FORTHCOMING ACTIVITIES

'After Offa - Living Life Along the Border'- a Heritage Lottery funded Project continues its exciting progress.Instigated by the Bronygarth Social Committee,Helen is directing,administering and undertaking fieldwork for this year-long scheme which is collecting reminiscences and photographs in order to record,pass on and preserve for future generations the stories and oral history of the English / Welsh border community on both sides of a 6 mile stretch of Offa's Dyke. Rick is active as a recordist and archivist of collected material which will ultimately be housed at the Shropshire Archives in Shrewsbury. The programme so far has produced over 40 in depth interviews as well as ongoing projects in 4 local schools. Community mapping sessions and local exhibitions have also taken place as well as 5 very well attended story walks and a summer picnic. There is a double cd in the making which will be available to all contributors free and on sale at tourist offices, heritage sites and selected shops throughout the border region. There is also a group of young people developing Project web pages which will soon be accessible through the Shropshire Archives website www.shropshire.gov.uk/archives/afteroffa

Meanwhile,Helen's new book 'How the Olympics Came To Be',in partnership with the artist Mehrdokht Amini, has just been published by the British Museum in October.Helen is also compiling a set of London Stories for the History Press and is one of the participating artists of 'Tales to Sustain',a loose-knit nationwide group currently developing a book and other initiatives on the link between story and environmental imperative.

Helen will be at the Scottish Centre for Storytelling,Royal Mile, Edinburgh,leading a ceilidh on Friday January 13th at 7.30pm and running her own workshop there On Saturday 14th

Rick will be accompanying Hugh Lupton's telling of Beowulf in Cleeve Prior, Worcestershire on March 16th and in Pailton, Warwickshire on March 17th. Venues and times to be confirmed.

rick at Redriff lunchtime drum club

Rick's audio installation is still awaiting you at the Mythstories Museum in Wem, Shropshire. It comprises 3 sound stories from the Amazonian rainforest region and is accessed via a cd. The exhibit is completed by pre-recorded told versions of the stories and artwork depicting some of the characters, and is all housed in lush south American fauna. This forms part of several Museum commissions made possible by a grant from NESTA.

rick at Redriff lunchtime drum club

"A story is like water that you heat for your bath. It takes messages between the fire and your skin. It lets them meet, and it cleans you ! Very few can sit down in the middle of the fire itself like a salamander or Abraham. We need intermediaries." Rumi

"When the story is in your mind, then you see its relevance to something happening to you. With the loss of that, we've really lost something because we don't have a comparable literature to take its place". Joseph Campbell


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