Mythology

The 9th episode of Story Wok in October brings to you stories from the ether world. What better theme to end the Season Two of Story Wok than with mythological stories. Stories that are embroidered into every aspect of our life be it Art, festivals, beliefs or way of living. And just in case you have missed listening to any of the previous episodes...worry not, for this episode will give you a capsule hearing of Ace your story segment from all the previous episodes. 

Episode Hosts and Producers:

Anamika Bhati An educator working with children nurturing their creativity by bringing stories to life through drama, role-play and activities ensuring engaging and holistic learning. Someone who believes that stories are the best way of connecting and communicating with each other

Shelly Verma is a teller of tales who grew up in India listening to stories of kings, queens, animals, gods and goddesses from folklore and mythology. She carries these stories in her mind and her heart no matter where she is. Her repertoire includes stories from around the world but her main focus is using these stories to create awareness about the pressing issues of our times and be a part of the change. She believes in stories that inspire social change, give voice to the unheard and make the unseen noticed. You can find her stories on Facebook @Storyteller.ShellyVerma or Instagram @verma.shelly

Shubha Das is an Early Educator turned professional Storyteller who particularly enjoys indulging in and retelling folktales. She specializes in Malayalam classics, and stories based on cultural heritage with a contemporary edge. For her, stories are a piece of art, and hence, she believes in performing them in a manner that leaves an aural and visual imprint with linguistic hues in the minds of her audience.

 Featured Tellers:

 Ahn Sook Kim, Korea, A Storyteller and studying Korean folktales and classical literature at Kon kuk university.

Ambujavalli Nagarajan -- an IT professional turned storyteller-trainer and public speaker -- strongly believes that good stories spread healthy happiness. She is known for the performance elements that she weaves into her stories.

Ayushi Agrawal is an expressive art practitioner. She enjoys the creative world stories open up for her and her participants in their art -based self explorations.

Parvathy Eswaran is a storyteller by Passion and by Choice and believes that stories are there all around us in plenty as free as the air we breathe and we as storytellers can be the channel to spread them. She believes that storytelling is an important educational tool and conducts workshops for teachers on the techniques of storytelling. She also conducts workshops for children and adults on the art of storytelling. She has performed in many spaces including National Storytelling Network (USA), FEAST (Singapore), Chennai Storytelling Festival, Under the Aalamaram festival. Her journey in storytelling started at Kathalaya, after a 25 year stint in the corporate. She is a part of the creative storytelling group Katha Krafters.

 Write to us at feaststory@gmail.com | storywok@gmail.com

For details of upcoming events visit our website www.feast-story.org

The 9th episode of Story Wok in October brings to you stories from the ether world. 

What better theme to end the Season Two of Story Wok than with mythological stories. Stories that are embroidered into every aspect of our life be it Art, festivals, beliefs or way of living. 

And just incase you have missed listening to any of the previous episodes...worry not, for this episode will give you a capusle hearing of Ace your story segment from all the previous episodes. 

Mark your calendars! 24th October 2022!

When sun retires it engulfes us in darkness the moon sheds light and provides life to our earth. Making sure to touch every corner with its rays. Similarly, on storywok we share stories to liven up your life when ever and where ever you need it. Albeit being much smaller then the sun, the moon is the fifth largest of its kind in our solar system. And fret not our stories will cover every inch of the moon as we journey from one end to another. 

In our Miso segment listen to a story as wonderfully narrated by Anabelle Castano from Spain to share a Korean folktale about a brother and a sister that turn into sun and moon. 

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In Dim Sum, the adult segment join Deeptha Vivekanand as she tells us a story about Brihaspati’s wife Tara being strong and bold in making her choices and has a child through Chandra! 

In our tandem story segment Fortune Cookie we have Prakrati Agrawal and Nandita Sankaran with a beautiful story in Hindi and English, a story about Chandra and his curses and why he weans off and waxes of a king's love for music. 

Now that we have all the steps to take in preparing for storytelling it’s time to be ready to tell to an audience. Geeta Ramanujam from India is going to help and guide us on how to rehearse and incorporate everything we have learnt so far in our segment Ace the Story during the interview.

Not to miss is our Pantry discussion by the episode producers about the Moon and then followed by FEAST offerings in the month of Oct. 

Episode Hosts & Producers:

Anamika Bhati - An educator working with children nurturing their creativity by bringing stories to life through drama, role-play and activities ensuring engaging and holistic learning. Someone who believes that stories are the best way of connecting and communicating with each other.

Meenu Sivaramakrishnan, a performance storyteller from India. I truly believe that stories are an experience that are not only entertaining but also enriching. And of course, what better way to connect with people than Stories!

Nidhi Gujral

Nidhi started her professional journey as a management consultant in the corporate sector. But eventually her love for finding and collecting stories everywhere around her led her to change her career path completely!She stepped into professional storytelling in the year 2019 out of passion for books & children. Thus, Pip & Squeak was born.Since then, she has used her stories to advocate literacy, create thinkers, incite creativeness, and make learning fun by often coupling it with engaging activities & crafts to provide an experience that delights kids and parents alike. Find her stories on (https://www.instagram.com/pip_nd_squeak/) & (https://youtube.com/c/PipSqueakstories/)

Our Expert Segment  

Geeta Ramanujam 

Geeta Ramanujam a Master Storyteller, Trainer, Author, and Academician is the founder and Director of KATHALAYA'S INTERNATIONAL ACADEMY OF STORYTELLING - offering 3 levels of Certified courses in Storytelling with accreditations to Universities in USA, UK & Sweden.

For over 35 years she has traveled to over 43 countries with her performances and trained over 93,493 people in the Art of Storytelling. She has been mentioned by The Honourable Prime Minister of India for her contribution to Storytelling recently. Geeta is the pioneer of the Storytelling Movement in India. She has published a book 'Tales from the World’ recently by Penguin Random House, India. www.kathalaya.org

Featured Tellers

Anabelle Castaño

Anabelle Castaño is a bilingual storyteller, archaeologist and museum educator from Buenos Aires, Argentina. She interweaves her three professions and works on building bridges between material and immaterial culture through traditional stories from all continents.

When a world pandemic isn’t going around, she works at the Ambrosetti Ethnographic Museum performing, organizing storytelling sessions, doing guided tours, researching and consulting for other institutions. She's a member of FEAST and since 2019 she’s part of the storytelling committee for the Buenos Aires International Book Fair -which has hosted for 25 years a storytellers' international meeting-.

