With the nights getting cooler in Victoria, people look for various ways to keep warm.
If you’re looking for a way to warm your soul, check out the sixth annual Canadian Storytelling Night event, happening this Saturday (Nov. 4) at the Victoria Storytellers Guild’s Friends Meeting House.
This year’s theme, Feeding the Heart’s Fire: Stories to Warm and Sustain Us, was generated by the Ontario storytellers group that founded the national event, patterned after Sweden’s World Storytelling Day, said Guild president Lee Porteous.
“They have a First Nations elder who’s been walking them around the medicine wheel for themes,” she explained.
“All across Canada people are going to be telling stories and listening to stories … What I love about the idea of us doing this is you know it will be happening across the country and we’ll be the last ones. We’ll turn out the porch light and put out the cat.”
While regular Guild events can include beginners, the storytellers list is set for this event and includes such local veterans as Shosanna Litman, Jennifer Ferris, Saskatchewan newcomer Shirley Handley, Nejama Ferstman, Al Fowler, Shirley Routliffe, Dolores Stanley and Porteous herself.
The topics will undoubtedly vary, she adds, as most relate to an individual’s personal experience.
“We don’t read [from notes or a book], and most things are a narrative nature. You’ve got some people who tell poems, but mostly people tell stories,” Porteous said, noting they range from 10 to 12 minutes each.
The event runs from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. at 1831 Fern St, with admission by donation. Proceeds will go to the StorySave project of Storytellers of Canada and be donated in memory of Jan Andrews, the 2016 Order of Canada appointee and Ottawa-area storyteller who died in September. She initiated the project to ensure the voices of Canada’s best-loved and most accomplished storytellers are preserved and their stories made available to anyone.
Parking in the area is limited but for those who are driving, suggested parking is along Begbie and Shelbourne streets. For more information visit victoriastorytellers.org.