June 2023 Newsletter
Storytelling Association (Singapore) invites you to our our
Story Swap in the month of May.
JOIN US TODAY!!
Come share a story about grandparents.
It could be a folktale, personal story, myth or legend. Please keep stories to 10 min or less and provide the title and synopsis of the story you would like to share. You may come and just listen too. We seek your help to provide us with your story by 20 May (Saturday). It would be helpful in our planning.
Date: Wednesday 31st May 2023
Time: 7:30 pm to 9:00 pm Singapore time
Where: Zoom (online)
Fee: Free for SAS Members / $5 SGD for Non-members
Do you have a story prepared or are you working on a story that you would like to practise telling to a secure and warm audience???
If you answered yes to either of these questions, then…
Story web is for you!
Please do save the date and sign up!
This event is for SAS Members only.
Space is limited to the first 10 participants on a ‘first come, first serve’ basis.The location of the event will be emailed to you only after registration/sign up.
Sign up using this link.
A picture, photograph is useful for evoking memories… and a personal story.
Personal Storytelling Interest Group of SAS welcomes you to join their Online Social on the theme of school days of the past. If you have an old photgraph of your school days, bring it along to show us. If you don’t have one, please come and join us
We’ll start with a warm-up game and then craft stories using pictures as stimulus.
Fee:-
1) All SAS members – free of charge.
2) If you are bringing a guest or a non-member of SAS wishes to join, a charge of SGD 5 would apply per person.
If you have any queries regarding the Social, please do write to Chan Earn Meng at earnmeng@yahoo.com
Date: Saturday 10th June 2023
Time: 7:30 pm to 9:00 pm Singapore time
Where: Zoom (online)
Fee: Free for SAS Members / $5 SGD for Non-members
Registration for this online Social is mandatory. The zoom meeting details will be sent closer to event day!
Click the link given below to register for the event.
Children adore stories because stories transport them to a magical realm of imagination and wonder.
This is precisely what our two expert storytellers from the Storytelling Association Singapore (SAS) offer in every oral storytelling session in Storytime Saturday.
Each session features a unique set of tales that ignite children’s vocabulary acquisition, listening abilities, and creativity. Moreover, our talented storytellers engage and interact with the young audience, encouraging them to participate in the storytelling process.
Please note the following:
- All participants including adults should register for 1 ticket.
- Each ticket admits 1 person only. Parents to register separate tickets for themselves and their children.
- Children must be accompanied by an adult during the session at all times.
- Arrive 10 mins before the session starts. Seats of late attendees will be given to waitlist.
- NLB reserves the right to deny entry to participants who do not abide by the ground rules.
Events in Singapore & Around the World
Get a peek into the minds of seasoned storytelling festival directors & founders. Join us for a captivating ‘behind the scenes’ discussion on how they create thriving storytelling festivals in their own communities, cultures & countries.
Our Panelists:
Daniel Abercrombie is the Associate Director for the Scottish International Storytelling Festival, which takes place throughout Scotland each October. His work is rooted in partnerships, collaboration and shared creativity. He has also been the Programme & Events Manager at the Scottish Storytelling Centre in Edinburgh, Scotland for over 13 years.
Dawn MacFarlane was the Artistic Director of Toronto Storytelling Festival in 2019, 2020, 2021. The Toronto Storytelling Festival, currently in its 44th year, is one of the world’s largest and oldest urban celebrations of live storytelling, oral traditions with various outreach initiatives. Dawne is actively engaged with global storytelling communities.
Ariyo Zidni, is the founder of Ayo Dongeng Indonesia (Storytelling Community), the Indonesia International Storytelling Festival (the biggest storytelling festival in Indonesia), the Gulali Festival (Art Performances Festival for Children in Indonesia), and The Nest (Storytelling Community for Adults in Indonesia). The Indonesia International Storytelling Festival nurtures local storytellers and features international artists and has achieved great success partly due to the large number of volunteers that are a part of the organisation of the festival.
Fatimah Hassan has been the Director/Coordinator of the Penang International Kids Storytelling Festival (in short known as PINKS Fest) since its inception in 2010. Given the racial and linguistic diversity of Malaysia, the festival is multilingual and has 5 language categories, Bahasa Melayu (Malay), Bahasa Inggeris (English), Tamil, Mandarin and Arabic. Primarily funded by the Penang State Government it is targeted at children and families and is a free, fun and non-competitive event.
Our Host and Moderator:
Roger Jenkins is a founding director of FEAST (Federation of Asian Storytellers) and founder of the 398.2 Storytelling Festival Singapore (named after the Dewey-decimal code in libraries for folktales and fairytales).The festival, currently in its 9th year, is now managed by the Storytelling Association Singapore (SAS) though Roger continues to be a part of the steering committee.
Since SAS is an institutional member of FEAST (Federation of Asian Story Tellers), 5 members of SAS can attend this workshop at FEAST member’s rate of SGD$6 (standard rate is SGD$13). Sign up quickly to be the first 5 SAS members to enjoy this rate! Email feastwebinars@gmail.com to get this special rate.
Date: Thursday 12th June 2023
Time: 7:20pm to 9:00 pm (Singapore time)
Where: Online on Zoom
FEAST has numerous events (some free and some for a small fee) every month. This month there is PlotLuck. To find out more go to their website here.
S unday, June 4th
7:00 pm 8:30 pm EDT
On Zoom
Pay What You are Able $15-$40
To Register: https://www.simpletix.com/e/social-action-stories-tickets-132924
Healing Story Alliance is delighted to present a virtual concert, Social Action Stories curated by Dr. Kevin Cordi. Listening to and telling social action stories renders people and their stories visible. This program, which grew out of the recently released book, Social Action Stories, (Ed. Cordi, Milks, and Van Tessell, 2023) captures the voices of five storytellers, activists, educational reformers, therapists, and regular folks who advocate for change through deep listening and deliberate action. These stories are intended to move your work as a storyteller towards an equitable world.
