Story Wok

Federation of Asian Storytellers

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 a 6 producers: Krupa Vinayagamoorthy (Singapore) Meher Gehi (India) Ritu Vaish (India) Rituparna Ghosh (India) Roger Jenkins (Singapore) Shereen Saif (Dubai) Each episode is produced by 2 hosts who bring their distinctive charm and add their secret spices to concoct a wonderful dish for you every month. Season 2: 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 You can write to the producers at feaststory@gmail.com | storywok@gmail.com

  1. Story Wok || S2 - Ep 9 || Mythology

    10/24/2022

    Story Wok || S2 - Ep 9 || Mythology

    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

    53 min
  2. Story Wok || S2 - Ep 8 || Moon Tales

    09/24/2022

    Story Wok || S2 - Ep 8 || Moon Tales

    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.  .  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

    54 min
  3. Story Wok || S2 - Ep 7 || Splish Splash Splosh

    08/24/2022

    Story Wok || S2 - Ep 7 || Splish Splash Splosh

    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

    54 min
  4. Story Wok || S2 - Ep 6 || Dreams/ Reality?

    07/24/2022

    Story Wok || S2 - Ep 6 || Dreams/ Reality?

    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

    51 min

About

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 a 6 producers: Krupa Vinayagamoorthy (Singapore) Meher Gehi (India) Ritu Vaish (India) Rituparna Ghosh (India) Roger Jenkins (Singapore) Shereen Saif (Dubai) Each episode is produced by 2 hosts who bring their distinctive charm and add their secret spices to concoct a wonderful dish for you every month. Season 2: 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 You can write to the producers at feaststory@gmail.com | storywok@gmail.com