Learning Lore

Zalka Csenge Virág is a storyteller and author from Hungary. She has been a professional storyteller for 20 years, and holds a master's degree in Storytelling and a PhD in Culture Studies. She travels the world, performing traditional tales, epics, and myths in English, Spanish, and Hungarian. She has published several folktale collections both in the USA and in Hungary.

Tom van Mieghem is a storyteller from Belgium who explores the simplicity of storytelling. He began as a puppeteer and saw similarities between creating images in the audience’s mind and the way stories do so. He leads workshops for young storytellers, and we met him at the Ljungby Music and Storytelling Festival last summer.

EMILY HENNESSEY is a dynamic performance storyteller often found wielding a stick and stamping her feet as she embraces epics, myths, wondertales and folktales from across the world.  Work and travel in India have kindled in Emily a great love of Hindu mythology. She’s journeyed over 10,000 miles across India by train, bus, rattling rickshaw and rickety bicycle. She’s lived with a yak-herding family on the Tibetan plateau, studied Kathakali dance-drama in Kerala and worked at the Kattaikkuttu School in Tamil Nadu, learning from the children who perform stories from the Mahabharata through music, dance and song. With a Swedish background, Emily also has a passion for the Norse Myths and Scandinavian folklore. Emily came to storytelling while studying Drama & Theatre Studies at the University of Kent where she met storyteller Dr Vayu Naidu. Emily completed a storytelling apprenticeship with Vayu, and later trained with Ben Haggarty. She’s also had the privilege of training with Indian Pandvani performer, Ritu Verma.  Recent performances include the Soho Theatre, Richmix, British Museum, the Earthouse and York Theatre Royal with the Crick Crack Club, the Royal Opera House, Shakespeare’s Globe, the Viking Ship Museum in Denmark, Nordic House in Iceland, Kathakar Storytelling Festival in Delhi, tours of India with British Council and many European clubs and festivals. Emily is also a key member of the Pandvani108 ensemble.  Emily lives in the Lake District with her children and husband, storyteller and musician, Nick Hennessey. Together they run Stealing Thunder and host the Stealing Thunder Storytelling Festival.  

Ebba Lisberg Jensen is a human ecologist, who for many years did research on forestry, biodiversity and sustainable urban development. She is a frequent participant in the storytelling group here at the department of pedagogical, curricural and professional studies. She is a humanities scholar always ending up in biology. Presently, Ebba is a senior lecturer at the teacher education at the University of Gothenburg. Her main professional focus is education for sustainable development, namely how individuals and society understand ecosystem functions and the interdependence between humans and nature. Privately, Ebba cherishes all forms of history, fairytales and Nordic sentimental song lyrics. 

Abdulrahman is a Fulbright scholar from Lebanon and holds a MSc in Neuroscience from The University of Texas at Dallas. He is interested in teaching neuroscience to children as a form of science education and social-emotional learning. At his startup, Neurochem Lab, Abdul develops neuroscience educational programs, using storytelling as his primary learning approach. 

Dr Si Poole, is an Associate Professor of Cultural Education at the University of Chester, UK; He is a folklorist, trustee of the Mythstories museum and a Director and Researcher at the Centre for Research into Education, Creativity and Arts through Practice (RECAP). His work currently focuses on gardening in education, and as the founder and holder of the National Plant collection of Mentha, his work champions gardening as a creative praxis and considers what that means for communities; his research also covers a wide array of other creative praxes and pedagogies; storytelling; walking methodologies; and the intercultural use of music; informal songwriting; and arts, and crafts, based initiatives. He has worked in 18 countries developing research initiatives and presenting interactive vocal performances, most recently as a Visiting Professor at Gothenburg University, and next month a Visiting Professor at Uppsala University, Sweden. Si is also a published poet; Managing Director of Soil Records; and has written and released seven albums to critical acclaim and is still singing and songwriting with 'the loose kites’ to this day.

Dublin born storyteller Clare Murphy has worked with story for 19 years. SHe has performed on stages around Europe and the Americas for audiences of 5000 people. She tells myth, folklore, wisdom tales, science, and history, as well as the occasional true story. She teaches and consults with all kinds of people and organisations worldwide from The Royal Shakespeare Company to NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory to The New Zealand All Blacks Rugby team.

Meet two teacher educators from Ludwigsburg in Germany. They have experience of using storytelling in language teaching. Andrea tells a bilingual version of Little red riding hood. Rachelle Breuer, M.A. has taught college-level EFL (English as a Foreign Language) and German as a Foreign Language in the U.S. and Germany, and she currently works as an EFL instructor / academic staff member in the Institute of English at Ludwigsburg University of Education. Andrea Mercier-Droste, M.A. has taught college-level EFL/ESL (English as a Foreign/Second Language) in the U.S. and. Germany, as well as Linguistics and Applied Linguistics in Germany. She currently works as a linguistics instructor / academic staff member in the Institute of English at Ludwigsburg University of Education, Germany. Her professional interests include bilingualism/multilingualism, language identity, language bans and bias, language acquisition and language attitudes. She has a passion for bilingual storytelling, code-switching, debunking myths about bilinguals/multilinguals, and encouraging a more inclusive definition of bilingualism/multilingualism.

Daniel Morden has been a professional teller of traditional tales since 1989. He has travelled all over the world, from the Arctic to the Pacific to the Caribbean, sharing and collecting stories. He has appeared at the National Theatre, Hay Festival, The National Storytelling Festival of America, WOMAD, many theatres, arts centres, festivals…and thousands of schools.In 2017 he was awarded the Hay Festival Medal for his services to storytelling.    He has written several award-winning anthologies of traditional stories, includingDARK TALES FROM THE WOODSHe also coaches storytellers and teaches an annual beginners weekend at Ty Newydd Writer’s Centre.

It was at the Music and Storytelling Festival in Ljungby last summer that we met Mara Menzi from Kenya. And we took the opportunity to record a podcast episode when we had the chance. It became a very interesting conversation about storytelling's ability to spread hope, which is important in our time. Mara is an award-winning storyteller and author who has captivated audiences across more than 30 countries worldwide. The Ljungby festival marks her very first performance in Sweden! She is passionate about the transformative power of story. She is also the visionary founder of Msitu wa Ndoto, a groundbreaking initiative operating from the oldest human burial site in Africa (78000 years old),that celebrates nature and cultural heritage. She is currently in the process of creating East Africa's first story forest.