Early, early Sunday morning

It is 4 in the morning and I'm home after picking up Fule and Adwoa Badoe from the airport. The past two days have been a whirl of storytelling, with two very succesful concerts at Gower Street United Church. I think the crowd favourite to date has been the Queen of Paradise Garden with Andy Jones and Darka Erdelji, which was very funny, and very well received by the capacity crowd at the church hall. Coming up today: the African Dance workshop with Adwoa Badoe, ghost stories with yours truly at The Rooms, a workshop with Kevin MacKenzie, and then our final night cabaret. Pictures to follow, but for now, I'm heading to bed!

Day 2: Stories, Recitations, and Ballads

Another full day of storytelling, and a gathering of the clans! Today started off bright and early, seeing me heading to Holy Cross Elementary for some last minute rehearsals with the storytelling students there who will be performing Thursday night.

Kevin MacKenzie told to a crowd of appreciative grade sevens at Villa Nova school in Manuels, while Elinor Benjamin arrived in from Corner Brook to tell stories at the Janeway Children's Hospital. Then tonight at the ship, Gary Green hosted Kelly Russell with Allan and Matthew Byrne for a night of stories, recitations, ballads and tunes.

More storytellers arrived, with Christine Mayr arriving from Montreal and heading straight down to the Ship Pub. As I stood there taking pictures, a young woman introduced herself to me as the niece of Mariella Bertelli, a fabulous Italian-Canadian storyteller, and a former performer at the St. John's Storytelling Festival.

A delightful addition to tonight's evening was the presence of Mrs Alice Lannon, the grandmother of traditional Newfoundland storytelling, who turned 81 today. The standing-room only crowd at the Ship all sang Alice "Happy Birthday" as Alice remarked: "only the good die young!"

It was great to be at the Ship tonight and look out into the audience and see so many great storytellers in one place, not only the ones mentioned here, but others like Anita Best, Hubert Furey and Mary Fearon. It is shaping up to be an amazing week.

Next up: more school storytelling with Christine Mayr and Kevin M, and an event I'm very excited about, the young storytellers concert at The Lantern on Barnes Road!

Festival Kicks Off!

The fifth annual St. John's Storytelling Festival started tonight in, of all places, Mount Pearl, in partnership with the Association for the Arts in Mount Pearl hosting a workshop for beginning storytellers at the Admiralty House Museum. (Special thanks to AAMP's Christine Hennebury)

The rain poured down outside as we explored family stories, traditional Newfoundland folktales, and creating our own stories. Aside from a small, damp crowd, and Kevin MacKenzie's feet getting soaking wet (I told people to bring dry socks) the evening was a great success, with many a laugh shared.

Photographic evidence of the same on facebook.

Tomorrow: Stories and Ballads at The Ship

One day till the festival!

I picked Kevin MacKenzie up at the airport yesterday, the first of our out-of-province guests to arrive for the 5th annual St. John's Storytelling Festival. Had a great chat with Kevin last night at the Guv'nor, and today we drove up to Signal Hill, ate our lunch and chatted about the world of storytelling.

The festival is looking to be a good one! Things kick off tomorrow with my intro storytelling workshop at Admiralty House in Mount Pearl. You can see the facebook event listing here. There is no cost, but you must register in advance by calling 765-9383.