Nowadays you can find her online telling folktales, offering workshops on storytelling, online resources, repertoire and oral traditions and developing content for various projects.

For more from Anabelle, contact her at: anabelle.cas@gmail.com  or www.anacas.com.ar

Deeptha Vivekanand

Deeptha Vivekanand has been an educator for a few years and Professional Storyteller for many more. She performs for audiences in schools, colleges, and corporate organisations. She is also a Storyteller-in-Residence in a private school in Chandigarh, India, where she helps teachers use storytelling as pedagogy. Deeptha loves to tell stories about stories, strong women, and political satire.

Prakrati Agrawal

Prakrati Agrawal loves telling stories that make me laugh and learn at the same time.

Story Wok is produced by FEAST ( Federation of Asian Storytellers), our focus is on spreading Asian stories, celebrating the tellers from the Philippines in the East to Turkey in the West and the storytelling communities that lie in-between.

Write to us at feaststory@gmail.com | storywok@gmail.com

For details of upcoming events visit our website www.feast-story.org

Mark your calendars, September 24th, 2022, when Episode 8 of Story Wok, Season 2, brings you stories of the moon!! Stay tuned for some tales of its legends and some personal anecdotes..

Rains...rains...and more rains! When most parts of Asia are under the spell of rain, what better theme than "Splish Splash Splosh" for this episode of Story Wok.

Also, today being the 4th birthday of FEAST, we bring to you the stories from the 4th book of FEAST anthology "Splish Splash Splosh", told by the authors themselves.

The Dragon King who lived in the Luoyang River created trouble for the people. Crossing the river became difficult…even dangerous. Guan Ying heard about this and wanted to help. Who is Guan Ying? Will she be able to help? Listen to this Chinese folktale retold by Lynn Kirk in the Miso segment for children.

An old man and woman led a happy life in a beautiful countryside. One day, the old man began to follow a tiny red bird which took him deeper and deeper into the woods. What did he find? Was it something magical? Listen to this folktale from Japan retold by Meher Gehi from India, in the Dimsum segment for adults.

In the Fortune cookie, the multilingual segment, listen to an interesting folktale from Malaysia authored by Jumaini Ariff, adapted and told today by Debjani Bhaduri and Shelly Verma in Bengali and English.

Episode Hosts and Producers:

Shubha Das is an Early Educator turned professional Storyteller who particularly enjoys indulging in and retelling folktales. She specializes in Malayalam classics, and stories based on cultural heritage with a contemporary edge. For her, stories are a piece of art, and hence, she believes in performing them in a manner that leaves an aural and visual imprint with linguistic hues in the minds of her audience.

Parvathy Eswaran is a storyteller by passion and by choice, believes that stories are there everywhere just like the air we breathe and we, as storytellers act as a medium to spread and bring the stories to you. 

Meenu Sivaramakrishnan, a Performance Storyteller, Educator and Voice Artist from Bengaluru, India, truly believes that stories are an experience that are not only entertaining but also enriching. After a decade in the IT industry, she quit to pursue her passion and love for performing Arts. She began her initiative called “KATHA GALATTA - Unleash Ur Joy Thru’ Stories” to rekindle the joy of discovering characters and revive the love for oral storytelling. She also facilitates courses based on the art of storytelling at Manipal Academy of Higher Education. You can find her stories on Facebook @KathaGalatta and Instagram @kathagalatta.meenu

Featured Tellers:

Lynn Kirk

Lynn has been telling stories for over 25 years in Asia and the UK. She has a magical Story Apron to suit early years/lower primary age children and can incorporate simple drama/puppetry/crafts to extend the stories she tells to cover all ages. Lynn truly believes the power stories have and how they can change one’s life.

Meher Gehi

Once upon a time, a mother began telling tales to her 6-month old child and ended up falling in love herself! After seeing her daughter's eyes sparkle while listening to stories, Meher Gehi decided to sprinkle this joy to other kids in her community. Today, she is a certified professional storyteller, story educator and voice artist. Her storytelling comes alive through her expressive eyes & voice. She loves to infuse her storytelling with her deep love for music, theatrics & spirituality. She has performed & conducted sessions at prestigious schools & venues in Mumbai (like Bombay Scottish School, Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum etc) and India. Having performed at national and international storytelling festivals, she can have you travel different worlds through her tales... Ready? To watch her unique storytelling style, head straight to her channel - Meher Gehi

 Jumaini Ariff

Jumaini pursued her love for the literary arts and became a published author in 2013.Jumaini performs as ‘Nek Selampit’, the Folktale Storyteller , a unique, highly energetic character who is witty and filled with Lampung charm. Effectively bilingual in English and Malay, Jumaini enjoys performing Asian folktales, fables and legends for audiences of all ages. In 2017, Jumaini became the first storyteller to be recognized for her efforts in reviving the Malay language through storytelling and was appointed Malay Language Ambassador of Singapore by the Malay Language Council(Singapore). Since then, she works with various institutions to pique interest of students in Malay through the art of storytelling.

Debjani Bhaduri

A decade ago, by sheer coincidence, Debjani came to know about the art form Storytelling. Since then she has been sharing stories across all age groups to spread happiness and joy.She loves retelling folktales, mythological accounts and authored classics lacing them with contemporary thread and adding a hint of humour.She believes stories could be the best way for skill development and she has been training teachers to teach concepts through stories and coaching corporate professionals soft skills through stories.

Shelly Verma

Shelly Verma is a teller of tales who grew up in India listening to stories of kings, queens, animals, gods and goddesses from folklore and mythology. She carries these stories in her mind and her heart no matter where she is. Her repertoire includes stories from around the world but her main focus is using these stories to create awareness about the pressing issues of our times and be a part of the change. She believes in stories that inspire social change, give voice to the unheard and make the unseen noticed. You can find her stories on Facebook @Storyteller.ShellyVerma or Instagram @verma.shelly

Story Wok is produced by FEAST(Federation of Asian Storytellers ), (https://www.feast-story.org/ ). Our focus is on spreading Asian stories, celebrating colors from the Philippines in the east to Turkey in the west and the story telling communities that lie in between.

