I had a couple of wonderful audiences for my sessions – I told stories about snakes – as it’s now the year of the snake and various monsters of the sea. The storytelling took place in the Duncan Rice Library at Aberdeen University who currently have an exhibition called Imagined Norths – all the weird and wonderful beasts that our medieval ancestors imagined lived in the seas and lands to the north!
It has been some time since I last posted properly! December and January have been full of staying inside, keeping warm and research, research, research!
I’ve not just been researching new stories, but have been working on a couple of projects – both of which I’ll post about soon. But in the meantime, here’s what I’ve got coming up!
Activities will be split across the Elphinstone Hall (Chinese calligraphy, dress up, face painting), Zoology Museum (museum open and visit from the Critter Keeper) and The Duncan Rice Library where I’ll be telling stories and you can also visit the Imagined Norths exhibition. I’ll be telling stories from 11.30am to 12.30pm and again from 1.30 to 2.30pm.
I’ve been brushing up on all my favourite sea monsters – Jormungandr, The Mester Stoorwurm, Cetus and the sea serpent that attacked my g-g-grandfather in 1892! So come along for some tales of Myths, Monsters and the Year of the Snake.
From Thursday 6th to Sunday 9th February I’ll be telling stories at Spectra light festival once again with my pal Lindsey Gibb. The theme this year is “Journeys” so we have some amazing stories planned. We’ll be in the Cowdray Hall from 6 to 10pm each night with stories starting at 6, 6.30, 7, 7.30, 8, 8.30, 9 and 9.30pm. Come join us! Entry will be on the corner of Schoolhill and Blackfriars Street or if you have an accessibility wristband, I expect entry will be the same as last yar – through the Art Gallery. TBC.
After Spectra, my next public event will be at Portlethen Library on Saturday 15th February – this will be a family storytelling session targeted at children aged 5-8 years on the theme of Space! Moons, Suns, Stars and all sorts of celestial tales for all the family!
Some photos from the weekend where I had a fun time telling stories of Dragons and Monsters for Chinese New Year at Confucius Institute Aberdeen ‘s Spring Festival Family Fun Day! 🐲🐉
Just as you’ll be bored of photos of me yapping, the other two pics are of Wee Imp and friends who had a great afternoon dressing up for photos and doing crafts !
Next week will be a busy one teaching Scots Song with SC&T Youth and Spectra Festival over the coming weekend. Then I get a wee break before our final week in Aberdeen primary schools with the SC&T Tutors – just enough of a break to brush up on my DRAGON TALES for the University of Aberdeen Spring Festival Family Fun Day. It is of course the Year of the Dragon and so I’ll be telling tales of dragons and monsters from around the world!
The Confucius Institute will be organising all sorts of activities (dragon stories included!) at the Elphinstone Hall on Sunday 18th February from 10am to 4pm.
Pauline Cordiner - Scottish Storyteller 