The 7th annual Winnipeg International Storytelling Festival is this week, from Tuesday, May 8 through Saturday, May 12, 2012. It’s the only festival of its kind in the world: an annual free cultural event dedicated to storytelling for the advocacy and support of peace.
“Everyone has a story,” says Jessica Senehi, festival director and associate director of the Mauro Centre for Peace and Justice. “Listening to each other’s stories and sharing stories of wit and wisdom nurture human development, build and share culture, cross boundaries and create a shared identity. This helps to build bonds of friendship and community; and a global citizen knows her or his own story with a larger context of a globe-spanning web of stories and life experience.”
At the Festival this year, the first Dr. Philip Weiss Award for Storytelling for Peace and Human Rights will be given out. The recipient will be Dr. Monique Saigal, a Holocaust survivor who had been a “hidden child” in France during World War II.
More than 6,000 seats have been booked already for the festival’s school program, bringing K through 12 students to Winnipeg from as far as Swan River.
Featured tellers this year include: renowned playwright and performer Ian Ross; young spoken word artist and refugee advocate Faiza Hargaaya; hip hop artist nereO Eugenio; deaf storyteller Noah Buccholz from New Jersey; francophone teller Eveline Ménard from Quebec; Indian education activist Sr. Cyril Mooney; Winnipeg clown Sue Proctor; and children’s theatre director Tetiana Bielousova from Ukraine.
On May 9, more than 400 students will participate in small group circles in the Investors Group Athletic Centre, led by 18 University of Manitoba graduate students from 14 different countries.
Other highlights:
- Deaf Storytelling Night, Thursday, May 10, 7 pm, Deaf Centre of Manitoba
- Spoken Word Concert, Friday, May 11, 7 pm, Aqua Books
- ASL Interpreter Workshop, Saturday, May 12, 10 am, Millennium Library
- Chiga Biga Performance, Saturday, May 12, 11 am, Millennium Library
- Chiga Biga Children’s Theatre Workshop, Saturday, May 12, 1 to 4 pm, Millennium Library
- All featured tellers plus Noma Sibanda at Saturday Night Storytelling Concert, Saturday, May 12, at St. Paul’s College.
The Mauro Centre for Peace and Justice is based in St. Paul’s College at the University of Manitoba.
For more information, please see http://umanitoba.ca/storytelling
Or contact Jessica Senehi at: 204-474-7978 or email: Jessica_Senehi@umanitoba.ca
