When you get right down to it, Ireland is a pretty damn cool place to live, bake and tell stories. Every week, we hear about loads of fun storytelling, spoken word and foodie events going on around the country. Fun elsewhere? There’s loads going on here right here in Ireland, and we’d like you to hear about it too! Take a look at our news below for recent updates on events around the country we’d like to highlight… Plus, we would also like to draw your attention to our favourite storytelling, spoken word and foodtastic groups and events.
Recent News
An Intensive Storytelling Workshop: with Liz Warren
JUNE Sat 19/Sun 20, 2010
The Teachers Club, 36 Parnell Square, Dublin 4
€75 (Concessions €65) Deposit: €20
Liz Warren is a storyteller, teacher, writer and co-founder of the South Mountain Community College Storytelling Institute in Phoenix , Arizona . She is author of “The Oral Tradition: An introduction to the Art of Storytelling” (2008). She teaches full time at the college, specialising in The Art of Storytelling, Creating and Telling Personal Stories, Multicultural Folktales, Mythology, The Irish Storytelling Tradition, Sacred Stories from Around the World, and Creating and Telling Epic Length Stories. Liz is one of the founders of Going Deep: The Long Traditional Storytelling Festival and a producer of the annual Mesa Storytelling festival held at the Mesa Arts Center.
Advanced Workshop: with Jan Blake
SEPTEMBER Sat 25/Sun 26, 2010
The Irish Writers Centre, Parnell Square, Dublin .
€80 (Concessions €60) Deposit: €20
Jan Blake is one of Britain ’s outstanding female storytellers, performing in theatres and festivals the length and breadth of Europe . She was born in Manchester to Jamaican parents. She has an international reputation for witty and exhilarating performances. Specialising in folktales from West Africa, North Africa, the Arab world and the Caribbean , her repertoire is full of tales of powerful women and her versions of Ananse’s exploits are definitive. She has worked as an artist in residence at various theatres in England , developing particularly close links with the National Theatre (where she is the Consultant on Storytelling).
Exciting stuff! A new market at the Point Village opening this Saturday, and a new storytelling venture to go with it! The storytellers from the Coop (the wonderful Eleonore, Adam, Michael, Fiona &co.) and our own Paul Tubb and Daria Walsh will be performing, 2-3pm
The first meeting at the Point Village Market sees the launch of 6 x10, a narrative interactive installation, highlighting the old Irish craft of storytelling.
In Ireland we come from a long line of people who take huge pride in the craft of words, we have an inherent love of spoken word, wit and a certain turn of phrase and this installation hopes to bring all things to the Point Village Market.
However , in today’s society, we rarely seem to sit down to share our stories and tales as we once did. At its heart, storytelling happens when a tale is told person to person and is a unique human skill and one of our oldest art forms.
It is from this idea, that the ‘Chair’ was created, a giant oversized armchair, as the perfect place for people to come and tell their stories.
The ‘6 x 10’ will take place on Saturday, May 29th between 2 & 3 where 10 speakers will talk for 6 min each on a given theme. The idea is that people will have the opportunity to regale a tale (whatever that might be!) to an audience in an informal, fun environment.
The chair will then be opened up to be used by the public to share their stories or perhaps just a little bit of gossip!
The theme for the first event is the ‘last piece of the puzzle’ This is a moment in your life when everything suddenly made sense; a turning point, ‘eureka!’ moment or epiphany . No tale is too small, from the earth shattering moments to finding you father under the tree putting out your presents at Christmas, discovering that peanuts do grow on trees or just realising that odd socks really do turn into wire hangers!”
Milk and Cookie Stories presents…
A Statement of Intent
Something to replace out-of-date event notices on our Home page…
That really good Milk & Cookies we had that one time.
Milk.
Don’t worry, we’ve got something in the oven. But since it’s a little special, we’re going to take the time to announce it with a little fanfare once we have the details all worked out. If you were at Milk and Cookies VII – Disaster Stories, you’ll have had a taste of what’s in store. It will be Tuesday June 8th, it will be Exchange Dublin, and it will be wonderful.
In the meantime we’d just like to take the opportunity to thank everyone who threw caution to the wind and signed up to tell a story, everyone who brought cookies to share – especially the person who brought the world’s greatest ever chocolate and cream cheese cake (I’m guessing here, I’m no baker); it was a little hot and squidgy to serve at the time and about 5 minutes too late for our BAKE-OFF! but thre would be no justice in this world if your contribution went unnoticed. And last but oppositely of least, everyone who turned up for the stories. Milk & Cookies ♥’s you. Never leave us.
Cookie. You do the math.
We also also want to give a huge thank you to our featured acts – Mr. Colm Keegan, who performs regularly at the seriously excellent Nighthawks – a mix of music, poetry, comedy, anything and everything which not uncoincidentally shall next be on Saturday May 29th in the Cobalt Café; for details on how to get tickets go check their Facebook page, ’cause they go fast. This month’s Nighthawks promises to be more extraordinarily sound than usual; featuring, as it does, not just Colm Keegan but also our second featured storyteller from Milk & Cookies VII – Kalle Ryan. Kalle also runs The Brown Bread Mixtape in The Stag’s Head every month – more comedy, music, poetry, national anthems and important things – the next one is Wednesday May 26th from 8.30pm, and it’s all kinds of free in; find their Facebook, or their MySpace, if you’re that way inclined.
