The Chennai Storytellers group with Eric Miller, founder of the World Storytelling Institute.
| Photo Credit: Sangita Rajan
Margaret Atwood, the author of the dystopian novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, said “You’re never going to kill storytelling, because it’s built in the human plan. We come with it.”. The act of telling and listening to stories has been well documented. The Vedas, Iliad, TheOdyssey, The Epic of Gilgamesh and The Mahabharata are a testament to this.
One such epic is the Tamil text Silapathikaram, which is a tragic love story of an ordinary couple, Kannagi and Kovalan, who have become larger than life characters in the world of Tamil culture.
“When I first came to India in 1988, I was a scholar of this epic. I went to Poompuhar and walked in the footsteps of Kannagi all the way to Madurai, then wrote a book about it and presented the first copy to late Chief Minister [MK] Karunanidhi.” says Eric Miller, the founder of the World Storytelling Institute.
Eric, who is originally from New York City, USA, founded the storytelling institute with his wife Magdalene Jeyarathnam, director of East West Center for Counselling and Training, in 2007, Chennai. Soon after that, he began hosting storytelling workshops. The Indian Storyteller’s Network was also set up by Eric along with Geeta Ramanujam, who is the founder of Kathalaya, an academy of storytelling based in Bengaluru. The network currently has 125 members from around the country, of which 58 belong to Chennai.
In 2011, the first edition of Chennai Storytelling Festival (CSF) was launched and storytellers from all over India came to attend the various sessions. “For the first seven years, the festival was held in Chennai and only a few sessions were held via video conferencing,” says Eric, adding that he was adept in introducing video conferencing since the early 90s to include more people into this world.
The CSF has been held in February every year since 2011. Sessions have been conducted every weekend for free and can be joined via Zoom. The theme for this year’s CSF is personal growing and maturing and in line with this theme, sessions on exploring stories through a critical lens; creating songs that tell stories; ways to use a story; and storytelling to heal after the loss of a loved one; will be held until February 25.
While most of the sessions are virtual, two storytelling sessions will be held in a hybrid mode where the audience can physically be present for a more immersive experience. The first session will be held on February 10 at Goethe Institute, Rutland Gate, Nungambakkam, and the second session will be held on February 24 at East West Center for Counselling, Pycrofts Garden Road.
These sessions will play host to storytellers from different parts of the world — Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Romania, Kenya, New Zealand and more. The sessions will be followed by discussions with audience members.
The Chennai Storytelling festival is being held through the month of February every weekend (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday). Log on to storytellinginstitute.org for the schedule and more information.