Write to us at feaststory@gmail.com | storywok@gmail.com

For details of upcoming events visit our website www.feast-story.org

Mark your calendars, August 24th, 2022, when Episode 7 of Story Wok, Season 2 , brings you stories from the Feast’s very own book ‘Splish Splash Splosh, the 4th book in the FEAST anthology

Do all dreams really come true? And have we ever asked the person who realized their dream, the number of tears they have shed, and even after that, is it worth it? Well, there is one thing for sure, to make a dream into a reality the best thing is to take Action So, let's take some action and turn this Dream episode into a Reality! Dream/ Reality? is the theme on which our stories are based in this Episode 6 of Story Wok.

Can stories really help you realize your dreams? Well, that’s exactly what happens in our story narrated by Lindsey Gibb from Scotland. Listen to this story in our Miso segment and you decide for yourself.

In Dim Sum, the adult segment, join Poonam Joshy as she tells us a story about a girl whose only dream was to wear a shiny nose ring. Will her dream turn into a reality? 

In our tandem story segment Fortune Cookie we have Swee Yean Wong and Anamika Bhati with a beautiful story in Chinese and English, in which a poor boy with the help of a magical gift makes other people’s dreams come true. 

In the Ace the story segment we will be learning from our Expert Roger Jenkins the importance and the use of props in stories. He explains how just by having a prop can actually be a good stepping stone for the tale to continue. 

Not to miss is our Pantry discussion by the episode producers about their own dreams and the realities of it all followed by FEAST offerings in the month of August. We have a special sound bite by David Novak for the upcoming Learning Festival happening in September.

Episode Hosts & Producers:

Dharanya Srinivasan - A puppeteer and storyteller working with children and stories in various mediums like puppet shows, role play, oral telling and writing. Instilling love for reading is her passion project.

 Prakrati Agrawal - I love telling stories that make me laugh and learn at the same time.

Kausar Karimi - loves to travel and go for hikes and walks. She enjoys the outdoors and tries to look for stories that she comes across through her travels. Her motto is “There is a tale at every turn” and that keeps her interested in people and places. Not afraid to try different things, Kausar is a Speech and Drama instructor who uses stories to bring out the creative expression in the kids. She loves a good dramatization of folklore and often uses props and puppets to express herself.

Featured Tellers

Lindsey Gibb - Lindsey loves stories – telling, listening, reading and creating - they all bring much fun and joy. She loves stories of place and landscape and recently created a new story as a cultural and community response to climate change. Co-author of Perthshire Folktales she especially enjoys sharing tales from her home area.

Poonam Joshy; Poonam Joshy is an accomplished Educator with an experience of over 15 years. She is a passionate storyteller; her repertoire includes stories from the Indian Mythology and folk tales from all over the globe. She often infuses Indian classical Ragas in her performances to enhance the listening experience. She is a co producer of “Call of Duty” a podcast which features the stories of the soldiers from the Indian Armed Forces. A dreamer, she believes, life is a festival, celebrate it with stories, listen to many, tell a few and write at least one. When not telling stories, she writes, reads, paints and weaves stories.

Swee Yean Wong 

Swee Yean is a storyteller who tells to people from ages 3 to 93. Previously a school teacher, Swee Yean loves to take people on a journey of imagination to see the mind's eye and travel to new places.

Anamika Bhati

An educator working with children nurturing their creativity by bringing stories to life through drama, role-play and activities ensuring engaging and holistic learning. Someone who believes that stories are the best way of connecting and communicating with each other.

Featured Storytelling Expert

Roger Jenkins is a Singaporean storyteller, a co-founder and Director of FEAST. He has narrated nine audiobooks for Storytel (including adult, youth and children’s fiction, sci-fi and non-fiction titles.) He is a trained audio-describer who makes live performance accessible for vision-impaired audiences, and is an award-winning poet. ’Not Just at Bedtime! Tips and Tales for Parent Storytellers’ is a two-hour video for anyone who wants to bond with their audience, and is available on the website www.rogerjenkins.com.sg  

A sneak preview of the Upcoming Learning Festival happening in September. One of the mentors for this festival is David Novak.

David Novak

Highly prized for his ability to bring ancient tales, classic myths, and original stories to life and enthrall audiences of all ages, American storyteller, David Novak, is in demand for his school presentations, stage plays, keynotes, and workshops. Smithsonian Magazine describes him as “a gifted teller who enhances his stories with a bag of tricks.” Novak is recipient of the Circle of Excellence for storytelling, and the Aurand Harris Memorial Playwriting Award for excellence in professional theatre for children. David’s 30+ years’ experience as a performing and teaching artist includes a stint as Master Storyteller for The Disney Company, tours for The Lincoln Center Institute, L.A. Music Center, and as a featured storyteller for the National Storytelling Festival. His international appearances include the Singapore International StoryFest, Czech Children’s Theatre Festival, Sydney International Storytelling Conference, and international schools throughout China. David’s tour-de-force performance as R. Buckminster Fuller, toured to Wroclaw and Krakow, Poland. David is an A+ Fellow with North Carolina Arts Council, offering professional development in Arts Integrated Curriculum. He holds a BFA in Theatre Arts from Southern Methodist University and an MFA in Performance from U.C. San Diego.

David lives in Asheville, North Carolina.

Story Wok is produced by FEAST (Federation of Asian Storytellers), our website is 

 https://www.feast-story.org Our focus is on spreading Asian stories, celebrating colours from the Philippines in the east to Turkey in the west and the story telling communities that lie in between.

Write to us at feaststory@gmail.com | storywok@gmail.com

For details of upcoming events visit our website www.feast-story.org

Mark your calendars, July 24th, 2022, when Episode 6 of Story Wok, Season 2 , brings you stories of "Dreams/ Reality". Listen to our stories and decide for yourself.

SHOW NOTES FOR EPISODE 5, SEASON 2

Foot Tapping Tales the theme for this episode is focused on how to enhance your stories by using Music. Music can not only give life to your story but also help increase audience engagement and set their mood.

The jungle animal are in danger, who can help what will the jungle king do? Is he strong enough? Can he save them? Or will he flee too? Listen to this story in our Miso segment as wonderfully narrated by Virginia Kokkinou from Greece. 

In Dim Sum, the adult segment join Janaki Sabesh as she tells us a story about a man named Hathaman and his journey to discover the secret to obtaining superpowers. What trials must he face in order to become Super Hathaman? Find out! 