You can also have a click round the website, where we have podcasts of previous and excellent stories told at Milk & Cookie Stories, recipies from previous winner of our BAKE-OFF! (so you know they’re good) and other little trails of biscuits leading you deeper inside our (completely non-sinister) gingerbread house.
So hey, between that, and the Fun Elsewhere section (right here on this very site!), you’ve got a busy couple of weeks coming up. Do come back and check here though, because we will announce Milk & Cookies VIII (or maybe just Milk & Cookies 8, or if I get my way, Milk & Cookies Gaiden) really soon, and you’re not going to want to miss that.
Cookie out.
For those inclined to rock:
Rock band competition tomorrow night in the Mezz, winner goes to Edinburgh. Thanks to our podcast guru, anyone who says “I ♥ Milk & Cookies” on the door gets in half price!
When? April 9th, 7.30pm.
Where? Exchange Dublin, Temple Bar.
Exchange Words in association with Naked Lunch present “Voices of the City”.
For one night only, the Naked and Hungry boys will be performing a selection of their work with a focus on the changing effects of urban living.
Andrej LeSaint is a spoken word performer whose influences range from Baudelaire to Mos Def, and has been a regular on Dublin’s performing circuit since 2005. He has performed at Electric Picnic, the DLR Festival of World Cultures, Poets’ Express and many more, and has been published in a number of journals and an anthology.
Karl Parkinson is a poet who lives and was raised in inner city Dublin. His work has been published by Revival, Baby Beef and Seven Towers. In 2009, he was the winner of the prize for most entertaining video on BalconyTV Dublin.
Mike Igoe is a Cavan-born performance poet living in Dublin. Along with a group of bards and brawlers, he organises the Naked Lunch open mic, which provides a platform for poets and musicians to perform their work. He has been published by Baby Beef.
Performance Poet Cah-44 has been living in a ramshackle post-Gorey house in North Dublin with an international rotating collective of a dubious, if opaque, nature. He needs a cat. But no mere cat. Perhaps a meercat.
The Underground Comedy Club Presents “THE ARISTOCRATS“:
When? April 8th at 8.30pm.
Where? Beneath Thomas Read, Dame Street.
When? April 10th at 8pm.
Where? The Lower Deck, Portobello.
Rothar is a community-based non-profit organisation based in Phibsboro, Dublin7.
Scarce resources, environmental destruction and social inequalities are key challenges in today’s society. Rothar reuses and recycles scrap bicycles, reducing waste, providing a sustainable mode of transport and community-based education to promote social inclusion. Our organisation advocates for self-empowerment of disadvantaged communities by promoting vocational training and eco-friendly mobility.
Lineup:
Owensie: http://www.myspace.com/owensiemusic
Yeh Deadlies: http://www.myspace.com/yehdeadlies
Groom: http://www.myspace.com/groomtheband
Betamax Format: http://www.myspace.com/betamaxformat
Doors: €6 before 9pm/€8 after
Raffle on the night, win a bike!
Muse literary open mic: Literary open mic reading with TWO twists!
Twist no. 1: 3 min time limit! That’s 180 seconds. 1hr divided by 20. So keep it short and sharp. Tight and full of bite. Have belief in brief. Nice and conci… ok I’ll stop now.
Twist no. 2: BRING YOUR OWN BOOZE. Oh yes. It is on.
Brought to you by Orla Martin, writer and performer. This Friday, 9th April, 7pm-9pm upstairs in the Winding Stair bookshop.
Galway’s CUIRT literary festival will be featuring a Storytelling Show this year with storyteller Nuala Hayes at Nun’s Island Theatre. It comes highly recommended!
The Wilder Wisdom of Auld Ones…. Stories , Legends and Poetry inspired by the Cailleach performed by Actor and Storyteller Nuala Hayes and Harpist and Composer, Anne-Marie O’Farrell.
“The stories of the Cailleach, the wise woman or hag of Irish mythology, are full of mystery and the power, wisdom and imagination of older people. Often this power is a threat, sometimes it’s a challenge , but always, like the rocks and the stones of the earth, it’s a force of nature.
Many of these stories come from the oral tradition, and although considerable scholarly work has been done by eminent folklorists such as Gearóid O’Crualaoich, they are seldom told. They tap into old pre-Celtic and pre-Christian beliefs. They challenge, entertain and divert and are important in a world that is in flux.”
And another storytelling group has joined the Irish fold!
A monthly Story Slam Loose Lips is now into its second month at the Roisin Dubh Pub in Galway. Five minute limit and true stories only! Get your best story voice on and test it at it on the last Wednesday of the month!
The Galway Story Night have announced their April Event! TUESDAY APRIL 6TH at 8pm, Blue Teapot Theatre Company, Munster Ave… with stories and home-baking in abundance, we give it three whole Milk and Cookies ♥♥♥! Here’s what the Story Night crew had to say about their event:
“!!!STORY STORY!!!
It’s that time again, between rain and hail showers, and warmish sunshine Story Night calls you out into the wild dark night to come and listen, come and tell or just come and eat cake! We are snuggly settled into our new location at Blue Teapot Theatre Company on Munster Ave (around the corner from Blue Note Pub) at the NEW TIME of 8pm.
Last month was a wild and roaring success, with plenty more leg room and space to stretch out (some people showed up in pajamas to prove just how cosy story night is!) As always new tellers are welcome, familiar tellers too! This month will be hosted by the Gunning brothers and run by Elena Toniato, as I will be out of town. So come along with your wild Spring tales to invigorate the blood and get the heart thumping!
Donation of €3 asked to cover our costs.
in word and deed
Story Night Posse”