SJS Mini Festival – Come here till I tells ya! – Raising our Spirits with Local Stories & Tellers

Home › Events › SJS Mini Festival – Come here till I tells ya! – Raising our Spirits with Local Stories & Tellers
All Events

Event Details

June 10, 2022 @ 7:30 am - June 12, 2022 @ 7:00 pm
Free
Address: Gower Street United Church , 99 Queen's Rd

Organizer

Name: Cards

 

 

 

SJS Mini Festival – Come here till I tells ya!: Raising our Spirits with Local Stories & Tellers

Come out and get the stink of the house off ya!

We have a wonderful weekend of activities and shows for you to enjoy ! Our SJS mini festival will take place at Gower St United Church June 10 – 12 (lower entrance). All events are free, but you can feel free to bring a donation of a non perishable food item, or a monetary donation that will go towards the people of Ukraine.

The mini festival has an array of shows for both kids and adults, and will feature a story recording booth, prizes, refreshments, and more!

Please see our schedule below – We cant wait to see you there!

 

Friday, June 10 

7:30 pm show: Yarns, Tales & Outright Lies – Come hear stories to get the stink of the house off ya! Hosted by Kelly Russell, and featuring tellers Ellen Power, Josh Goudie, Chris Brookes,  and Violet Drake.

Saturday, June 11 

10 – 11:30am: Animal Antics – stories, songs & art for the young’uns (accompanied by an adult). Hosted by Catherine Wright.

1- 2:30pm: Workshop – “And Then What? Creating Stories From Scratch” with Christine Hennebury.

3pm: Story Crowd – A place for storytellers to hone their craft. Hosted by Ken Parsons.

7:30pm show: Spirited Tales – Come get your spirits lifted! Hosted by Jim Payne and featuring tellers Stan Nochasak, Harry Ingram, Karen Carroll, Christine Hennebury and Ken Parsons.

Sunday, June 12 

1-2pm: Young at Heart – Stories for ages 8 to 108 (Family Show)

3pm: Tea and Tales: Come and share your stories from home. Hosted by Derrick Dymond, and open to anyone to tell a story.

 

Here are some of the performers you can catch at our festival!:

Jim Payne

A native of Notre Dame Bay, Jim Payne is an award-winning performer, collector and producer of traditional Newfoundland music, as well one of the province’s most prolific songwriters, whose songs and stories reflect the folklore of the province as well as historic and contemporary issues faced by coastal peoples of the North West Atlantic. He has performed on six continents.

 

Karen Carroll
Karen Carroll is a storyteller, writer, playwright and recitationist living in Logy Bay. She writes stories of Newfoundland based on stories of her family, her personal experiences, and those shared by friends. Karen released her first e-album, Molasses and Homemade Bread, on October 11, 2021. A frequent performer with St. John’s Storytelling at Storytelling Circles, festivals, and other events, Karen is a familiar face to many in the storytelling community locally. Karen has been a member of the St. John’s Storytelling Board since 2017.
Christine Hennebury
Christine’s storytelling career began at age 4 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, storyteller, and creative life coach living in Mount Pearl, NL who spends most of her time encouraging people to explore their creativity on their own terms. She is the founder of the Association for the Arts in Mount Pearl, the President of Storytellers of Canada – Conteurs du Canada, and a past president of Storytelling St. John’s.
Chris Brookes
Chris Brookes tells stories with his voice, his keyboard or with his microphone. With a microphone, he is an award-winning independent radio producer whose documentaries have been broadcast around the world. With his keyboard he is a published author and playwright. With his voice, he tells traditional Newfoundland stories and recitations and (regrettably) sometimes sings a little. He seems to be obsessed with narrative, which makes him keep telling stories in one form or another with hopes of one day getting them right.
Catherine Wright
Catherine Wright is a multidisciplinary artist and arts educator who embraces
playfulness and exploration in her own work and her approach to teaching. She
has a background in storytelling, dance, voice and visual arts, and has presented
at many different events and venues including in schools, galleries, Festival of
New Dance, storytelling festivals, outdoor venues, libraries. Catherine is president
of St John’s Storytelling Inc. and provincial representative for Storytellers of
Canada (SC-CC).
Josh Goudie
Josh Goudie’s writing has been shortlisted for the Newfoundland and Labrador Credit Union Fresh Fish Award, the Cuffer Prize for short fiction, and in 2021, he was awarded the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts and Letters Percy Janes First Novel Award. He has previously published two children’s books Jack and the Hurricane (Breakwater Books), and its sequel, Jack and the Magnificent Ugly Stick (Breakwater Books). This fall, his collection of children’s poetry titled “Where the Crooked Lighthouse Shines” will be published by Breakwater Books.
Stan Nochasak
Living in St. John’s, but originally from Nain, NL, Nunatsiavut.  Enrolled in the Faculty of Education of MUN, to be a Primary Teacher.  Am a visual artist in pencil drawing (realistic), painting (realistic & abstract whose latter’s theme is ‘spirituality’), also a writer, poet, actor, storyteller and Inuit Drum Dancer!  I am an Uncle 23 times over, love kids, family, community, meeting others, making more limpid friends!  Is a proud Nunatsiavut (“Our Beautiful Land,” in Inuktitut) Inuk, FOREVER!!!! NAKUMMEK (“thank you,” in Inuktitut)!
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. Working closely for many years with legendary fiddlers Rufus Guinchard and Emile Benoit, learning, recording and documenting their unique music, Kelly has inherited genuine status as one of Newfoundland’s leading traditional music performers.

