Chennai Storytelling Festival 2014, February 7-9 (Friday-Sunday) The theme of the Festival this year is Storytelling and Healing, Storytelling as a Healing Art Featuring 3 days of FREE Workshops for Adults and Teenagers! and 3 evenings of ticketed Storytelling Performances for People of All Ages! When: 10am-5pm daily (India time), 7-9 Feb
2014. Where: Goethe Institute, Rutland Gate 5th
Street, Nungambakkam, Chennai. Directions:
From Nungambakkam High Road, go to the end of Khader Nawaz Khan Road (after
it curves rightward). Then go right onto Rutland Gate 5th Street. To Register to participate -- either In-Person or via Videoconference -- in some or all of the daytime Workshops, please send an e-mail to info@storytellinginstitute.org
. People could attend most of the daytime Workshops via Videoconference and Webcast. For information about these options, please click here. For details about the 3 evenings of ticketed Storytelling Performances. 5:30-7pm daily, for Children, Teenagers, and Adults. (advance reservations not needed), please click here. Contact: 98403 94282, info@storytellinginstitute.org The Festival Poster is here. Information about, and a link to a recording of, a videoconference on "Storytelling and Healing" is here. This conversation, which occurred on Mon 6 Jan 2014, is a good introduction to this year's Chennai Storytelling Festival. An article (in French) on
Chennai Storytelling Festival 2014, "Storytelling and Healing", in Le Petit Chennai, January 2014, pp
8-9, is here. An English translation of this article
is here. ________________________________________ 1)
Festival Schedule: Six Workshop Sessions 2)
Festival Concept Note 3)
Festival Venue and People 4)
Links
1)
Festival Schedule: Six Workshop Sessions Friday
7 Feb -- 10am-1pm, Workshop Session 1. "Keynote
Session". What
is Storytelling? What is
Healing? What is Storytelling and
Healing? Including consideration
of healing within individuals, between individuals, between groups of people,
and between humans and the rest of nature. 10
-10:15am__"Opening Words". 10:15-10:30am__"Storytelling and Healing in Sangam
Literature", Dr
Premeela Gurumurthy, Professor and HOD, Dept of Indian Music, University
of Madras. 10:30-11:30am__"Keynote Talk on Storytelling and
Healing", with small-group activities, and discussion, Susan Perrow. 11:30-11:45__break. 11:45am-1pm__"Workshop on Storytelling and
Healing", with small-group activities, and discussion, Geeta Ramanujam. 2-5pm, Workshop Session 2. 2-3:15pm__"Using the Arts for Healing", Magdalene Jeyarathnam. 3:15-5pm__"Dance/Movement in Storytelling and
Healing", Preetha
Ramasubramanian. ___ Saturday 8 Feb -- 10am-1pm, Workshop
Session 3. "Using
Metaphors to Compose Stories Relating to People's Challenging Behaviours and
Situations", Susan Perrow. Why make metaphors? Answers may include: metaphors can
express from the unconscious; and metaphors can help one to feel related to
and supported by nature, and one's culture and society, and the divine. 2-5pm, Workshop
Session 4. "The
Healing Touch of Tamil and Other Indian Folk Tales: Telling Grandmother
Stories (Paatti Kathai) and Raja-Rani Stories to give Comfort and
Guidance", in Tamil, with English translation, Alli and Kala from Thanjavur. ___ Sunday
9 Feb -- 10am-1pm, Workshop Session 5. "The Visual Arts in Storytelling
and Healing", Susan Anand. 2-5pm, Workshop Session 6. 2-2:30pm__"Building
a Web of Trust in Storytelling Events", Deepa Kiran. 2:30-4:30pm__"Creating
and Telling Transformative, Inspirational, and Healing Stories", Eric Miller. 4:30-5pm__"Closing
Words". ________________________________________ 2)
Festival Concept Note Chennai
Storytelling Festival especially facilitates adults teaching-and-learning
about Storytelling. Last year --
our first year -- the topic was Storytelling in general. This year, the topic is
"Storytelling and Healing". "Storytelling
and Healing", "Storytelling as a Healing Art",
"Therapeutic Uses of Storytelling", "Storytelling
Therapy", "Narrative Therapy", and "Narrative Medicine",
are all terms referring to the use of story and storytelling to help people
feel better and get better. In
some cases ("Narrative Medicine", "Narrative Therapy"),
the emphasis is on the client telling autobiographical stories -- such as the
story of her life, and the story of her illness. In
other cases ("Storytelling and Healing", "Therapeutic Uses of
Storytelling"), the stories may be told by the client or the care-giver,
and may be autobiographical, from folklore, original created stories, or
other types of stories. Chennai
Storytelling Festival (CSF) 2014, "Storytelling and Healing", is
dedicated to the idea that the time has come for "Storytelling
Therapy" ("Therapeutic Uses of Storytelling", etc) to take its
place alongside Dance Therapy, Music Therapy, Drama Therapy, Art Therapy,
Play Therapy, etc. A key aspect of CSF 2014 might involve the
juxtaposing of 1)
A modern "Therapeutic Uses of Storytelling" approach -- such
as would be presented by Susan Perrow; and 2)
The traditional approach of telling Tamil folk tales (grandmother
stories) to give comfort, solace, and guidance -- such as would be presented
by Alli B and other women members of a family with a very active storytelling
practice, from the Tamil countryside near Thanjavur (in Tamil, with English
translation). CSF 2014 participants could experience both of
these approaches (one modern, one traditional), and could perhaps find ways
of combining aspects of them. Studying and practicing "Storytelling and
Healing" might enable one -- *** To help oneself and others become
increasingly grounded and centered. *** To bring one's consciousness from one's mind,
into one's entire body. *** To facilitate personal development, growth,
transformation, fulfillment, and self-improvement. *** To find one's self, voice, place, and role in
the universe. *** To coach one's self and others. *** To give comfort, solace, guidance, and
inspiration. *** To heal self, family, community, and nature. *** To see situations from various different
points of view, and as a result further develop 1) compassion for others, and
2) problem-solving ways of thinking. ________________________________________ 3)
Festival Venue and People Admission
to the six Workshop Sessions listed above is free. Advance Registration is requested. (To register, please e-mail to
info@storytellinginstitute.org .) These Workshops would occur at the Goethe
Institute (Rutland Gate 5th St, Nungambakkam, Chennai; near Apollo Children's
Hospital, and Kader Nawaz Khan Road.