In our tandem story segment Fortune Cookie we have Rona Mentari and Nidhi Gujral with a beautiful story in Bahasa and English, a story of a king's love for music. 

Every story has a music opportunity, you just have to look in the right place and find the right music for the story. Rebecca Lemaire is going to help and guide us on how to incorporate music in our stories in our segment Ace the Story during the interview.

Not to miss is our Pantry discussion by the episode producers about Music and then followed by FEAST offerings in the month of July. 

Episode Hosts & Producers:

Anamika Bhati - An educator working with children nurturing their creativity by bringing stories to life through drama, role-play and activities ensuring engaging and holistic learning. Someone who believes that stories are the best way of connecting and communicating with each other.

Dharanya Srinivasan - A puppeteer and storyteller working with children and stories in various mediums like puppet shows, role play, oral telling and writing. Instilling love for reading is her passion project.

 Prakrati Agrawal - I love telling stories that make me laugh and learn at the same time.

Featured Tellers

Janaki Sabesh

Janaki writes, performs, and lives through stories. Her distinctive and authentic style of blending narration, music, and movement is loved by children, youngsters, corporate professionals, teachers, and everyone alike. Janaki has authored ‘The Jungle Storytelling Festival’ (2018), a picture book for children published by Tulika Books, and co-authored 'Paati's Rasam'(2021), published by Karadi Tales. Wearing a variety of hats (and totally in love with it!) of an accomplished actor, voice-over & theatre artist,  experienced marketer, facilitator, and the Chief Fun Officer at her own storytelling initiative 'Golpo Tales', she also brings people together through intimate storytelling experiences around food, music, and nostalgia. Janaki finds complete joy in transforming mindsets through storytelling.

Nidhi Gujral

Nidhi started her professional journey as a management consultant in the corporate sector. But eventually her love for finding and collecting stories everywhere around her led her to change her career path completely!She stepped into professional storytelling in the year 2019 out of passion for books & children. Thus, Pip & Squeak was born.Since then, she has used her stories to advocate literacy, create thinkers, incite creativeness, and make learning fun by often coupling it with engaging activities & crafts to provide an experience that delights kids and parents alike. Find her stories on (https://www.instagram.com/pip_nd_squeak/) & (https://youtube.com/c/PipSqueakstories/)

Rebecca Lemaire

Rebecca is an international storyteller and trainer. She tells stories in English, Spanish and French wherever the wind takes her. Her passion is to look into people’s eyes, and travel with them through stories, whether in a prison, a Tibetan monastery in the Himalaya, a festival, a theatre, or a library. Rebecca gives storytelling workshops and training online and in person, in groups or one-to-one. She also works with stories as a way of initiating conversation and healing around topics such as death and grief. One of Rebecca’s specialities is to use sound and music to support her storytelling. Storytelling is a form of communication that goes way beyond words; it is a heart-to-heart interaction, and that is why she loves it! More information about Rebecca Lemaire here: www.rebeccalemaire.com

Rona Mentari

Rona grew as a storyteller in Indonesia. She fell in love with stories since she was kid. Now, her passion and vision is spreading goodness and joy through storytelling. She has unique storytelling performance by using traditional Indonesian style and her little guitar.

Virginia Kokkinou

Virginia is a storyteller and a professional translator with substantial and broad experience.

Story Wok is produced by FEAST ( Federation of Asian Storytellers), our focus is on spreading Asian stories, celebrating the tellers from the Philippines in the East to Turkey in the West and the storytelling communities that lie in-between.

Write to us at feaststory@gmail.com | storywok@gmail.com

For details of upcoming events visit our website www.feast-story.org

Mark your calendars, June 24th, 2022, when Episode 5 of Story Wok, Season 2, brings to you 'Foot Tapping Tales' be ready to swirl and twirl so be ready for a musical ride.

A wise person once said,”Laughter is the best medicine”.

Laughter is an expression that knows no boundaries. Despite age gaps or cultural differences, people from all over the world and all walks of life know how to let out a laugh.So says Kausar Karimi ,Nidhi Gujral and Shelly Verma who also happen to be the hosts of our brand-new episode.

And so for the next hour or so in Episode 4, let’s laugh together.

Get ready for “Giggles and Guffaws” !

Sprinkle some silliness and let your heart be lighter with the stories we have lined up for you in Miso, Dimsum and Fortune cookie segments, a hearty spread of 3 tales told by 4 FEAST tellers. Jeff Gere(Hawaii) will tickle you silly with a story from Indonesia called “Odin and the Pinoy Bird”. Debjani Bhaduri(India) telling of an old Tamil folktale will send you into raptures. And Richa Sinha(India) and Meenu Sivaramakrishnan (India) multi-lingual story told in tandem in Bhojpuri and English will send your heart singing and laughing at the same time.

In our special “Ace your Story” segment, we chat with Antonio Rocha(USA), to find out all about using emotions while telling stories.He also shares an interesting advice on how important it is to distance oneself from the stories and find that perfect emotional balance while telling stories.

 Us podcast producers raise a cacophony in our Pantry segment twisting our tongues inside our mouths.Great for those looking to engage better with your audiences, a great ice-breaker game and also to loosen your tongue(we mean in the literal sense!) before telling stories.

Featured tongue twisters:

Kachcha Papad Pakka Papad

Red Lorry Yellow Lorry

Can you can a can as a canner can can a can?

Tikki Tikki Tembo-no Sa Rembo-chari Bari Ruchi-pip Peri Pembo 

(From the book “Tikki Tikki Tembo”. It is a 1968 picture book written by Arlene Mosel and illustrated by Blair Lent.)

Featured Storytellers

JEFF GERE 

Jeff Gere blends talents as painter, puppeteer, and mime into performances which have electrified audiences in Hawaii for 30 years. Jeff's physical energy, morphing elastic face and voice characteristics make his shows events. Jeff becomes his stories!

DEBJANI BHADURI

A decade ago, by sheer coincidence, Debjani came to know about the art form Storytelling. Since then she has been sharing stories across all age groups to spread happiness and joy.She loves retelling folktales, mythological accounts and authored classics lacing them with contemporary thread and adding a hint of humour.She believes stories could be the best way for skill development and she has been training teachers to teach concepts through stories and coaching corporate professionals soft skills through stories..

