Posts by marcia.ostashewski@gmail.com

Singing Storytellers spent the day at the James McConnell Memorial Library and this evening we had an event at the Curling Club. To read about our event at the library click here.

We would like to thank everyone who made today great and hope to see you all tomorrow!

Join us today at Sydney’s McConnell Public Library for a day full of workshops and presentations by international artists and scholars – 10 am-4 pm, and 6-7pm – open to the public! See here for program details.

This afternoon: Cape Breton U Library, readings by authors Eriksson, Geddes and Holman 4-5pm.

This evening, 7-9pm “A Life in Song and Story” at Sydney’s Curling Club! See you there!

Join Glace Bay’s UNIA and community in welcoming two Singing Storytellers from Mali tonight! Follow this link to find details of the event.

Join us for an introductory workshop at the Ukrainian Hall in Whitney Pier tonight at 8:30 – with two Singing Storytellers from Croatia! See here for details.

Hawa Kassé Mady Diabaté and Fode Lassana Diabaté are on their way from Mali to Cape Breton! These revered musicians, Jelis, or Mande singing storytellers, will be traveling throughout Eastern Cape Breton this week, giving school workshops, concerts and meeting with various communities. Among their list of activities: they will be hosted at Glace Bay’s UNIA Hall this Wednesday evening. Our thanks to Theresa Brewster and all the UNIA members for their gracious hospitality.

Check out this story in the Cape Breton Post about Wednesday’s wonderful event! And come out to The Boardmore Theatre this Friday to take part in the world premiere of a new performance created specially for Singing Storytellers by Hawa and Lassana!

We would like to thank everyone in our local community who came out to help launch Singing Storytellers at the Cape Breton Regional Library, Downtown Sydney. Thank you to all of the speakers, singers and storytellers for their help in creating this wonderful event! Also, thank you to all of our partners and funders who made this possible!

You can listen to the program on CBC Mainstreet Cape Breton with Wendy Bergfeldt by clicking here! And read about it here in the Cape Breton Post!

Have a look online at the Celtic Colours International Festival website – for the Singing Storytellers “Learning Opportunities” and performance events that are featured there:

• Singing Storytellers at the Library: We invite the public to join our symposium for a day filled with films, workshops, talks and demonstrations about the lives, music and verbal artistry of bards in our world. 10am-4pm, Thurs, 9 Oct, McConnell Library.
• A Life in Story and Song: An evening featuring Irish traditional singers Seán Ó Sé and Lillis Ó Laoire, and a film created by ethnomusicologist Matthew Allen. 7pm, Thurs, 9 Oct, Sydney Curling Club.
• Capt. John Smith Goes to Ukraine: A play – a multimedia event! – featuring bandurist Julian Kytasty and poet Bob Holman. Before John Smith sailed for Virginia, he was an adventurer in the Mediterranean where he fought the Ottoman Turks, was captured and sold as a slave – as you will learn in this comedy/musical/historical epic-in-an-hour! 2pm, Sat, 11 Oct, Boardmore Playhouse/Cape Breton U.
• Bards of the World: A concert featuring singing storytellers from Mali to Ukraine to Ireland to Cape Breton! 2pm, Sun, 12 Oct 2014, Boardmore Playhouse/Cape Breton U.
• Whitney Pier Welcome: This concert that features performers of bardic traditions related to the diverse cultural ancestry of Whitney Pier’s multicultural community! 2pm, Mon, 13 Oct, Ukrainian Hall.

Many other Singing Storytellers workshop and performance events are in the works! Check out the Preliminary Program – and keep checking back to this site for updates. In the coming weeks, we will post news about Singing Storytellers Special Events!