If directions might be needed, please call 98403 94282). There would be Storytelling Performances -- for
Children and Adults -- on the evenings of Friday 7, Saturday 8, and Sunday 9
February. Details regarding
these performances are here. The
"Visiting Co-Host" of CSF 2014 is Susan
Perrow from Australia, author of Healing
Stories for Challenging Behaviour (2008), and Therapeutic Storytelling: 101 Healing Stories for Children
(2012). The
"Festival Coordinators and Advisory Board Members" are (in
alphabetical order), 1)
Asha Sampath. 2)
Debjani Bhaduri. 3)
Karpagam Vinoth. 4)
Kavitha Thyagarajan. 5)
Lavanya Srinivas. 6)
Magdalene Jeyarathnam. 7)
Mohana Priya (Bangalore). 8)
Sandhya Ruban. 9)
Sheetal Rayathatha 10)
Sudha Umashanker. 11)
Uma Balu. 12)
Vasugi Ram Manohar. The
Festival Director is Eric Miller (PhD in Folklore, Director of the World Storytelling Institute,
98403 94282). ________________________________________ 4) Links Here are some links relating to "Storytelling
and Healing", "Therapeutic Uses of Storytelling",
"Storytelling Therapy", "Narrative Therapy", and
"Narrative Medicine": *** Healing
Story Alliance (a special
interest group of the USA's National Storytelling Network). Online audio recordings
of talks regarding Storytelling and Healing, made by the HSA. *** Program in Narrative
Medicine, Columbia University (New
York City, New York, USA). In the School of Continuing
Education. In the Columbia University Medical
Center. An
article containing an interview with Dr Rita Charon, founder of this Program:
"Narratives for Clearings",
The Hindu (New Delhi), 28 Feb 2013. TED
Talk by Dr Rita Charon, "Honoring the Stories of
Illness" (video). *** Healing
Arts Program (including
therapeutic uses of storytelling), at Rady Children's Hospital, in San Diego,
California, USA. *** Interview
with Susan Perrow , by Jude
Treder-Wolff, New York psychotherapist (May 2013). "The Power of a Story", relating to
Susan Perrow's presentation at The
Examined Life Conference: Writing, The Humanities and The Art of Medicine
at the University of Iowa (February 2013). "The Healing
Power of Story", by Susan Perrow, Juno Magazine, 9 April 2012. *** "Notes on Using
Storytelling for Therapy", by Eric Miller. *** "Narrative Medicine",
wiki page. "Narrative Therapy",
wiki page. "Introducing
Therapeutic Storytelling". "How Stories Help
Sick Kids Get Better", Minnesota
Star Tribune. "Narrative
Medicine: Learning to Listen", New
York Times. "Narrative Medicine: A Model for Empathy,
Reflection, Profession, and Trust", Journal of the American Medical Association. "Narrative-based Medicine: Why Study
Narrative?", British Medical
Journal. "The
Power of Narrative Medicine", Huffington
Post. "Narrative
Medicine: Patient-Centered, Touchy-Feely Health Care", Huffington Post. "Narrative
Medicine", on a website dedicated to Stories about Science (with
online audio). "Stories
in Medicine: Doctors-in-Training Record a Different Type of Patient History",
National Public Radio, USA (with
online audio). Narrative
Therapy Papers and Information. ________________________________________ Regarding the previous Chennai Storytelling
Festival (held in February 2013) -- The Poster (including the Workshop schedule) for
Chennai Storytelling Festival 2013 is here. Links to additional info about CSF 2013
(including numerous articles), are here. |