The Folklore Society

Sea of Stories: Stories about prayer and friendship Spellbinding performances for National Interfaith Week 2009

London, 14-21 November 2009.

Stories are at the heart of all our faith traditions. Stories beguile, compel, entertain, and teach. Stories keep history alive, and offer a beautiful doorway for us into understanding the beliefs of others.

Come and be enchanted by a talented troupe of storytellers from diverse faith backgrounds, who will weave a magical ocean of stories from their own traditions - bitter and sweet, funny and heartrending, magnificent and humble - stories that reveal the common threads of prayer and fellowship that exist in all our faiths.

With Seema Anand, Roi Gal-Or, Joseph Kingsley Nyinah, Jumana Moon, Sarah Perceval, and Chris Smith.

If you have friends of a different faith to your own, invite them to come along. Let waves from the sea of stories lap against the shore of your hearts.

Performance schedule

Sat 14 Nov Radha Krishna Temple, 3.30pm - 6pm
10 Soho St, London, W1D 3DL
www.iskcon-london.org

Mon 16 Nov, West London Synagogue, 7pm - 9.15pm
33 Seymour Place, London W1H 5AU
www.wls.org.uk

Wed 18, Nov, Central Mosque, 6.30pm - 9pm
146 Park Rd, London NW8 7RG
www.iccuk.org

Thurs 19 Nov, Southwark Cathedral, 7pm - 9.15pm
London Bridge, London SE1 9DA
www.southwark.anglican.org

Sat 21 Nov The London Buddhist Centre, 7pm - 9.15pm
51 Roman Rd, Bethnal Green, London E2 0HU
www.lbc.org.uk

Prices:

£5 adults
£3 concessions(student/unemployed)
£1 under 12s

Booking info:

To book online visit:
http://secure.stethelburgas.org/civicrm/event/info?id=61&reset=1

To book by phone, call with credit card details:
020 7496 1610

By cheque:
Cheques should be made out to St Ethelburga's and posted to 78 Bishopsgate, London EC2N 4AG.

Please state which performance you wish to attend.

To reserve a place and pay on the door email tent@stethelburgas.org

The Katharine Briggs Lecture and Katharine Briggs Award 2009

Tuesday 10 November 2009, 6.30-9.00 p.m.
The Warburg Institute, Woburn Square, London WC1H 0AB

We are delighted to announce that this year's Katharine Briggs Lecture will be given by Professor John Widdowson, former president of The Folklore Society: Folklore Studies in English Higher Education: Lost Cause or New Opportunity?

The lecture is from 6.30-7.30 p.m., followed by a wine reception and buffet supper during which the judges' decisions on the books short-listed for this year's Katharine Briggs Award will be announced and the winner will be presented with the prize.

The lecture and reception are free and everyone is welcome, but please let us know if you wish to attend by telephoning us on 0207 862 8564, or emailing us via the contact form here.

The Cambridge & County Folk Museum Presents: 'My Life as a Fenland Horseman' with Decker Murfitt

Tuesday 3rd November, 7.00
Swaffham Prior Village Hall

Tickets £5; Friends of the Museum £3.50

Celebrating the history of oral tradition so valued by former curator Enid Porter, this memorial lecture celebrates the 100th anniversary of her birth. Farrier Decker Murffit offers an evening of fascinating recollections encompassing his life in the fens and secrets as a horseman.

Booking is essential. Please phone 01223 355159 or email info@folkmuseum.org.uk for further information or to reserve a ticket. Payment can be made on the night.

20th Anniversary of the Death of Ewan MacColl, Commemorative Events:

Annual commemoration of Ewan's 'death-day' at his tree in Russell Square

Thursday 22 October, midday

2 memorial concerts, headlined by Peggy Seeger, with other singers:

Saturday 24th October, 2pm in Glasgow
www.caledonian.ac.uk/politicalsong

Tuesday 27th October, 7.30pm, at Peel Hall, Salford
http://froots.wegottickets.com/froots.php , where there will also be a book launch of Manchester University Press's reissue of Ewan MacColl's autobiography 'Journeyman'.

'What to Do with Folklore?'

An International Interdisciplinary Symposium
Ljubljana, 24-29 September 2009

For more details, contact gni@zrc-sazu.si

Ledbury Poetry Festival

3-12 July 2009

Child Lore Past and Present
A Talk by Steve Roud

Hosted by Roy Palmer

Find out where children's rhymes come from and what they mean. Please feel free to bring along rhymes you remember from your childhood or that you hear your children or grandchildren singing and chanting. Steve Roud is working on a book called Lore of the Playground, based partly on historical research and partly on a national survey of children's lore, past and present. Previous publications include The Oxford Dictionary of English Folklore, the Penguin Guide to the Superstitions of Britain and Ireland, The English Year (customs and traditions) and London Lore. He also compiles the Folk Song Index, which is a database of traditional song of the English-speaking world.