RICHA SINHA

Richa Sinha is the Founder of TheStoryMunch and a Festival curator. With her delightful stories in Hindi, English & Bhojpuri, she aims to increase the Happiness & Emotional Quotient of people.

MEENU SIVARAMAKRISHNAN

Meenu Sivaramakrishnan, a Performance Storyteller from Bengaluru, India, truly believes that stories are an experience that are not only entertaining but also enriching. After a decade in the IT industry, she quit to pursue her passion and love for performing Arts. She began her initiative called “KATHA GALATTA - Unleash Ur Joy Thru’ Stories” to rekindle the joy of discovering characters and revive the love for oral storytelling.

Featured Storytelling Expert

ANTONIO ROCHA

Antonio Rocha has performed his dynamic and unique fusion of mime, spoken word with realistic sound effects and his tenor voice from the USA to New Zealand covering 20 countries across 6 continents in venues such as The Kennedy Center, The Smithsonian, and Festivals in the US, Singapore, India, Taiwan and more. 

Antonio has many recordings, a picture book, is a two time TEDx presenter and amongst his many awards received, he has earned the coveted Circle of Excellence Award by the National Storytelling Network for his "exceptional commitment and exemplary contributions to the art of storytelling. 

www.storyinmotion.com

HOSTS:

Kausar Karimi

Kausar loves to travel and go for hikes and walks. She enjoys the outdoors and tries to look for stories that she comes across through her travels. Her motto is “There is a tale at every turn” and that keeps her interested in people and places. Not afraid to try different things, Kausar is a Speech and Drama instructor who uses stories to bring out the creative expression in the kids. She loves a good dramatization of folklore and often uses props and puppets to express herself.

Nidhi Gujral

Nidhi started her professional journey as a management consultant in the corporate sector. But eventually her love for finding and collecting stories everywhere around her led her to change her career path completely!She stepped into professional storytelling in the year 2019 out of passion for books & children. Thus, Pip & Squeak was born.

Since then, she has used her stories to advocate literacy, create thinkers, incite creativeness, and make learning fun by often coupling it with engaging activities & crafts to provide an experience that delights kids and parents alike. Find her stories on (https://www.instagram.com/pip_nd_squeak/) & (https://youtube.com/c/PipSqueakstories/)

Shelly Verma

Shelly Verma is a teller of tales who grew up in India listening to stories of kings, queens, animals, gods and goddesses from folklore and mythology. She carries these stories in her mind and her heart no matter where she is. Her repertoire includes stories from around the world but her main focus is using these stories to create awareness about the pressing issues of our times and be a part of the change. She believes in stories that inspire social change, give voice to the unheard and make the unseen noticed. You can find her stories on Facebook @Storyteller.ShellyVerma or Instagram @verma.shelly

Story Wok is produced by FEAST(Federation of Asian Storytellers ), (https://www.feast-story.org/ ). Our focus is on spreading Asian stories, celebrating colours from the Philippines in the east to Turkey in the west and the story telling communities that lie in between.

Write to us at feaststory@gmail.com | storywok@gmail.com

For details of upcoming events visit our website www.feast-story.org

Mark your calendars, May 24th, 2022, when Episode 4 of Story Wok, Season 2 , brings to you stories which will make you 'Giggle and Guffaw' and make you roll on the floor.

Nature Narratives, the theme for this episode resonates with that of Earth Day 2022, ‘Invest in our planet’. The stories and the discussions revolve around conservation of Nature. 

An elephant who lived in the foothills of the Himalayas lost the twinkle in her eyes. Did she find it back? Listen to this story in our Miso segment as narrated beautifully by Ramya Iyer  from India. 

One man’s trash is another’s treasure, says, Mindy Neo through this wonderful story In Dim Sum, the adult segment.

Our Fortune Cookie is a beautiful tandem storytelling in Malayalam and English by Sarita Nair and Shubha Das. 

“You have to make your telling your telling, bringing in your unique sensibilities to the telling”, advises the expert, Roger Jenkins in the segment Ace the Story, where we have our producer Parvathy Eswaran interviewing Roger Jenkins. 

Don't miss the interesting and lively conversation among the episode producers, about Nature, in our pantry discussion, followed by FEAST offerings in the month of May. 

Episode Hosts & Producers:

Dharanya Sreenivasan is a puppeteer and storyteller working with children and stories in various mediums like puppet shows, role play, oral telling and writing. Instilling love for reading is her passion project.

Meenu Sivaramakrishnan is a performance storyteller from India, truly believes that stories are an experience that are not only entertaining but also enriching. And of course, what better way to connect with people than Stories!

Parvathy Eswaran is a storyteller by passion and by choice, believes that stories are there everywhere just like the air we breathe and we, as storytellers act as a medium to spread and bring the stories to you. 

Featured Tellers

Ramya Iyer is a professional storyteller and writer. She believes in the strength of a warm, holding and healing space. She finds herself working towards bringing people closer to themselves and connected to each other through story and expression. In her story work, she works with children and adults. She seeks to contribute to helping people transform, heal and live fulfilling lives. She is fascinated by the magic that every moment, every day, every person's story holds, and intrigued by dreams. Her storytelling initiatives is called ‘The Bright Lamp Storytells’. She is trying to live a fulfilling life one breath, one step, one day at a time.

Mindy Neo enjoys connecting with adults and children through the ancient art of story. She loves insights and lessons best when they’re wrapped in funny or poignant stories. She tells traditional tales as well as true stories from her own life. She also tells stories of biodiversity and conservation and hopes that through storytelling people might have a deeper sense of humanity and appreciation for biodiversity.

Sarita Nair, Sarita Nair adorns various hats, that of a Performance/Therapeutic Storyteller, a Theater practitioner/ facilitator and of a curator. She is the founder- of Heritage Stories & Performing Arts (HSPA). HSPA is an initiative established with an intent to celebrate cultural heritage, share and transfer heritage knowledge through stories and performing arts. Itihaas ke pannon se...a live storytelling avenue, on the HSPA Facebook page is her tribute to our freedom fighters, where she brings to you stories of unsung heroes who sacrificed their lives to gain India her freedom, since the year August 2020. 

Shubha Das is an Early Educator turned professional Storyteller who particularly enjoys indulging in and retelling folktales. She specializes in Malayalam classics, and stories based on cultural heritage with a contemporary edge. For her, stories are a piece of art, and hence, she believes in performing them in a manner that leaves an aural and visual imprint with linguistic hues in the minds of her audience.