8TH ANNUAL STORY CROSSROADS SUMMIT & FESTIVAL – THE HYBRID
All 28 films are on the Unlisted YouTube Playlist to view until June 15, 2023!
Featured Story Artists: TAHIRA (DE), Norm Brecke (OR), Julie Barnson, Alan Griffin, Ginger Parkinson, Nannette Watts, Lynn Wing, Cherie Davis, Carol Esterreicher, Clive Romney, John Adams, Annie & Dan Eastmond, Charlotte Starks
Featured Professors: T?vita O. Ka?ili, Ph.D. (“Language of Story: Tongan,” BYU-Hawaii); Dr. Delanna Reed (“Immersed in Performance,” Storytelling Masters Program, East Tennessee State University); John Alba Cutler, Ph.D. (“Making Space through Storytelling in The House on Mango Street,” University of California, Berkeley) Plus 40 community tellers!
True stories of surprises, twists & unlikely endings
Replay return to the Society Clubhouse for an evening of true personal storytelling, featuring stories from the people who lived them.
This show will be live streamed, so you can watch from anywhere in the world!
Memory Road
“Memory builds a little pathway that goes winding through my heart.
It is a lovely, quiet, gentle trail from other things apart.
I only meet while travelling there the folks I like the best.
For this road I call remembrance is hidden from the rest
But I hope I will always find you in my memory rendezvous.
For I keep this little secret place to meet with folks like you.”
– Helen Steiner Rice
Memory is a funny thing. One never knows when it can get triggered or ignited. Research says we remember things that tug at our heartstrings. But is that always so?
Our five senses can act as triggers to invoke memories, the pleasant ones that we would like to linger over as well as for the not so pleasant ones. Lines from a Tamil song by songwriter, Kannadasan comes to mind. “Erandu manam vendum, eraivan idam kettain, ninaithu vaaza ondru, marandhu vaaza ondru…” It means, “I asked God for two minds, one to remember pleasant things and live, and the other mind to forget the painful occurrences of life and thrive.”
How wonderful to be bestowed with such a boon! Perhaps we humans might then be more kind and loving towards one another as all hurt would be forgotten!
As I ponder over such thoughts, stories from yore tumble from my head and take up space in my heart. Some are fond memories that I relive over and over as they flow from my head into my heart, others turn to tears that cascade down my cheeks.
What are your trigger stories? We lose people, places, things in our lives, some tangible, some intangible. Memories are a beautiful thing as we can capture the lost things in our memories.
A touch: who was that? It was the tender weathered hands of a grandparent, softness and warmth.
A fragrance: what was it? It was the smell of freshly baked bread wafting through the kitchen, making our mouths water.
A taste: what was it? It was bitter medicine on the tongue that chased away an even more bitter illness.
A sound: what was it? It was the clanging of bells resounding from the temple filling the air with devotion.
A sight: what was that? It was raw mangoes hanging from the trees, a promise of sweetness to come.
Memories have a way of finding us through our five senses. My happy childhood memories are those innumerable afternoons during summer spent under the shade of a huge banyan tree, sharing stories with friends.
Here are a riddle story, a limerick, and a riddle that take me down memory lane to my childhood.
The Conundrum
There was once a man who had to eke out a living by ferrying goods and people across a river. He had a tiny boat and hence he could ferry only himself and one other single item at a time.
One day a man gave him three things to take across the river to be delivered to an uncle of his – a big basket of cabbages, a goat, and a wolf. The boatman accepted the job but was perplexed as to the logistics! Since he could take only one thing at a time, he would have to make three trips and leave two things behind. That meant trouble!
If he took the cabbages and left the goat and wolf behind, the goat would then become the wolf’s meal and he could not risk that. And if he took the wolf and left the goat and cabbages behind, the goat would have a feast.
Of course, he could first take the goat across and leave the wolf and cabbages behind, none had heard of a vegetable loving wolf and hence those cabbages would be safe but then what?
The boatman would have to bring either the cabbages or the wolf across the river on his second trip, and then something would get eaten when he went back for the last item.
He scratched his head for a long time but finally came up with a solution. He managed to get the three things across the river without ever leaving either the goat and the cabbages or the wolf and the goat, together.
See if you can work it out.
Answer:
Firstly, he took the goat with him across the river. He then went back for the basket of cabbages; he took the cabbages to the other side of the river and left it there and ferried the goat back with him.
When he reached the side where the wolf was, the man put the wolf in the boat and left the goat behind. Then he ferried the wolf across and left it with the cabbages. Finally, he went back and brought the goat back again.
Limerick
A cheerful Old Bear at the Zoo
Could always find something to do.
When it bored him to go
on a walk to and fro,
He reversed it and walked fro and to.
Riddle
An elderly couple wished to leave all their wealth to one of their three children. But they were not sure who the wise one would be.
They gave each of them a few coins and asked them to buy something that would fill up their living room. The first child bought sticks, but it did not fill up the room. The second child bought some stones and it nearly filled up the room but not entirely. The third child bought two things and it filled up the room!
What were the two things that the third child bought?
Answer: The third child bought a candle and a box of matches. Once the candle was lit, the light filled up the entire room.
“Memory is a diary that we all carry about with us.”– Oscar Wilde
References
The Conundrum is a river crossing puzzle that has been found in the folklore of several cultures and dates to at least 9th century.