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About Us

FEAST was founded by a group of experienced storytellers with a vision of promoting the art of storytelling, and a love of Asian stories, in Asia. It was officially launched in Chennai on 24 August 2018. Through the work of the FEAST we want to:

Create more opportunities for tellers to perform, internationally and inter-culturally, by organising festivals, performances and teller exchanges and fostering collaborations.
To offer learning opportunities that enable our members to hone and improve their skills, no matter their current skill level

We look forward to welcoming you to the FEAST - either as a chef (our tellers!) or as someone hungry to be fed (our audience).

Who We Are

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Founders

A group of storytellers from India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand (as well as representatives from Australia and Europe) met in Bangkok in January 2018 and developed FEAST's Mission Statement and Objectives. Given their experience of performing in international festivals together, and of presenting storytelling events, they wanted to create an organisation to broaden the appeal and awareness of storytelling and storytellers in Asia.

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Directors

The three Founding Directors were Roger Jenkins (Singapore), Jeeva Raghunath (India) and Sheila Wee (Singapore.) Krupa Vinayagamoorthy (2020) and Priti Modyiyer (2021) joined as Consulting Directors. UPDATE: Ambujavalli Nagarajan became an Interim Director from 1st Jan 2023 to serve for a year while Krupa stepped back (though not down) for maternity leave.

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Fulcrum 22

The Fulcrum was established in January 2022 in response to FEAST's rapid growth, both as a means to boost our admin effectiveness and enable more active member participation and programming, while also providing members with the opportunity to take on challenging responsibilities for their own personal growth and development.

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Members

Members join us from all over Asia and beyond. We have very active members supporting us in Australia, Argentina, Canada, England, Hawaii, Ireland, Italy and Scotland for example! You may search our Member Directory to know more.

What We Do

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Storytelling Events

We love telling stories! We hold regular Story Swaps (Which are open to members and non-members, both as tellers and listeners!) Ad-hoc events include the FEAST FEST (held in 2021) and our OLIOS (showcases with 4-5 stories in each one) launched in 2022 to promote collaboration amongst our meembers.

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Learning Events

Learning is central to Feast's philosophy. Our webinar series - now called LEARNING CAPSULES - feature 8-10 sessions per year covering both the art of storytelling and its application as a business. Facilitators have included some of the world most experienced practitioners. Our Conference (and its online substitute, the Learning Fest) offer more intensive learning experiences.

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Development Opportunities

We are proud of our Mentorship programmes as, to date, we have offered mentees the chance to learn about telling stories to adult audiences, telling to those with special needs, in cultural sites/museums and telling with puppets. A webinar on podcasting led to the founding of The Story Wok in 2021, produced entirely by our members, with rotating personnel each season. Peer-reviewed and Guest-Coached story swaps (for members only) also offer a unique opportunity to work on one's skills.

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Special Interest Groups

Our Special Interest Groups enable members to spare their passion and experience with like-minded tellers. Apart from the Story Wok podcast, there is also Plot Luck (a group dedicated to story improv) and an Eco-Storytelling SIG. As long as there are 6 - 8 members sharing a similar interest, FEAST welcomes members initiative in starting a new SIG.

What We've Done

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Events

Conferences - Singapore (2018), Bangalore (2019)

Webinars – 40 by December 2022!

FEAST FEST 2021 – 17 days, 51 hours, 168 tellers from 24 countries and 5,435 views!

Publications – 4 anthologies of Asian folktales (available in the Store)

Mentorships – 5 benefitting 23 members by December 2022

Story Wok podcast – now in its 2nd season (2022)

International events – 2 showcases for NSN, and a storytelling performance in collaboration with North-East Storytelling

Building bridges with Institutional members in Australia, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea and Singapore.

Social Responsibility - In 2021 we collaborated with 5 NGOs, providing them access to the FEAST festival for free

WHY WE DO WHAT WE DO

WHAT PEOPLE SAY

Extremely looking forward to ETH-NOH-TEC's workshop. A huge thank you in advance for all FEAST does. The programs chosen are amazing and engaging. The organization is vibrant and inclusive. Cannot say enough about FEAST! - Ingrid B, USA 8/22

Our Objectives

1. To foster the practice of storytelling in Asia, by facilitating festivals, performances, workshops, storyteller exchanges and such activities that will provide storytellers with opportunities to develop their craft and broaden their audience base.

2. To welcome tellers, regardless of their race or origin, who have an interest in Asian stories, and who are keen to create a community of tellers helping each other to achieve these objectives.

3. To raise the visibility of storytelling in Asia, by celebrating the diverse work of our storytellers, so as to educate audiences, policy makers and arts organisations to the power and effectiveness of storytelling in society.

4. To encourage our storytellers to tell to anyone, anywhere, exploring new venues and reaching out to different audiences.

5. Through story, to re-connect communities with their common heritage and celebrate their shared sense of place.

6. To develop a new generation of storytellers who are confident, capable and committed to sustaining and sharing stories – the tales we love, the ones we have neglected, and the tales yet to be told.

7. To raise funding for storytelling, both for the training of tellers and for presenting stories through programmes that meet any of these objectives.

8. To showcase the richness and variety of Asian storytelling to the world.

9. To collaborate with storytellers from around the world to bring awareness, appreciation and recognition to the art of Asian storytelling.

10. To pursue our love of storytelling with playfulness and joy, for a spirit of playfulness and joy inspired FEAST’s founding storytellers to sit down together in camaraderie and respect, to prepare this menu for all like-minded tellers to share