Roger Jenkins  is a Singaporean storyteller, a co-founder and Director of FEAST. He has narrated nine audiobooks for Storytel (including adult, youth and children’s fiction, sci-fi and non-fiction titles.) He is a trained audio-describer who makes live performance accessible for vision-impaired audiences, and is an award-winning poet. ’Not Just at Bedtime! Tips and Tales for Parent Storytellers’ is a two hour video for anyone who wants to bond with their audience, and is available on the website rogerjenkins.com.sg.  

Story Wok is produced by FEAST ( Federation of Asian Storytellers), our focus is on spreading Asian stories, celebrating the tellers from the Philippines in the East to Turkey in the West and the storytelling communities that lie in-between.

Write to us at feaststory@gmail.com | storywok@gmail.com

For details of upcoming events visit our website www.feast-story.org

Mark your calendars, April 24th, 2022, when Episode 3 of Story Wok, Season 2 , brings to you stories around the theme 'Nature Narratives'.

This is a very special episode, for, we are celebrating World Storytelling Day 2022. World Storytelling Day is a worldwide celebration of Oral Storytelling celebrated each year on March 20 and the goal is to celebrate the art of storytelling with as many people as possible, both listeners and storytellers. Each year World Storytelling Day has a theme around which the storytellers tell their stories. The storytellers are free to choose their stories, but most of them try to connect to the theme.

The theme of World Storytelling Day 2022 is “Lost and Found”. It was inspired by all that we lost in the past years, and the hope of stories inspiring us to find it back again.

Taqarrabie from Indonesia enthusiastically narrates an Indonesian story for the children and young at heart. Do you know that a pair of slippers lost something? Listen to this beautiful story in our Miso segment to know what the pair of slippers finally found. 

In Dim Sum, the adult segment, we bring to you the story of Iravaan, one of the lesser known stories from Mahabharatha, the great Indian epic, wonderfully narrated by Meera Venkatesan. Pure love found and lost just in a day!!

Our Fortune Cookie is a beautiful Malay story of how perseverance and a kind heart can bring back what one lost. Juriah Atan and Kausar Karimi seamlessly narrate this story not in one but two languages, Malay and English. 

“Mapping of a story is non-negotiable and is a must” says Rituparna Ghosh in the segment Ace the Story, where we have our producer Shubha interviewing Rituparna. She shares some tips on how to go about mapping a story.

Last but not the least, wouldn’t you like to know what we producers ‘lost and found’ . Listen to our pantry discussion and also to know the Feast offerings in the month of April. 

Episode Hosts & Producers:

Prakrati Agrawal, a storyteller and an edutainer, loves telling stories that make one laugh and learn at the same time.

Shubha Das particularly enjoys indulging in and telling folktales. For her stories are a piece of art and hence,believes in performing it in a manner that leaves an aural and visual imprint with linguistic hues in the minds of her audience.

Parvathy Eswaran: A storyteller by passion and by choice, believes that stories are there everywhere just like the air we breathe and we, as storytellers act as a medium to spread and bring the stories to you.

Featured Tellers

Taqarrabie is a filmmaker, author, and storyteller who is passionate about spreading Indonesian stories and her own original stories in Bahasa Indonesia, Minangkabau, and English. She was introduced to the universe of oral telling by her parents when she was little, and she began her journey as a teller in 2017. Bie has performed at various storytelling festivals, libraries, events, hospitals, and schools for children and adults. She also has given basic storytelling workshops for teachers, parents, and students. She loves costume parties if you'd like to invite her to one!

Meera Venkatesan is a professional performance storyteller, trainer and learning consultant with a love of words and a deep desire to create meaningful learning. She has combined these passions to carve a space in applying stories to cement learning. She spearheads content with Anahata United efforts, an NGO providing career guidance to children. She specializes in creating story based curriculums for Social Emotional Learning, Communication skills, Languages, STEM and many more. She is a part of the creative storytelling group Katha Krafters who specialize in training, and curating performances for adults and children. She has participated in both online and offline storytelling festivals.

Juriah Atan, is a storyteller from Singapore. As an educator and workshop facilitator, she uses stories to engage participants. She has told stories to all age groups, from preschoolers to seniors. She loves stories with a touch of humour. She tells stories in English and Malay. 

Kausar Karimi loves to travel and go for hikes and walks. She enjoys the

outdoors and tries to look for stories that she comes across through her travels. Her motto is “There is a tale at every turn” and that keeps her interested in people and places. Not afraid to try different things, Kausar is a Speech and Drama instructor who uses stories to bring out the creative expression in the kids. She loves a good dramatization of folklore and often uses props and puppets to express herself.

Rituparna Ghosh:You can describe her as a story digger, story charmer, story gatherer, story extractor, story spotter…she is anything but just a storyteller! An international storyteller and a TEDx speaker Rituparna is the Founder of Your Story Bag, a Storytelling, Training, and Consulting company. She works with listeners, children, adults, organisations, not-for-profits, and corporates helping them harness the power of stories. Rituparna produces two podcasts called Golpo, Stories from Around the World, and What’s in Your Story Bag. She believes that Storytelling will be the strongest currency in the world and she is actively engaged in making it a sustainable career in India. 

Story Wok is produced by FEAST ( Federation of Asian Storytellers), our focus is on spreading Asian stories, celebrating the tellers from the Philippines in the East to Turkey in the West and the storytelling communities that lie in-between.

Write to us at feaststory@gmail.com | storywok@gmail.com

For details of upcoming events visit our website www.feast-story.org

Mark your calendars, March 24th, 2022, when Episode 2 of StoryWok, Season 2 , brings to you stories around the theme 'Lost and Found', celebrating World Storytelling Day.

Episode One of Story Wok Podcast Season 2 , is all about Metamorphosis, where we hav stories of transformation and change by storytellers Alla Lebedeva ( Russia), Nancy Leppard (Singapore) and Dharanya and Banu Mathy (India) in kids,adults and bilingual segments respectively. 

In our brand-new segment of Ace the Story, Shelly talks to Dr. Csenge Virág Zalka and asks her insights on scouting or looking for a story.

And step into Pantry to listen to the podcast producers talk about the different aspects of their theme “Metamorphosis”

Episode Hosts & Producers:

Nidhi Gujral – Nidhi started her professional journey as a management consultant in the corporate sector. But eventually her love for finding and collecting stories everywhere around her led her to change her career path completely!

