ST. JOHN'S STORY TELLING FESTIVAL 2017
TELLER BIOS
ANGUS ANDERSEN
Angus Andersen, biorn in Labrador and raised in the Majestic Torngat mountains until school age. He resides in St. John's and hosts workshops for those wanting to learn Inuttut language, soapstone carving and Inuit History. Angus hosts St. John's FIRST EVER 100% Aboriginal radio show.
CHRIS BROOKES
Chris Brookes is an author, storyteller and independent audio producer who has crafted audio documentaries professionally for three decades. They have won over forty international awards including the Peabody Award and the Prix Italia, and have been broadcast around the world.
He has been named an International Audio Luminary by the 3rd Coast International Audio Festival, is inducted to the Newfoundland & Labrador Arts Hall of Fame, holds an honorary doctorate from Memorial University of Newfoundland, and is a recipient of the Order of Canada.
Currently he creates smartphone apps which place stories into the landscape of Newfoundland communities.
He is obsessed with narrative, and keeps telling stories in hopes of someday getting them right.
KAREN CARROLL
Karen Carroll was born and raised in Carbonear, NL. The daughter of a Fisherman turned Labourer and a stay at home Mom, her family roots are on the north shore of Conception Bay. Karen was introduced to story telling by her parents and grade school teachers. In High School, Karen became actively engaged with the drama club, where her love for live performance was born, nourished and thrived. She also began writing poetry and playing the guitar.
She joined the Outer Cove Concert Crowd in the early 1990's as an amateur actress and singer. This creative outlet rekindled her love of the spoken word and live performance and provided a platform for her to write and perform her own works. She also began to collaborate with her husband, Jim on song lyrics during the creative process for some of his original songs.
Karen recently wrote a play, "Sheila's Brush", which was performed in March of 2017 by the Concert Crowd at the Arts and Culture Center. Karen has recently joined the Board of the St. John's Storytelling Circle. She lives in Logy Bay with her husband Jim and her Newfoundland dog, Nageira. She is a proud and fierce mother and grandmother. She is a retired Registered Nurse.
BRIAN CHERWICK
Brian Cherwick is a St John’s based entertainer and musician. He received his PhD in Folklore and Ethnomusicology from the University of Alberta and is well versed in the musical and oral traditions of Ukraine and of Ukrainian-Canadians. He has performed in concerts, festivals and workshops across Canada and Europe. His performances are a unique blend of entertainment and educational experience, spiced with a healthy dose of humour.
LEN GRAHAM
Born in County Antrim, Len is one of Ireland's best know traditional singers and song collectors with more than 20 albums to his name - as a soloist and alongside artists that include Joe Holmes, Skylark, Padraigín Ní Uallacháin, and Cathal McConnell. His 20-year association with the late John Campbell brought storytelling and song to a world audience. Len's many honours include the Sean Boyle Cultural Traditions Award (1992), the TG4 National Music Award for “Traditional Singer Of the Year.”(2002) and the CCÉ Bardic Award (2011). His most recent book is Here I Am Amongst You on the songs, music and traditions of Joe Holmes (Four Courts Press 2010).
GARY COLLINS
Gary Collins was born in a small, two-storey house by the sea in the town of Hare Bay, Bonavista North. He finished school at Brown Memorial High in the same town. He spent forty years in the logging and sawmilling business with his father, Theophilus, and son Clint. Gary was once Newfoundland’s youngest fisheries guardian. He managed log drives down spring rivers for years, spent seven seasons driving tractor-trailers over ice roads and the Beaufort Sea of Canada’s Western Arctic, and has been involved in the crab, lobster, and cod commercial fisheries. In 2016, he joined the Canadian Rangers.
Gary’s writing career began when he was asked to write eulogies for deceased friends and family. Now a critically acclaimed author, he has written eleven books, including the children’s illustrated book What Colour is the Ocean?, which he co-wrote with his granddaughter, Maggie Rose Parsons. That book won an Atlantic Book Award: The Lillian Shepherd Memorial Award for Excellence in Illustration. His book Mattie Mitchell: Newfoundland’s Greatest Frontiersman has been adapted for film.