Other Festival highlights include Alice Oswald, Ben Okri, Iain Sinclair and Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin.

www.poetry-festival.com
0845 458 1743

ISFNR 15th Congress

Athens, June 21-27, 2009
Committee for Charms, Charmers and Charming

More details here.

VOICE IN ORAL HISTORY
Call for Papers

Oral History Society Annual Conference
University of Strathclyde, Glasgow
Friday-Saturday 3-4 July 2009

Proposals are invited on any of the following themes:

THEME ONE: The nature of voice as evidence in oral history and its relation to period, culture and place. Voice as data, music, language, performance, political expression, literature, spoken text, memory, instrument, poetry, primary source. Voice and the mediation of speech, dialect, accent, tone, silence.

THEME TWO: Hearing voice in community through oral history. The voice and voices of communities, voice as an expression of being within and being without; voice in storytelling; voice and disability; voice and gender; voice and ethnicity; voice and environment; voice and reminiscence. Voice in the museum. Voice and power; voice and tradition.

THEME THREE: Voice in oral history in the age of new technology. The implications of digitisation and dissemination of the voice through the internet and other digital media; rights and ownership of voice in the digital age; voice analysis; the mechanics of voice; voice and forensics; voice and translation; voice and the public media.

Please send proposals of 200-250 words, for talks or presentations of 20 minutes to oralhistory09@strath.ac.uk by 5 January 2009.

For further information see http://oralhistory2009.pbwiki.com/

"The World Folk Heritage: Past, Present, Perspective Directions ofResearch."

39th International Ballad Conference, Minsk, 13-18 July 2009.
Contact david.atkinson@zen.co.uk for more information.

The Sea In Legend & Tradition: Call for Papers

This two-day conference at the Time & Tide, the maritime museum at Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, will be held on Saturday 5th and Sunday 6th September 2009 as the fourth Legendary Weekend of the Folklore Society.

We'd like to hear from anyone who can attend and present a paper - folklorists, performers, historians, singers and cultural or local historians. Come and celebrate mermaids, scrimshaw, ghost ships, shanties, shape-shifting seals, omens, lost lands and lucky beach-combings. Presentations, which should be 20 minutes long, can take the form of talks, performances, or DVD. There will be a limited number of opportunities for art installations. The main event will take place on Saturday with additional material and site visits on Sunday.

If you would like to attend or to present a paper or performance, please contact:

Jeremy Harte, Bourne Hall, Spring Street, Ewell, Surrey KT17 1UF
Tel. 44 (0) 208 394 1734 Email: JHarte@epsom-ewell.gov.uk

Some photographs from the event:

"The Songs and the Singer" A Folklore Society Summer Event, with film and music at The Warburg Institute.

Wednesday 8 July 2009, 6.30 - 9.00 p.m
See the flyer

The George Ewart Evans Centre for Storytelling Third Annual Lecture and Symposium 'Storytelling and Gender'

Friday 15th and Saturday 16th May 2009
Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries, ATRiuM, University of Glamorgan, Adam Street, Cardiff, CF24 2FN
Ysgol Diwydiannau Creadigol a Diwylliannol Caerdydd, ATRiuM, Prifysgol Morgannwg, Stryd Adam, Caerdydd, CF24 2FN

Professor Marina Warner will deliver our 2009 Annual Lecture at 6.30 pm on Friday 15th May entitled: Scheherazade's Way: Magic and Transformation in the Tales of the 1001 Nights. This will be followed by a conference dinner at 8.30 and a Symposium 'Storytelling and Gender' on Saturday 16th May 10am - 4.30 pm (see below).

All events (except the dinner) will take place at the ATRiuM, Cardiff Centre for Creative and Cultural Industries, The University of Glamorgan.

Marina Warner is a prize-winning writer of fiction, criticism and history; her works include novels and short stories as well as studies of female myths and symbols. Her books include Indigo, The Lost Father, Monuments and Maidens and From the Beast to the Blonde. In 1994 she gave the Reith Lectures on BBC radio 'Managing Monsters: Six Myths of Our Time'. She is currently Professor in the Department of Literature, Film and Theatre Studies, University of Essex where she teaches courses on Fairy-Tales and other forms of narrative.