She stepped into professional storytelling in the year 2019 out of passion for books & children. Thus, Pip & Squeak was born.

Since then, she has used her stories to advocate literacy, create thinkers, incite creativeness, and make learning fun by often coupling it with engaging activities & crafts to provide an experience that delights kids and parents alike. Find her stories on (https://www.instagram.com/pip_nd_squeak/) & (https://youtube.com/c/PipSqueakstories/)

Shelly Verma-Shelly Verma is a teller of tales who grew up in India listening to stories of kings, queens, animals, gods and goddesses from folklore and mythology. She carries these stories in her mind and her heart no matter where she is. Her repertoire includes stories from around the world but her main focus is using these stories to create awareness about the pressing issues of our times and be a part of the change. She believes in stories that inspire social change, give voice to the unheard and make the unseen noticed. You can find her stories on Facebook @Storyteller.ShellyVerma or Instagram @verma.shelly

Kausar Karimi-  Kausar loves to travel and go for hikes and walks. She enjoys the outdoors and tries to look for stories that she comes across through her travels. Her motto is “There is a tale at every turn” and that keeps her interested in people and places. Not afraid to try different things, Kausar is a Speech and Drama instructor who uses stories to bring out the creative expression in the kids. She loves a good dramatization of folklore and often uses props and puppets to express herself.

FEATURED TELLERS :

Alla Lebedeva from Russia tells stories to audiences aged from 1.5 to 100, conducts workshops for teachers and helps people to tell stories of their lives as she believes our souls talk through stories!

Dr. Csenge Virág Zalka is an international storyteller and author from Hungary. Her repertoire consists of a wide variety of old traditional stories - from myths and epics all the way to rare versions of fairy tales. She travels the world, performing in English, Spanish, and Hungarian. She has published several folktale collections in Hungarian and English. Csenge currently lives in Budapest, and works as a storyteller with the Világszép Foundation for Children in State Care. You can follow her on Twitter (@TarkabarkaHolgy) and visit her blog for articles on world folklore (http://multicoloreddiary.blogspot.com).

Nancy Leppard- Growing up in Singapore, Nancy read and heard stories from many countries and cultures. She loved how stories took her to different places and experiences. And now she loves sharing stories with others, transporting them to other worlds. Nancy conducted a webinar for FEAST titled- STORIES FOR ALL - where she shared her experiences as a storyteller in the special needs classroom.

Banu Mathy-Every Saturday, she shares stories to children through her Weekend Storytelling Session in her organization Fables n Tales. She has performed at Chennai Storytelling Festival, India (2013 to present) and also Under the Aalamaram - Kathai Kalatta ( 2014), besides that at various libraries and books stores. She has also shared her stories virtually in Worldwide Storytelling Guild and Feast Story swap. Banu Mathy likes to tell Asian Folktales and stories involving Myths and legends incorporating her unique style of songs, chants, voice modulation and props. She adapts her storytelling style depending on her audience.

Dharanya: A puppeteer and storyteller from Chennai (India) who loves working with children and stories in various mediums like puppet shows, role play, oral telling and writing. Instilling love for reading in young ones is one of her passions. Through story telling her aim is to reach more kids and promote the love for our culture and folklores.

Story Wok is produced by FEAST ( Federation of Asian Storytellers), our focus is on spreading Asian stories, celebrating the tellers from the Philippines in the East to Turkey in the West and the storytelling communities that lie in-between.

Write to us at feaststory@gmail.com | storywok@gmail.com

For details of upcoming events visit our website www.feast-story.org

Welcome to the Season Two of Story Wok podcast.

The Story Wok - is a podcast by Storytellers for Storytellers. We hope that means you, whether you identify yourself as a storyteller with a capital “S”, or if you just like to tell stories in your work - say as a teacher, librarian, counsellor, or community leader. And not forgetting if you are a parent or grandparent looking to share stories and values with your family.

And since the Story Wok is produced by FEAST ( Federation of Asian Storytellers), our focus is on spreading Asian stories, celebrating the tellers from the Philippines in the East to Turkey in the West and the storytelling communities that lie in-between.

The podcast is produced by 9 producers:

Shelly Verma (Switzerland)

Nidhi Gujral (India)

Kausar Karimi (Singapore)

Prakriti Agarwal (India)

Anamika Bhati (Singapore)

Dharanya (India)

Meenu (India)

Shubha (India)

Parvathy (India)

Lean in & listen, meet the podcast producers and peep into our story spread.

New episode coming on 24th February 2022

Write to us at feaststory@gmail.com OR storywork@gmail.com

#AsianStorytellers #AsianStories #FEAST #StoryWok

In Episode eight of Story Wok, we give a sneak peek into week 2 of the FEAST FEST 2021, happening this Oct with 68 unique themes, 51 shows in 24 languages from 23 countries. The FEAST FEST 2021 promises to be a dream come true for story loves around the world. It’s happening from the 15^th to the 31 Oct. 

This episode delights its listeners with three stories by its producers which are aligned to the three streams at the Fest. The story in the multilingual genre is being told by Roger Jenkins and Shereen Saif. The Kids Stream flavour is given by Ritu Vaish, and Rituparna Ghosh covers the adult stream category. 

Purchase your FEAST FEST pass on www.feast-story.org/2021-FEAST-FEST

Episode Host & Producer:

Ritu Vaish: 

Ritu Vaish has have been an educationist designing, developing and delivering English skill development courses and curriculum for over three decades. She mostly uses flannel board to tell stories. As a podcaster, she has a weekly story podcast: Story Prism.

FEATURED TELLERS :

Roger Jenkins - Roger Jenkins is a Singaporean storyteller, a co-founder and Director of FEAST. He came to storytelling via theatre which explains his style that combines both a strong sense of the theatrical with a relaxed, conversational manner-born of his work in improvised comedy. He has a keen interest in promoting accessibility – he is a trained audio describer for the blind and has a deaf tandem-storytelling partner.  

Shereen Saif - Shereen is a Dubai based Indian-born artist with a practice that spans dance, theatre, storytelling, voice acting and installation art. She is known for her physical storytelling style that integrates elements of music, dance and theatre with a repertoire largely consisting of traditional Indian tale.