Gary Collins is one of Newfoundland and Labrador’s favourite storytellers, and today he is known all over the province as “the Story Man.” His favourite pastimes are reading, writing, and playing guitar at his log cabin. He lives in Hare Bay, Newfoundland, with his wife, the former Rose Gill. They have three children and three grandchildren.
BEV KANE
Beverley Kane was born in St. John’s, but has lived longer on the Southern Shore than she has in the Big City. She met and married a fisherman from Renews who is steeped in the tradition of the place, and a little bit of it just may have rubbed off on her. When she moved to the area, she embraced her new found home and everything about it. House parties were a big part of getting to know her neighbours, and you might be sure that a story or two came out of these gatherings. A great lover of local songs and recitations, she became the unofficial collector and keeper of the lore. She has spent the past 30 odd years sharing these songs and stories in homes and on the local stages around the Shore (and sometimes further afield). Bev was an actor for several seasons with the Southern Shore Folk Arts Council in Ferryland, spent eight years playing in the Colony of Avalon’s 17th-century kitchen, and is presently a Heritage Interpreter for Provincial Historic Sites. Her alter-ego, Mrs. Bridget Theresa O’Rielly O’Toole, regales visitors with stories of the 1800s as the cook at Commissariat House; Bev can also be found recounting the history of Port wine in Newfoundland at the Newman Wine Vaults.
SHEREE FITCH
Sheree Fitch is a poet, educator and author. She's been telling stories and performing poetry for over thirty years in festivals, libraries and classrooms and once on an iceberg. Her work has taken her from Zanzibar to Nunavut and she now owns and operates Mabel Murple's Book Shoppe and Dreamery, a seasonal book shoppe on a dirt road in rural coastal Nova Scotia. Many of her award winning books, like Sleeping Dragons All Around, are considered Canadian classics for children and Fitch's work is now being read by a second generation of families. Her latest book, Polly MacCauley's Finest Divinest Woolliest Gift of All, "a yarn for all ages", has been published by Running the Goat Books and is illustrated by Darka Erdelji.
JOE GOUDIE
Joe Goudie was born in Mud Lake, Labrador in 1939 into a family of trappers and his life has been full of adventures and firsts every since. Joe worked in the Canadian legislature for nearly a decade, moving on to broadcasting and the tourism industry. In 1990 he began building canoes and hasn’t looked back since. He has just completed his twenty-eighth 200 mile canoe trip through Labrador. Joe’s repertoire includes stories from the trapline and from inside canoes; of his fascinating family – his brother Horace the trapper, and mother Elizabeth, a writer; and you may hear a bit from behind from behind government doors as well. From the forest to the river, from CBC to the legislature, Joe has seen a lot and has a tale or two to tell about it.
GARY GREEN
Gary Green is a storyteller and author who has performed both inside and outside the province in a variety of settings from camps to international conferences. Among the groups for which he has performed are the Cape St. Mary's Performance Series; Battle Harbour Historic Trust; Canadian National Storytelling Conference; St. John's Folk Festival; and Trails, Tales and Tunes. Gary has performed on television as part of the series Legends and Lore of the North Atlantic and on several radio stations.
He is a board member of the St. John's Storytelling Festival, and a founding board member of the Soundbone Traditional Arts Foundation. Gary teaches storytelling at the Vinland Music Camp and is a regular performer at the St. John's Storytelling Circle.
CHRISTINE HENNEBURY
Christine’s storytelling career began at age 3 when she earnestly explained to her parents, while holding an empty bottle, that she had not spilled her bubbles on the couch. Understandably, they didn’t believe that the wet couch was the result of water shooting out of their daughter’s nose but she swears that her stories have improved greatly since then. She likes to tell a huge variety of stories, including myths, family stories, folk tales and stuff she made up, and her topics range from the story of Sekhmet, an avenging Egyptian goddess, to the story of the time that her Dad tricked her uncle out of a hotdog. Christine is a writer, creative life coach, actor, and, director living in Mount Pearl, NL. She is the founder of the Association for the Arts in Mount Pearl and the current President of the St. John’s Storytelling Festival.
