Chirine has a very physical approach and explores the way words and
movements combine to create moods, atmospheres and images. She can tell
in English, French, or Egyptian Arabic, and has told internationally
from Sana’a to Nairobi, Zanzibar, Johannesburg, Rome, Napoli,
Rotterdam, Paris and London at the Barbican.

Jolene is a local historical interpreter who conducts walking tours,
gallery talks, school tours, and presentations on the history of the
women of Vancouver. Recently Jolene launched her walking tour The Women
of Stanley Park, 1850-1914, an adjunct to her Women of Vancouver: The
Early Years tour. Jolene Cumming will do a walk within the VanDusen
Botanical Garden with stories of the women of Vancouver that relate to
what we are seeing. Bring an umbrella, just in case!

Comfort grew up in Nigeria, the daughter of a chief, and has learned
and told folktales and songs ever since she learned to talk. She
studied languages and drama and became a teacher at a time when it was
very unpopular in Africa to send girls to school. She left her native
land when authorities warned her against telling subversive stories to
her students.

Nan
is one of Canada' premier storytellers, and has been spinning tales for
all ages for 22 years. Her first children's book, How Smudge Came,
draws on her storytelling techniques and on her knowledge of story
forms from around the world. She is also an artist who works in
fabrics, paint and cookies.

Bonnie
was born and raised in Biggar, Saskatchewan. Everyone in her
farming/railroading family told stories, and she started in as a
youngster just to get a word in edgewise. Her repertoire is a dog eared
collection of anecdotes, folktales, original and literary stories woven
together with music on banjo, kokorico, cabasa and other odd
instruments.

Helen
is a Vancouver-based storyteller. Since her beginnings in South Africa,
where the Zulu people held her in a warm embrace of vivid stories,
teaching-tales, and breathtaking harmony, she has been telling,
listening to, singing and writing stories. She tells tales learned from
her Zulu friends when she was a child.

Michael
is a multicultural teller of African, African-American and
international folk tales, historical tales, stories of science and of
the spiritual, as well as stories of the brilliant and absolutely
stupid things he has done in his life. His style is energetic and
enthusiastic, and his stories inform, educate, inspire and amuse.

James
Nicholas is a Cree storyteller born and raised in the Precambrian
Shield territory of Boreal Manitoba., the progeny of shamans, medicine
men and woman, trappers and chiefs. He comes from a family of renowned
orators and storytellers. James has travelled the length and bredth of
North America searching for story and being story.

evenSteven
is a writer, contortionist and practicing martial artist as well as a
storyteller. He has stories for every grade level, which range from
surreal to absurd to eastern mysticism to world literature to urban and
rural myth and legend. An agent provocateur guaranteed to tickle your
funnybone.

Some
people shape clay, Joujou shapes words. She is inspired by her African
filiations, her Caribbean relations, the thousand textures of Quebec
where she has settled, and the four corners of the world she has
crossed. Also a dancer and actor, Joujou mixes poetry, storytelling,
social commitment, and sass.

Kira
plays the cello and tells shamanistic and animal power tales, which are
full of transformations – a mother turns into a wolf to rescue her
daughter; a tiger turns into a man and teaches a boy how to be a good
hunter. Kira has done extensive research with indigenous people in
Siberia and the Russian Far East, and has performed widely in Canada,
the US, and Russia.