The 2023 programme for this 12 months’s Scottish International Storytelling Festival (SISF) explores our Right To Be Human,and celebrates the 75th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Just as Scotland’s session on a brand new Human Rights Bill attracts to an in depth, storytellers, musicians and artists will be a part of collectively in venues throughout the nation to embrace this milestone with tales of human braveness and creativity, spoken with highly effective phrases.
During this 12 months’s pageant (13-29 October) there will probably be tales advised concerning the impacts of struggle, gender inequality, censorship; ethnic, cultural, linguistic and spiritual prejudices; and different threats and challenges on our human rights as a worldwide nation.
New this 12 months is the Festival’s first podcast series Another Story – six weekly episodes themed round our proper to be human ranging from 12 September; and Art of the Storyteller – in-person, weekend workshops led by Festival Director Donald Smith with varied skilled storytellers, the place budding storytellers can study to enhance their storytelling abilities and higher join with their viewers.
Opening this 12 months’s Festival will probably be storyteller Gauri Raje with Tales of Exile and Sanctuary (Fri 13 Oct) sharing tales from Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, India and the horn of Africa, woven collectively to query the sweetness and horrors of exile from the world over.
Other occasions exploring and celebrating our common human rights embrace new commissions:
- Wave Riders (Sat 14 Oct) with storyteller Jan Bee Brownand musician Renzo Spiteri sharing the sagas of Viking pioneers who cast higher methods to dwell in peace.
- Letters to Jackie(Sun 15 Oct) returns with agony aunts Bea Ferguson, Heather Yule and Maria Whatton readily available with previous tales to reply the issues of in the present day.
- Joyfully Grimm: Reimagining a Queer Adolescence(Mon 16 Oct) with James Stedman who takes a heartfelt and barely irreverent have a look at Section 28, and the enjoyment with which LGBTQIA+ folks have at all times existed in each tales and actual life.
- The Voice Shall Always Remain(Tue 17 Oct) advised by way of the standard ‘pardeh-khani’ method (narration by way of curtains), Iranian storyteller Zahra Afsah and Syrian storyteller Khloud Ereksousi discover how Iranian girls discover their freedom in their very own voices and skills.
- Don Quixote Rides Again(Wed 18 Oct) a spellbinding comical expertise with Spanish storyteller Inés Álvarez Villa and flamenco musician Danielo Olivera difficult prejudice, displaying compassion, and embracing our true selves.
- Stories of therapeutic advised by way of the Norse tales of Odin, Gullveig and Mimir inOdin’s Eye and The Art of Seeing with Alice Fernbank (Sat 21 Oct) adopted by Shadow Walking masking darkish tales of jealousy, destruction and self-importance with Ruth Kirkpatrick and Peter Chand.
- The story of Orpheus and Eurydice will get a Scottish twist in Orpheus | Orfeo(Sun 22 Oct) advised by Daniel Serridge, Heather Cartwright and Neil Wood (harp).
- Fire from the Woods(Thu 26 Oct) with storyteller Daiva Ivanauskaitė and musician Gaynor Barradell exploringthe silence between generations, how generally fathers are silent whereas youngsters develop up with out tales and our proper to find out about our ancestors.
- The Town Mouse and The Country Mouse (Sat 14 Oct) – a multisensory journey appropriate for youngsters with further wants with illustrator Kate Leiper and storyteller Ailie Finlay.
Also showing on this 12 months’s programme are a few of the nation’s favorite storytellers in our Collective Treasures strand which gathers reminiscences, experiences and values collectively in tales to have fun our frequent humanity.
Highlights embrace:
- Scots Character(Thu 19 Oct) with James Spence which excursions the vary of Scots story and tongue together with some dour, thrawn, stoic, droll and outrageous private reminiscences.
- Gillian Paterson and Nicola Wrighttake a whirlwind journey by way of girls’s historical past in The Girl’s Own Survival Guide to History (Sat 21 Oct) with feminine pirates, raucous rebels and prime recommendations on studying methods to keep away from being referred to as a witch.
- Shonaleigh Cumbersdips into her personal Jewish and British storytelling traditions in A Garment for the Moon (Sun 22 Oct).
- Berit Alette Mienna and musician Øistein Hanssen share the deep roots of the Sami tradition and the threats it faces, inNorthern Treasures (Wed 25 & Sat 28 Oct).
- Prolific author and political activist Italo Calvino’scentenary is widely known with a Scots-Italian garland of tales from Anne Hunter, Donald Smith and Simone Caffari (Mon 16 Oct).
- Tradition bearer Allan MacDonald and musician Aidan O’Rourkecurrent tales from the John Francis Campbell’scollection in Sgeul – Mighty and Magic ( Fri 20 & Wed 25 Oct).
- Dr Valentina Boldand storyteller Amanda Edmiston current excerpts from Mike Bolam’s movie Up the Middle Roadwith dwell storytelling and a dialogue across the stigma of psychological well being (Tue 17 Oct).