DALE JARVIS
Dale Gilbert Jarvis is a storyteller and professional folklorist. By day, he is the provincial folklorist for Newfoundland and Labrador, the first provincially-funded folklorist position in Canada. By night, he is the proprietor of the St. John’s Haunted Hike ghost tour, and raconteur of local tales. Dale tells ghost stories, stories of the fairies and little people, tales of phantom ships and superstitions, and legends and traditional tales from Newfoundland, Labrador and beyond. His repertoire includes long-form folk and fairy tales, with a wide-ranging knowledge of local legends, tall tales, and myths. Former newspaper columnist and author of several books on island folklore, he is a tireless promoter of local culture and oral history.
BEV KANE
Beverley Kane was born in St. John’s, but has lived longer on the Southern Shore than she has in the Big City. She met and married a fisherman from Renews who is steeped in the tradition of the place, and a little bit of it just may have rubbed off on her. When she moved to the area, she embraced her new found home and everything about it. House parties were a big part of getting to know her neighbours, and you might be sure that a story or two came out of these gatherings. A great lover of local songs and recitations, she became the unofficial collector and keeper of the lore. She has spent the past 30 odd years sharing these songs and stories in homes and on the local stages around the Shore (and sometimes further afield). Bev was an actor for several seasons with the Southern Shore Folk Arts Council in Ferryland, spent eight years playing in the Colony of Avalon’s 17th-century kitchen, and is presently a Heritage Interpreter for Provincial Historic Sites. Her alter-ego, Mrs. Bridget Theresa O’Rielly O’Toole, regales visitors with stories of the 1800s as the cook at Commissariat House; Bev can also be found recounting the history of Port wine in Newfoundland at the Newman Wine Vaults.
SHARON KING-CAMPBELL
Sharon King-Campbell is a storyteller, writer and theatre artist based in St. John's. She was the first Youth Scholarship winner with the Storytellers of Canada in 2010, and has told all over Newfoundland, as well as in Ontario, British Columbia and New Zealand. Sharon holds a BFA in Theatre and is a current Master's candidate at Memorial University.
JACK LYNCH
Jack Lynch is firmly rooted rooted in the seanchaí oral storytelling tradition. He works regularly in schools, libraries, prisons, museums, elderly care homes, in psychiatric hospitals and at arts and storytelling festivals throughout Ireland. Jack tours and performs regularly with the famed Irish traditional singer and collector, Len Graham. They have performed together at many folk festivals including The Smithsonian FolkLife Festival (2007); Whitby Folk Festival; Hammersmith Irish Festival; Newcastle Irish Festival; Sidmouth Folk Festival: Girvan Folk ; and Orkney Folk Festival. Together with the poet Theo Dorgan (and with the assistance of the Arts Council) they toured as Rhyme, Rant and Rann. As the current chairperson of Storytellers of Ireland, Jack is co-ordinating the organisation of FEST 2017 Storytelling in Borderlands, a European Storytelling Conference which will take place on both sides of the Irish Border this June.
LOUISE MOYES
Louise Moyes (St. John’s) performs and creates docudances; multidisciplinary and often bilingual shows working with the rhythms of voices and accents as if they were a musical score. Combining her work as dancer, storyteller, filmmaker, and sociologist, Louise has made shows on topics including the collapse of the Newfoundland and Labrador Fisheries, similarities between Québécois and Newfoundlanders, walking her dog, and the life of Franco-Acadian NL musician Florence Leprieur. She loves telling Jack tales. Louise has performed across Canada and in Germany, Italy, Iceland, New York, Australia, France and Brazil. She currently serves on the board of DanceNL. In 2016, Louise Moyes Docudance celebrated its 25th Anniversary and Louise was awarded the Canada Council for the Arts Victor Martyn Lynch-Staunton Award for Innovation in Dance. She was also Short-listed for the ArtsNL BMO Artist of the Year Award 2016 (with co-nominee Robert Chafe and winner Opera on the Avalon). www.docudance.com
GABRIEL MOYES-VAANDERING
Gabriel Moyes-Vaandering is an 11-year-old storyteller, dancer and singer. His professional work includes performing the principal role of Fritz in Kittiwake Dance Theatre's 30th anniversary show with the Newfoundland Symphony in 2017; dancing and choreographing in the NDW-commissioned dance piece Homefront, a multi-generational work on WW1 and the effects of war through the generations; dancing in the duet Flight, by choreographer Lynn Panting, at their spring show, at Memorial University (with Newman's Sound choir) and the NDW Festival of New Dance 2017. He sings with Shallaway choir since 2013. Gabe is thrilled to be invited to tell a story at the St. John's International Storytelling Festival 2017.
