Just Tell - Federation of Asian Storytellers

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JUST TELL is an informal and often intimmate story swap session that debutted in 2023 as a space where Members can come along and . . just tell!

We welcome work in progress. Given the leisurely annd informal setting, there's often discussion after the telling. If you want ideas about how to make the most of this feedback opportunity, listen to Kendall Haven's splenddid advice which he shared during his excellent Learning Capsule (January 2024 - it's available on our Store in our archive.)

Unilke our Story Swaps, there's no need to register (just show up on the day) and there's no theme. We have made a commitment to let everyone who wants to tell at the seession - it hasn't happened yet, but if we have more than four keen to tell, we will go into break-out rooms and split the adudience accordingly.

What can happen at a JUST TELL session?

Here's what i wrote about the very first meet, back in February 2023:

We had the inaugural session of JUST TELL on 28th February. At 7.30 there were 'just' the 5 Directors in the room (Just Gossiping? ) but by 7.35 we had another six in the room and the next hour passed very quickly in a serendipitous flow of stories that none of us anticipated.

Sheila began with a story drawn from the dark back-alleyways of colonial Singapore, a story which she was telling for only the second time, so still rough around the edges and we had questions and suggestions all around. The chance to see a story in the process of being honed and polished by an experienced storyteller (rather than just the finished article) was in itself a rare treat.

Oshima then did something never done before by any storyteller in FEAST's five years - she told a story in Japanese and Japanese Sign Language! As a result, we all understood what she was telling (one of Aesop's fables) even the moral which she added at the end (and a moral is usually tough to communicate as it is more abstract than concrete!) Interesting fact: the Japanese sign for 'brother' has a very rude meaning in most western cultures!

We were delighted to welcome back Ahn Sook from South Korea, to tell us her first story in a long time. She told us a wonderfully comic story about a Salt Peddler (a character she seems to specialise in!) and the Shin Bone Ghost. We thoroughly enjoyed her telling (especially the toothless Grandma eagerly asking, repeatedly, 'What happened next?")

The story seems to have variations all around the world (the shin bone's connected to the thigh bone?) and Anabelle summarised a very popular Spanish/South American version which involves a naughty boy sent shopping to the butchers, a cemetery - and an unusual set of ribs mother cooked for dinner . . .

Jaguar (South America) This naturally led to talking about ghost stories (Interest fact #2: in Japan they tell ghost stories in the summer! Why? Because it's hot - and ghost stories gives the chills & shivers!) Anabelle rounded off the session with a story from the pampas (the vast plains of Argentina) about men who turn into jaguars (or jaguars that turn into men) in which a conceited boss was so scared by his encounter with the jaguar that the story had a very smelly end!

We didn't record the session, because the charm of JUST TELL lies both in its informality and its intimacy. Among friends we don't have to worry about grammar (non native-speakers please take note!) and we are free to tell the stories from our hearts.