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). In March of 2010, Kelly was the first ever recipient of the “Tradition Bearer” designation from the Department of Tourism Historic Commemorations Program. In 2013 Kelly received the Queens Diamond Jubilee Medal and is a member of The Order of Canada. In 2021 he received an honorary Doctorate from MUN.

Ellen Power

Raised in St. John’s, Ellen remains connected to the ballad-singing and storytelling traditions of her family in Placentia Bay. She has performed at festivals across Newfoundland, including the March Hare Literary Festival and the Newfoundland and Labrador Folk Festival. Sharing stories and singing songs passed down through generations of Newfoundlanders before her, Ellen uses her voice to keep the old traditions alive.

 

Derrick Dymond

Derrick is chairperson and a founding member of the Torbay Folk Arts Council, as well as a member of the Torbay Folk Group, and the Killick Folk music group. After watching his good friend Gary Green tell his stories he decided to take part in a storytelling workshop and is hooked. He told his first story as part of the workshop and is now excited to be part of the storytellers circle. Because of the story he told as part of the workshop, an original he wrote himself, he was awarded the Emerging Storyteller Award for Newfoundland and Labrador. As part of the award he has also presented another original story at the Storytellers of Canada Conference in Fredericton, New Brunswick in 2019. He has performed at The Ship Inn as part of The St. John’s Storytelling Festival and performs regularly at the Torbay Folk Arts Council Folk nights and other events in Torbay.

 

Harry Ingram

Harry Ingram was born and raised in Arnold’s Cove Placentia Bay, or as Ray Guy would call it, “That far greater bay”. Recitations have always been a core element of Harry’s upbringing, which he now performs in various venues. He’s known to appear alongside Dave Paddon, Dave Penney, and Hubert Furey as part of the popular “Stage to Stage” group. He’s also a part of the comedy, recitation duo “The Liar’s Bench Show” with his cohort Ken Parsons. Harry writes his own original material, however, he also enjoys keeping alive the works of greats such as Leo O’Brien, John Joe English and others.

 

Ken Parsons

Ken Parsons loves Newfoundland Labrador, and it shows in his recitations. Spending summers growing up in Bonavista Bay, he has created “Raisin Arm”, an imaginary Newfoundland Labrador community full of “heart warming stories” and “all kinds of foolishness”. The everyday joys and fun of local culture are always “just down the Arm”. As an accomplished magician, you’re sure to see Ken pull a trick or two out of his sleeve during his stories.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Violet Drake

Violet Drake is a queer, trans, and multiply disabled artist and writer from the coastal community of Lawn on the Burin Peninsula. Now based in St. John’s, her multidisciplinary practice blends life narrative, self portraiture, illustration, and performance through her conceptual framework of trans+corporeal cartographies and existential ecologies. Her work has been exhibited and performed at artist-run centres, galleries, stages, festivals, and classrooms throughout Ktaqmkuk (colonially Newfoundland) including Eastern Edge, St. Michael’s Print Shop, Unscripted Twillingate, LSPU Hall, St. John’s Arts and Culture Centre, and Memorial University. Co-author of transVersing, she has recent and forthcoming publications locally and nationally in Riddle Fence, Understorey, HELD, Newest Magazine, and Home Out of It podcast.”

 

Brian Cherwick

Brian Cherwick is a multi-instrumentalist who has performed throughout North America, Europe, and the Caribbean as a soloist, with a number of folk ensembles, and as leader of the speed-folk band Kubasonics. His solo shows are a fascinating excursion through the world of Ukrainian folk music with a unique blend of entertainment and educational experience, spiced with a healthy dose of humour. A natural extension of his onstage banter, Brian branched out into the world of story-telling and has shared tales at the St. John’s Storytelling Festival and other festivals