For our 6th episode of Story Wok, we travel to FEAST HQ - Singapore, our spotlight country this month, with producers Shereen Saif and Rituparna Ghosh. In a double interview with FEAST Director Roger Jenkins and Swee Yean, President of the Storytelling Association, we find out how Singapore became the centre of the contemporary storytelling movement. We also come away with some best practices that can benefit storytellers in fellow FEAST countries. 

As for stories, we’ve curated 3 from FEAST’s first anthology Food Tales from Asia. 

Ariyo Zidni (Indonesia) takes us to Bali to meet The Polengs – the good rice farmers who go on heavenly adventures. Srividhya Venkat (India) will tickle you with her tale of a stingy old couple who fight over their last laddoo while celebrated author Dr. Margaret Read MacDonald (USA) retells a Penan folktale about a squirrel and forest gecko who learn to share their food. 

In Pantry, us podcast producers will whet your appetite further by sharing our favorite food tales and talking about the many connections between food and stories. 

And finally, man of many talents, master storyteller Jeff Gere (Hawaii) joins us to spice things up in Tadka by talking about the importance of 4-D telling even in a 2-D medium like Zoom! Listen well. 

Featured Storytellers

Ariyo Zidni is the Co-Founder of Ayo Dongeng Indonesia and the initiator of Indonesia International Storytelling Festival. He is a storyteller and children's story writer who believes storytelling is a passion to share.

Srividhya Venkat has been pursuing the art of storytelling in Singapore since 2015. She’s a volunteer at the local libraries and the Children’s Cancer Foundation. She is also the author of eight children’s picture books, including The Clever Tailor, which was inspired by a European folktale.

Dr. Margaret Read MacDonald is author of over 67 books on folklore and storytelling topics, such as Peace Tales and Teaching with Story: Classroom Connections to Storytelling. She has travelled to over 65 countries sharing tales and offering her “Playing with Story” workshops. 

Guests

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.  

Swee Yean Wong was a former teacher whose students looked forward to their daily does of stories that she told to entertain and educate. She now performs for all audiences in schools, museums, libraries and carries out workshops for teachers, for senior citizens and organizations. She is currently the President of the Storytelling Association (Singapore). 

Jeff Gere,born on Halloween, lives in Honolulu. He created, hosted and produced Talk Story Festival, Hawaii’s largest storytelling celebration for 26 years in addition to a Story TV and Radio series. He tours Hawaii and teaches internationally. He also does shadow puppets and is always bubbling with projects and ideas. 

Podcast Producers

Shereen Saif 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 tales.

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. 

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

Krupa Vinayagamoorthy (Singapore)

Meher Gahi (India)

Ritu Vaish (India)

Rituparna Ghosh (India)

Roger Jenkins (Singapore)

Shereen Saif (Dubai)

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.

If you are interested in Podcasting, check out our Podcasting for Storytellers webinar by Rituparna Ghosh at the FEAST store.

Write to us at: [email protected] / [email protected]