For youthful audiences and households searching for some improbable actions throughout their October college holidays there are craft and storytelling periods, story walks within the Royal Botanic Garden Garden Edinburgh together with Rewilding Cinderella: An Eco-Storytelling Concert (Sun 15 Oct) weaving collectively tales from all around the world concerning the ash-child advised by the Storytelling Choir which incorporates storytellers Gauri Raje, Kestrel Morton, Laura Sampson, Wendy Shearer, Joanna Gilarand Fleur Hemmings. Poetry from Tunde Balogun, music from Heulwen Williams and inventive enchantments by Hannah Battershell; and tales about timber, animals and bugs in Once There Was A Bug (Sun 15 Oct). Walks by way of the cobbled streets of Edinburgh with Macastory (Sat 21 Oct) the place the characters of Deacon Brodie and Aggie the Fish Wife come to life; the Egyptian story of Isis and Osiris (Sat 14 Oct) is retold by Fergus McNicol with stomach dancing from Moyra Banks; and a Kamishibai Workshop (Thu 19 Oct) with famend storyteller, harpist and Urasenke Japanese Tea Master Mio Shudo.
At the top of the day, as darkness begins to fall, audiences can collect on the Netherbow Theatre for a relaxed night of tales and music in our Open Hearth periods that includes storytellers and musicians from world wide (Fri 13, Wed 24 & Sun 29 Oct).
Plus, there are particular occasions together with Anna Conomos-Wedlock’s The Promise, the place tales impressed by the oral testimonies of Asia Minor refugees, draw on the that means of homeland, displacement, reminiscence and friendship, with music and music by Rebecca Vučetić (Fri 27 Oct); The Displaced Heart (Mon 23 Oct) an beautiful storytelling and music efficiency, combining English, Punjabi, and Irish songs accompanied by guitar and sitar; and Songs & Stories of the Fianna (Fri 20 Oct) supported by Bòrd na Gàidhlig’s Colmcille fund; and two occasions introduced by Deaf Action and initially carried out at Edinburgh Deaf Festival earlier this 12 months: Visual Fun With Sports (Sat 21 Oct) by Petre Dobre & Craig McCulloch and Red Aphrodite (Thu 19 Oct) by Amy Murray.
Our in style on-line workshop strand Global Lab returns this 12 months and through Week One (16-19 Oct) the pageant will have a look at our planet’s eco-system and the way ecological ardour drives twenty-first century storytelling. In affiliation with Earth Charter International every day Festival Director Donald Smith will invite storytellers from all corners of our planet to carry out tales of human messiness, therapeutic, hope and connections with nature. In Week Two the workshop theme is Shared Lives (23-26 Oct) and our focus returns to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the significance of valuing dignity, respect, equality and compassion in our lives.
Go Local additionally returns this 12 months, with new voices from extra areas in Scotland together with North and South Lanarkshire coming collectively to share tales and songs. From Shetland to Dumfries and Galloway, there will probably be tales of battles, journey, love and friendship shared by the fireplace by way of October and November, with most of the pageant’s commissions additionally occurring tour.
Alongside these occasions, this 12 months’s Festival Exhibition hosted on the Scottish Storytelling Centre will probably be TALK – a collection of portraits taken by Edinburgh-based photographer Graham Williams, exploring the topic of males’s psychological well being as a part of the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival .
Looking forward to this 12 months’s occasion, Scottish International Storytelling Festival Director, Donald Smith stated:
“All over the world human and environmental rights are under threat. But against that there is an activist and creative tide building towards a different future. The Storytelling Festival is part of that wave.”
Minister for Culture Christina McKelvie stated: “Right to be Human is impressed by the seventy fifth Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and couldn’t be extra well timed. During the approaching parliamentary 12 months, the Scottish Government will introduce an bold new Human Rights Bill for Scotland. This will probably be a big milestone in Scotland’s human rights journey, constructing on previous work to embed a human rights tradition throughout Scotland.
“This year’s Scottish International Storytelling Festival, supported by £120,000 of Scottish Government Festivals Expo funding, celebrates and explores all aspects of our common humanity in a challenging world.”
Catriona Hawksworth, Traditional Arts Officer at Creative Scotland, stated: “Telling stories is part of being human and why events like the Scottish International Storytelling Festival are so important. The ‘Right To Be Human’ project in particular, supported by the Scottish Government’s Festivals EXPO fund, provides opportunities for Scottish storytellers to present their work on an internationally recognised platform, reflecting human rights issues and the human experience across the world and increasing their national and international reach. Including podcasts, music, children’s stories, Scots language, global voices and Greek myth – the festival has something for everyone to recognise and enjoy.”
The Scottish International Storytelling Festival will happen Friday 13 – Sunday 29 October. Tickets to every occasion value a most of £10, with household occasions costing simply £5 per ticket. For these planning on attending a number of occasions, the Festival Pass presents discounted tickets to many dwell pageant occasions, on-line and on the Scottish Storytelling Centre, in addition to a reduction on the Scottish Storytelling Centre’s bookshop and Haggis Box Café.
To buy tickets and browse the complete programme, go to sisf.org.uk.
Neil Hanna Photography
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