Helen East
"All the world is on the tip of the tongue" (Turkish proverb)
Helen was born in Colombo, eyes closed, "all the better to hear
you with…"
She grew up listening and learning, tuning her tongue, and bending her
thumb
in England, Norway, Nigeria, Italy, Iceland and occasionally Ireland,
telling stories to send her sister to sleep,
and writing cliff-hanger serials for her friends
(she first had work published when she was eight).
"a library on legs" (Mary Medlicott)
Helen finally settled down in London in 1979,
when she met Rick
and started working for Lambeth libraries
(outreach storyteller for Brixton housing estates and centres)
But she continues to travel whenever she can (in the last decade to Singapore,
Australia, N and S America, Egypt, Indonesia, India and all over Europe
and the UK)
to record and to write, to tell and to teach, and to enable others to
'journey' with her.
"Your stories transported me completely; I was with you all the way."
(Faculty director, Viseu Polytechnic, Portugal)
In 1981 Helen she co-founded the influential group Common Lore
(inter-cultural storytellers and musicians),
and from 1987-90 she was Director of the National Folktale Centre.
In 1993 she was also a founding member of the National Society for Storytelling..
She has also directed several major regional projects, including
Shropshire's oral lore project 'Breaking the Silence'(1994)
Kent's 'Charting the Changes'(1995-6), and Southwark's Storyswap (1997),
as well as participating as an artist in many innovative collaborations,
particularily mixed media /cross art form (with dancers, sculptors, film
makers, puppeteers, environmental artists etc.) For one such project, The Trodden Path(2002-3), Helen was researcher, writer and performer for the performance side and for its subsequent exhibition Yatra (2003).
In 1998 she 'returned to school' to a do a PGCE at the Institute of Education
(gaining distinction in English and Maths),
using this knowledge to inform her teacher training work,
and to initiate an exploration into the potential for oracy within the
National Literacy Framework (Expanding the Frame). In 2001-2, she was storytelling tutor for Talk Tent - a National Theatre / Art of Regeneration project that highlighted tales of journeys. She also designed and produced the accompanying board game and resource pack.
"We didn't have big books we had fun, and we sang, and wrote our
own stories
so now we can help other classes to read"(Yr. 1 participant, Culloden
School)
Since 2002, Helen has regularly led storywalks in Shropshire and the borders, mixing history, folklore and local history. She has also led storywalks in Kew Gardens London.
During 2002, Helen also ran the Sure Start 'Ocean of Stories' scheme creating books and 'lifethread' wallhangings to represent life stories of Bengali mothers living on the Ocean Estate, and 'Gift of the Gab' - a 6 week storytelling course for adults. At this time, she was also writer / tutor for the Poplar Partnership & Museum of Docklands project for parents as writers, and for a children and parents bookmaking scheme.
Spanning 2002 /3, Helen undertook commissioned work for Surrey Art Galleries. The resulting exhibition 'Yatra - Sacred Journey' featured Helen's recordings of the stories of Surrey-based Asian families and incorporated educational workshops. 'The Trodden Path', a groundbreaking mixed media theatre piece, arose from this exhibition.
Over the next year, a variety of work included story / textile work with Bromley Sure StArt, the Epping story Picnic project and storytelling residencies at secondary schools in Shropshire and Hampshire. Following this, the Ifton Heath Creative Arts Project worked across this community exploring past and present, concentrating on the former colliery and mines and those who worked in them. Helen organised a number of events as well as creating a cd of miners' stories.
In 2004 Helen ran the Saltney Storybox - a collecting, compiling and retelling project of local stories with 45 teenage tellers, community volunteers and the local history group. She also ran family workshops, making Ramayana Kavads, for the Unicorn Theatre. She also started a long story creation stint 'Kahini' for a Creative Partnership scheme in Tower Hamlets in conjunction with Apples and Snakes. This lasted well into 2005. Later that year, Helen toured extensively in South America, with Rick Wison, telling stories for language development in both primary and secondary schools.
In 2006, Helen took part in 'What If',a multi-arts project based at Severndale school in Shrewsbury backed by the Children' Fund and was part of 'Raising Voices', a storytelling project for Word Up, and 'Story Quest', both in Liverpool. Ongoing work for 2007 has so far included the 'Festival of Words', a Creative Partnership with SLD primary children in Leicester and a CARA 2 Research project on creativity through storytelling with KS3 and 4 at Wakefield High school. She has also completed an extensive and very successful Sure Start story cloth scheme (with fabric artist Lucy Wells) around Oswestry district. She also undertook a second Creative Partnership in Draycott in the Clay primary school in Staffordhire. Summer 2007 touring work with Beyond Boundaries took her all over England and Scotland telling stories at many locations used in the Harry Potter films.
Other work in the year has included storytelling at the Eastham Garden of Rememberance on the Wirral, sessions at the Tolkein weekend in Birmingham and Whitby Folk Festival and a stint at 10 Telford libraries. As part of Powys Arts month, she and Rick led Cross Country Crossroads, a storywalk across Llansilin. She is also part of 'Unbridled'- stories relating to people who are silenced- a performance piece arising out of community arts workshops and mixed media collaboration. This work teams her with storyteller Shonaleigh Cumbers and musicians Hassan Erraji and Rick Wilson.
But the majority of Helen's time continues to be spent "simply storytelling"
for anyone and everyone, from presidential parties to pensioners to pre-schoolers,
children with learning difficulties to educationalists,
urban youth to families on forest walks.
"Listening to her made me realize what a very great art storytelling
is."
(Mrs. (President ) Mubarek)
HELEN IS ALSO WELL KNOWN AS A WRITER.
CURRENT PUBLICATIONS INCLUDE
NUMEROUS CHILDREN'S PICTURE BOOKS,
A NOVEL,CO-WRITTEN WITH CHILDREN, COLLECTIONS, COMPILATIONS, ARTICLES
ETC.
SEE PUBLICATIONS LIST.
As well as writing and publishing she has created and collated
all sorts of exhibitions, maps, recordings and artifacts relating to
oral lore, memory, and the changing world.
She is always happy to undertake interesting new writing commissions
( Toledo exhibition, Whitechapel Art Gallery (2000)
and Shropshire FATE millennium commission 'One Helluva Day' -2000)
"It was really cool; weird; bit scarey -worth sitting up all night
for."
(Teenage boy in audience at FATE premier.)
Performances, workshops, talks and conference papers are designed specifically
for particular groups and situations, so subject matter, style, group
size, venue requirements , even fees vary.
Contact Helen to discuss exactly what you want.
"SWEET TALK TURNS THE ELEPHANT AWAY FROM THE GARDEN PATH"
(SWAHILI PROVERB)
|