The programme on Saturday runs from 10am - 4.15pm in the Zen Room at the Atrium and includes three provocations followed by a chaired discussion amongst speakers and delegates. Contributors are:

• Dr Peter Hughes Jachimiak, Senior Lecturer in Media & Cultural Studies, University of Glamorgan - 'Brownland, Daviesland, and Other Patriarchies': Storytelling, Masculinity and the Construction of Male Worlds.
• Zephyrine Barbarachild (Researcher and Oral Historian)- Twentieth-century Women's Lives Unfolded.
• Mary Medlicott, Storyteller/Writer - Animus, anima, animation: where storytelling today falls short.

Marina Warner's lecture is free. There is sliding scale fee of £40 (supported by an organisation) / £25 (individual) / £15 (unwaged) for the following day's symposium - this includes some refreshments. Delegates are welcome to join speakers and staff from the George Ewart Evans Centre for Storytelling for the Dinner at 8.30 after Friday evening's lecture (at a cost of £30 a head - inclusive of three courses, coffee and wine/drinks).

For further information and a registration form see www.glam.ac.uk/storytelling or email storytelling@glam.ac.uk or call 01443 668631.

Once you have sent in a registration form we will send you further information about the event and directions to the Atrium and accommodation should you need it.

ALSO - continuing the Storytelling and Gender theme:

Research Seminar The George Ewart Evans Centre for Storytelling

Thursday 21st May, 6 - 8 pm
Dr Hande Birkalan Gedik (Yeditepe University, Istanbul)
Silence, Suffering and Salvation: Intertextual Discourses and the Female Narrativity in A Turkish Folktale in the Zen room, 4th floor, ATRiuM

Please reserve on tel. and e mail listed above.

Folklore Society AGM and Conference: "Collecting Folklore"

Friday 24 April 2009, 10.00-8.00 p.m.
At The Bishopsgate Institute, Bishopsgate London EC2M 4QH

There will be talks on: early folklorists' collections of artefacts; photographing and filming seasonal customs; Korean folktale collectors; folk song collecting; and many other topics; as well as the Presidential Address by Eddie Cass.

For more details, contact
enquiries@folklore-society.com

Download the programme
Download the booking form/flier

"London Lore" Conference, organised by The South East London Folklore Society and Bishopsgate Institute Library, in association with The Folklore Society

Saturday 25 April 2009, at Bishopsgate Institute, London
More details here.

The Mary Neal Day

Cecil Sharp House, London, Saturday February 7th, 2pm - 11pm.

100 years ago Mary Neal got people dancing. Join us on Feb 7th at The Cecil Sharp House- along with makers, bakers, artists, children, folk musicians, singers and dancers - for a day-long celebration of her life and work.

Day event (2pm-6.30pm)
£15 (£10 concessions)

Evening event (7.30pm-11pm)
£15 (£10 concessions)

Full event ticket (2pm-11pm)
£20 (£15 concessions)

Contact for more information
English Folk Dance and Song Society
020 7485 2206 www.efdss.org
http://www.redleader.co.uk/host/marynealproject/

'Myth and Fairy Tale', Southwest/Texas Popular & American Culture Associations 30th Annual Conference

Albuquerque, NM February 25-28 2009
More information

European Folk Music Conference: Crossing Boundaries

Folk music in minority languages and cultures in Europe
30 March 2009 - 3 April 2009
For more details, see www.bangor.ac.uk/music/conference

Folklore Society AGM and Conference: "Collecting Folklore"

Friday 24 April 2009, 10.00-8.00 p.m.
At The Bishopsgate Institute, Bishopsgate London EC2M 4QH

There will be talks on: early folklorists' collections of artefacts; photographing and filming seasonal customs; Korean folktale collectors; folk song collecting; and many other topics; as well as the Presidential Address by Eddie Cass.

For more details, contact
enquiries@folklore-society.com

Download the programme
Download the booking form/flier

London Lore Conference

Call for papers

South East London Folklore Society, in conjunction with the Folklore Society, calls for papers for a one-day conference on London folklore, to be held at Bishopsgate Institute on Saturday 25th April 2009.

Twenty and forty minute presentations on London Folklore are welcome, from folk custom and culture, to counter-cultural topics and fortean mysteries.

Those who would like to offer a paper are invited to submit abstracts of up to 200 words before Friday 3rd October 2008 to Scott Wood on scott@selfs.org.uk

Fire, Feasts and Frolics - An Exhibition by Doc Rowe

29 January- 25 April 2009, English Folk Dance and Song Society in association with The Folklore Society

More information