JAN BLAKE
Storyteller | Consultant | Mentor | Plenary Speaker | IATEFL Patron
About
Jan Blake is a storyteller, consultant, mentor & plenary speaker who has been performing world-wide since 1986. Born in Manchester, UK to Jamaican parents, Jan specialises in folktales and myths from the Caribbean, West Africa, North Africa, and the Arab regions.Always innovating within the form she has a well-earned reputation for dynamic and generous storytelling - appearing at most major international storytelling festivals - leads storytelling workshops for schools and universities and has been a contributor to BBC Radio programmes.Career highlights include storyteller in-residence at Hay Festival, the Viljandi International Folk Music Festival in Estonia and TEDx Warsaw & Tedx Manchester.She has developed relationships with several major organisations, including the National Theatre - where she spent a decade as the Storytelling Consultant - BBC Philharmonic Orchestra; London Philharmonic Orchestra; Royal Geographical Society; Natural History Museum; Barnardo’s UNHCR; IATEFL and The British Council.In 2011, she was the recipient of the biannual Thüringer Märchen Preis, awarded to scholars or performers who have devoted their lives to the service of storytelling, the first non-German to be awarded the prize.As part of the World Shakespeare Festival in 2012, she was the curator for Shakespeare’s Stories, a landmark exhibition that explored themes of journey and identity, in conjunction with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.In 2013, The Old Woman, The Buffalo, and The Lion of Manding created and performed with musicians Kouame and Raymond Sereba toured to acclaim winning a British Awards for Storytelling Excellence (BASE).In 2021 she launched her own online storytelling school, the Akua Storytelling Project. The school is devoted to developing a new generation of international storytellers, as well as helping teachers to become great storytellers in the classroom.
Courses
A Body Of Words Foundation to Storytelling
A 20 week Online course: Connect With The Folklore Of Your Ancestors. Tell stories with Authenticity & Love.
A Body of Words Storytelling Mentorship
A 9-month mentorship helping storytellers to combine the right stories to create beautiful storytelling experiences for all.
A Body of Words Mentorship programme is the core of my vision to develop a community of storytellers who will answer the call to stand in their traditions of storytelling, to carry that tradition forward with integrity, re-enlivening the culture, based on love honour & respect.For me, storytelling is as much a practice as it is an art form. At the end of your mentorship journey, you will have expanded your range of stories & your repertoire, deepened your practice & created four brand new storytelling programmes for performance, each containing 4 stories and an interval.It is expected that you will select one of these programmes to market, sell, perform and record. You will then feed back your experience to your fellow mentees.
This Mentorship is not for you if:
• You are not a professional Storyteller
• You have less than 5 years’ experience of creating, preparing and performing storytelling shows.
• You believe you have nothing more to learn about the craft
• You have no affinity with the word of film & cinema.
• You believe that you should be able to tell stories from anyone’s culture regardless of sovereignty or historical cultural appropriation.
• You believe that storytellers are naturally wise, and you want to share your wisdom with the world through stories.
• If you believe that what you have to say about the world is more important than what the story has to say.If you like what you've read so far and would like to have a chat, contact Jan
RETREATS
Africa Dreaming: African Myth in the heart of Eryri. (Snowdonia)
A storytelling retreat centred around the story of Woyengi & The Medicine Woman, a myth from the Ijo people of the Niger Delta, brought to life in the land of the Ancient Britons.
Untold: An Immersive Weekend Storytelling Retreat for Women, in Search of their Story.
This is a weekend of re-membering ourselves with a story. This is a weekend of pausing and reflecting upon where we are in our life's journey. This is a weekend of telling, listening and unearthing the stories of our roots and ancestry.
This is a weekend of listening deeply and unearthing the gifts we have come here with, to give back to the World.
SCHOOLS PROJECTS
Bedtime Stories
Bedtime Stories is The Akua Storytelling Project’s current initiative for KS2. This is a 10-week project with children working alongside a storyteller and a visual artist to learn and re-tell traditional stories, both orally & visually.
JOIN THE COMMUNITY
I’d like to invite you to consider subscribing to The Akua Storytelling Project Community. What is that?
It is an affordable, online forum, a virtual community where you can engage with another way of being in the world, whilst immersing yourself in the story wisdom of Africa & other cultures, which have all too often been dismissed as having nothing to offer the dominant Western cultures.It is an invitation to use the wisdom of these stories to dig deeper into your own cultural heritage in search of the treasure which was always lain beneath your feet.It is an opportunity for storytellers, particularly young people of colour, to be exposed to & train with one of the most respected storytellers within the African/Caribbean diaspora.It is a community of those who delight in the enigma of stories.I founded The Akua Storytelling Project community as a space for dialogue, for storytellers to train & develop, to amplify storytelling as a performing art and for the exploration of storytelling as a tool for transformational change.This is a community of those devoted to preserving an oral art form which, at best is tolerated and at worst, is dismissed as having no value beyond being commodified for the business sector.If you resonate with the above, and with an authentic and honest approach to storytelling as a performing art, as well as the notion that storytellers don’t need to step outside of themselves or take on a mantle of ‘the storyteller’ to communicate the true heart of a story, then this community might be for you.
JOIN THE COMMUNITY
Events
20 YEARS OF
JAMINAROUND
The core mission of Jaminaround is to draw audience and performer together in a memorable, intimate, spellbound moment, harnessing the resonant energy of the circular space to honour and witness the magic of exceptional performing artistry.
For the first time Jaminaround are extending to a two day event with a lavish line-up of amazing artists. Still intimate, same high quality, not bigger, just more!When: 25 May 2024, 17:00 – 26 May 2024, 22:00
Where: Cranborne, Damerham Road, Cranborne, Wimborne BH21 5RP, UK
AFRICA DREAMING
ONLINE
A series of explorations, immersing ourselves in the mythology of the African continent. It is an invitation to explore the wisdom of these myths and to reflect deeper upon your own cultural heritage.I will tell a different story in each session, before opening the space for conversation around the themes of each story.
When: 30 May, 27 June 2024
Where: Online
Time: 7.30pm -9.00pm
TORONTO
Storytelling Festival
When: 12- 16 June
Where: Toronto, CanadaMore info coming soon.
REGGAE RIDDIM
FESTIVAL
In 2016 I had the pleasure of telling stories at the Rastafarian Indigenous Village at Portobello, near Montego Bay, Jamaica. It was there that I met and told stories with the Rastafari Village Band. Nearly 10 years later, I am honoured to be asked to perform with them again at the Jamaican Rastafari Village Stage at the Reggae Riddim Festival.When: 26th -28th July 2024
Where: Newport, Gwent
JAMINAROUND
Summer Residential
In the awe-inspiring setting of Cranborne Ancient Technology Centre, surrounded by the beautiful Dorset countryside, Jaminaround offers this unique music and creative practice residential course. A stimulating program of workshops, talks and opportunities for collaboration, curated with the intention to refresh, to inspire and to promote holistic creative wellness.When: 12-17th August 2024
Where: The Ancient Technology Centre, Cranborne, Dorset
OXFORD
Storytelling Festival
Annual storytelling festival held in the beautiful grounds of Waterperry House and Garden Centre.When: 23- 25 August
Where: Waterperry, Oxford, OX33 1LA
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Gallery
Above photos by Darius Jean