DAVE PADDON
Dave Paddon is a retired airline pilot originally from Northwest River, Labrador. He grew up listening to the songs and stories of the trappers and attending many a late night “session” around many a kitchen table. In 1986 he married a Gander girl and subsequently became immersed in Island culture. As a result he accumulated a store of material which suddenly bubbled to the surface when he and Kim returned to Newfoundland and Labrador in 2005 after 20 years upalong. He wrote his first recitation in 2007 and has now written 25. Five of these have been published in handmade chapbooks and his work is available on a CD or through electronic download. His recitation “Ralph: Flying Hound” was recently released as an illustrated children's book. Dave lives in St. John's and is a regular at festivals and fundraisers throughout the province.
DAVE PENNY
Dave Penny has been singing songs and playing his accordion around the province for over 20 years. In recent years he has taken to writing and performing recitations and comic songs. In 2008 Dave released a solo album of songs and tunes called Stories and Strangers, and in 2014 and 2015 he released two albums of original recitations and Christmas recitations (respectively) with the group From Stage to Stage. In 2017 he released an album consisting entirely of new original material called All Turned Around, produced by Aaron Collis. Dave lives in St. John's with his son Kaleb.
Amelia Reimer
Amelia Reimer is a Métis woman originally from the Pacific Northwest, but has been living in St. John’s for the past 5-1/2 years. Her Métis ancestry is from Montana and Alberta. By day, she works at the St. John’s Native Friendship Centre as a Cultural Support Coordinator, working with residential school survivors, violence prevention, and keeps the provincial database of missing/murdered women and children of Newfoundland and Labrador. Since moving to the province, she has been coined a “baygirl from a different coast”.
KELLY RUSSELL
A professional musician since 1975, Kelly has been a member of landmark groups Figgy Duff, The Wonderful Grand Band, The Plankerdown Band, Bristol's Hope, Kelly Russell & The Planks and The Irish Descendants. In recent years, along with his wife and partner, Tonya Kearley, Kelly has brought his expertise in Nfld Music & Culture to the growing Tourism Industry in the Province with such popular events as his solo show Tunes & Tales of Newfoundland, an evening of Newfoundland fiddle music & storytelling weekly in summer at The Crow’s Nest in St. John’s and Dance Up, introducing visitors and locals alike to the joys of old-fashioned Newfoundland folk dancing.
Kelly has been awarded the Nfld & Lab Arts Council Award for Music (1987), twice awarded the Tourism Industry Association Certificate of Recognition (1991 & 1997), the prestigious Marius Barbeau Award (1997) for his contribution to Canadian Folklore and the City of St. John's Legend Award (1999). For his extensive work in preserving and promoting the culture and tradition of NL, Kelly has been designated the Province’s first Tradition Bearer, awarded The Queens Diamond Jubilee Medal and, most recently, named to The Order of Canada;
CATHERINE WRIGHT
Catherine Wright is a multidisciplinary artist and storyteller from St. John’s, NL where she works as a performer, arts educator and creator of works on silk.
Catherine tells a variety of stories including folk and fairy tales, personal stories and her own imaginative tales. Her performances often interweave storytelling with movement/dance and song. She enjoys stories for their ability to transport, inform, entertain, transfix… They remind us of commonalities and help break down boundaries, allow us to be in the moment while taking us to another time and place. Catherine has presented independently and in collaboration with storytellers, dancers, musicians at many community events, festivals and venues (outdoors, galleries, theatres, libraries…) for a range of audiences from preschoolers to seniors.
For many years, Catherine has been a versatile arts educator. She has conducted diverse projects and has toured to provincial schools. She was recipient of Memorial University’s Arts in Education Award for 2016, administered by ArtsNL.
Catherine is NL provincial representative for Storytellers of Canada and board member of St. John’s Storytelling Festival.