Stanley used the board to pin up his artwork, as well as messages to his parents and his pet cat, Misha, until the board fell on him one day, flattening him.
Luckily Stanley was not hurt, and he called out from under the board and said, “Hi there! What’s happening?”
He was safe! Hooray! That meant he could have a lot of adventures now. He could be placed in an envelope and sent anywhere across the world. That had led to so many new projects and friendships across the globe.
The note from Rebecca’s teacher read, “Please include Stanley in your family outings and adventures and send Flat Stanley back with any pictures, letters or cards, so we can record his travels and learn about different nations, people and cultures. The students are learning about World Postal Day and the importance of postal workers and the joy of keeping in touch with family and friends all over.”
The book talked about all of Stanley’s adventures, his travels, the advantages of being flat and how envious many of his friends felt as he could go on so many adventures.
Stanley had even helped catch some thieves and his name shone all over, in newspapers, magazines, and school news bulletins. He became famous.
Thus began Stanley’s adventure in Singapore with his friend Rebecca.
Singapore’s National Day was fast approaching, the streets were awash with white and red colors with stars and crescent moon adorning them.
Flat Stanley was exhilarated. He felt happy he could spend a few days in Singapore. He walked through the Singapore Botanical Gardens, a UNESCO World Heritage site to Orchard Road.
At the gardens he saw a family of pied oriental hornbills.
On Orchard Road, the glitzy shops enchanted him. Then he saw a pushcart that sold ice cream. He had an ice cream wrapped in colorful bread. It was delicious! He chose red bean ice-cream; he was apprehensive at first, beans in ice-cream? He was adventurous too. He thought to himself, can one ever go wrong no matter which flavour ice cream they choose?
Leaving behind the crowds of Orchard Road, Stanley boarded a train to Chinatown. He admired the sights and sounds in Chinatown. It had modern amenities but retained the old-world charm.
He was drawn to two murals, the Samsui woman as he exited Maxwell Station caught his fancy, she looked so attractive with her red headdress and blue outfit.
“Looks just like Paddington Bear with blue and red.” squealed Stanley. The other mural was that of a bespectacled man on a shophouse wall pouring tea out of a king-sized kettle into a cup. He took pictures with those murals.
He went to the Night Safari and a walk in the wilderness and a tram ride added to his stories.
On his final day in Singapore, Flat Stanley decided to take a walk along the estate he lived in. He saw a little boy calling out to a kitty who refused to come out from a tiny, narrow space under a concrete ledge. The little boy kept calling her, “KitKat come back, here kitty, kitty Kat, look I have a tasty snack for you,” but she refused.
Flat Stanley came to his rescue. As he was flat, he easily crawled into the narrowest of spaces and gently brought her back. The little boy was grateful and soon Stanley became the talk of the estate.
He then saw his neighbour, a little girl named Anaiah who was in tears as she had forgotten her assignment inside and she along with her grandma were locked out. She would be late for school, what was she to do? Flat Stanley helped her. Just by lying down and sliding through the crack at the bottom, he could go in and out of rooms, even when the door was closed. “There were advantages to being flat,” he said and winked at the girl. Anaiah was so happy, and she told her friends in school about Flat Stanley.
Next Flat Stanley saw a grandpa doddering along who accidentally dropped his EZlink card between the steel gratings of a narrow drainage. Flat Staley calmed grandpa and easily slid his arm between the gratings and retrieved the card. Grandpa shared the story with his grandson, Nehemiah, and Flat Stanley’s stories of kindness spread like wildfire all over the island.
All the schools in Singapore wished to invite him to visit.
However, it was time for Flat Stanley to continue travelling to other countries for more adventures and spread goodwill and cheer to more places.
He returned with so many letters, cards and first day covers to share with his friends and of course memories of Singapore.
Best of all, he took back a packet of iced gem biscuits to share.
“The word that is heard perishes, but the letter that is written remains.” Unknown
References: Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown
‘A story is told eye to eye, mind to mind, heart to heart.’ – Scottish proverb