Rituparna Ghosh -A story digger, story charmer, story extractor, Rituparna is anything but just a storyteller! She is the Founder of Your Story Bag, a Storytelling, Training and Consulting company. She works with listeners, children, adults, businesses and organisations helping them harness the power of stories. Rituparna produces 2 podcasts called Golpo, Stories from Around the World and What’s in Your Story Bag. 

Ritu Vaish - Ritu Vaish has have been an educationist designing, developing and delivering English skill development courses and curriculum for over three decades. She mostly uses flannel board to tell stories. As a podcaster, she has a weekly story podcast: Story Prism.

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Interviews with:-

1) Japanese-Korean storyteller Alton Takiyama-Chung, grew up in Hawaii and tells Hawaiian legends, Asian folktales, ghost stories, and historical tales like those of the Japanese-Americans in WWII. He performs across the USA and internationally and is also a former Chairman of the National Storytelling Network, the organization of US storytellers.

2) Interview with the team of ‘Bright Birbal And Tactful Tenali’

Sowmya Srinivasan loves books, reading and storytelling and has been using all these loves to develop creative thinking in children from 2008! She is also a psychologist who enjoys integrating storytelling, creative communication and social emotional learning through modules and interactive programmes for all ages.

Richa Sinha is a story enthusiast from Jharkhand, India, who intends to increase the happiness and emotional quotient of people with her optimism and zeal.

Nandita Sankaran a storyteller from Bangalore, India,

Engages kids with stories in different languages. Her sessions are interactive: packed with games, quizzes and activities. andita Sankaran a storyteller from Bangalore, India

Prakrati Agrawal from Bangalore, India, has been telling stories for more than a year with fun games & activities. She loves to solve and ask riddles to baffle her audience

Poonam Joshy from Bhopal, India, is a passionate storyteller, music and rhythm flow in her stories, mesmerising both children and adults.

3)Ticketing Information :  

Mangalam Senthil: C Mangalam Senthil is a Tedx Speaker, Performance Storyteller & Story Listener, Kolam fanatic, trekker, and a runner.

Story Wok Producers: The podcast is produced by 6 producers.

Krupa Vinayagamoorthy (Singapore)

Meher Gehi (India)

Ritu Vaish (India)

Rituparna Ghosh (India)

Roger Jenkins (Singapore)

Shereen Saif (Dubai)

Story Wok is produced by FEAST ( Federation of Asian Storytellers), our focus is on spreading Asian stories, celebrating the tellers from the Philippines in the East to Turkey in the West and the storytelling communities that lie in-between.

Write to us at feaststory@gmail.com | storywok@gmail.com

In Episode Seven of Story Wok, let's dive in & get a sneak peak into week 1 of the FEAST FEST - possibly the largest STORYTELLING FESTIVAL OF THE YEAR - happening this Oct’21 with 160+ tellers, 51 shows, 24 languages and performers representing 20+ countries. The FEAST FEST 2021 promises to be a storytelling bonanza over 17 days from 15 to 31 Oct! 

Savour 3 stories narrated by 3 Storywok producers ie. Meher Gehi, Shereen Saif & Krupa Vinayagamoorthi, that reflect the 3 unique streams at the FEST - multilingual, kids and adult. Listen to interviews by a few performers from the fest to get a glimpse into each of these streams.

Purchase your FEAST FEST pass on www.feast-story.org/2021-FEAST-FEST

Episode Host & Producer:

Meher Gehi - Meher Gehi is a certified professional storyteller, story educator and an aspiring voice artist. Her storytelling comes alive through her expressive eyes & voice. She loves to infuse her storytelling with her deep love for music, theatrics & spirituality. She has performed & conducted sessions at prestigious schools & venues in Mumbai & across India. Smitten by wanderlust, she can have you travel different worlds through her tales... Ready? To watch her unique storytelling style, head straight to her channel - Meher Gehi

FEATURED TELLERS :

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Meher Gehi - Meher Gehi is a certified professional storyteller, story educator and an aspiring voice artist. Her storytelling comes alive through her expressive eyes & voice. She loves to infuse her storytelling with her deep love for music, theatrics & spirituality. She has performed & conducted sessions at prestigious schools & venues in Mumbai & across India. Smitten by wanderlust, she can have you travel different worlds through her tales... Ready? To watch her unique storytelling style, head straight to her channel - Meher Gehi

Shereen Saif - Shereen is a Dubai based Indian-born artist with a practice that spans dance, theatre, storytelling, voice acting and installation art. She is known for her physical storytelling style that integrates elements of music, dance and theatre with a repertoire largely consisting of traditional Indian tale.

Krupa Vinayagamoorthi is an Australian storyteller based in Singapore. She is also the consulting director of the Federation of Asian Storytellers ( FEAST ). She is bilingual and enjoys telling stories to young children and adults in Tamil and English. She wears other hats as senior activity volunteer, administrator, interview coach, dancer, and visual note-taker.

Interviews with:-

1) Ng Kok Keong (Malaysia) - Multilingual Stream

Ng Kok Keong has been mesmerising his audience with stories since 2006. His storytelling passion coupled with his ability to tell stories in Mandarin, English and Malay Language has taken him all over Malaysia, South Korea, and other parts of Asia.

2) Anna Manuel (Australia) - Kids Stream

Anna is an educator, storyteller, and coach for creatives working with stories and children. She uses kamishibai mostly as an early literacy teaching tool. Currently based in Australia, where she performs and runs workshops, she has become a part of a revival of this story art form.  

3)Aparna Jaishankar (India) & Meera Venkatesan (India) - Adults Stream

Aparna has researched on, and collaborated with, multiple artists to enunciate the beauty of Indic literature and our aural heritage through oral stories. Meera is a performance storyteller, and learning consultant, who is propelled by her belief in the power of stories in inspiring learning and growth towards a better tomorrow.  

Story Wok Producers: The podcast is produced by 6 producers.

Krupa Vinayagamoorthy (Singapore)

Meher Gehi (India)

Ritu Vaish (India)

Rituparna Ghosh (India)

Roger Jenkins (Singapore)

Shereen Saif (Dubai)

Story Wok is produced by FEAST ( Federation of Asian Storytellers), our focus is on spreading Asian stories, celebrating the tellers from the Philippines in the East to Turkey in the West and the storytelling communities that lie in-between.

Write to us at feaststory@gmail.com | storywok@gmail.com