Telling Tales • Malvern Festival of Ideas

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2024

Telling Tales

Summary

The power of storytelling lies not only in the narratives themselves but also in the ideas they convey. Stories have the remarkable ability to introduce, explore, and propagate ideas in a compelling and impactful way. They can communicate complex concepts, moral dilemmas, and philosophical insights with depth and nuance.

By weaving ideas into narratives, storytellers can challenge existing beliefs, inspire new perspectives, and spark transformative change. Stories provide a fertile ground for exploring thought-provoking themes, tackling societal issues, and examining the human condition. They ignite our curiosity, encourage critical thinking, and invite us to reflect on our own beliefs and values. Through the interplay of ideas and storytelling, we are presented with an opportunity to engage with and shape the world around us, as ideas take root and grow within the fertile soil of the human imagination.

Programme

01

March (Friday)

Telling My Story

11:00

- 12:00

Malvern Cube

Best-selling author and activist, Onjali Rauf, tells her story and answers questions.

Telling My Story

14:00

- 15:00

Malvern Cube

Best-selling author and activist, Onjali Rauf, tells her story and answers questions.

Earth: Over 4 Billion Years in the Making

19:30

- 21:00

Malvern St James Girls’ School

Naturalist, nature photographer, television presenter and author, Chris Packham tells the story of how Earth’s most incredible creations – life and intelligence – are set to have the same lasting impact on Earth’s story as any meteorite or earthquake.

02

March (Saturday)

Rough Beast: My Story and the Reality of Sinn Féin

09:30

- 10:30

Malvern St James Girls’ School

Máiría Cahill recounts the harrowing story of her life and of what she went through at the hands of what is now Ireland's largest and richest party. A story of unimaginable trauma and political corruption.

Illustrating a story

10:00

- 11:00

Malvern St James Girls’ School

Writer and illustrator Will Hughes shows how you can create your own illustrated story in this workshop suitable for all ages.

Open Competition – Telling Our Stories

10:00

- 11:00

Malvern St James Girls’ School

Young people in our times live in a world suffused with quick sound bites and fleeting trends. But what is their deeper story? How often is this something that they can fully express? This session is a space for these stories to be told.

Crash Debating

11:00

- 12:00

Malvern St James Girls’ School

Come and listen to young people from the Malvern area take part in an exciting crash debating session.

Stories of Welsh Myths (11-15 years)

11:00

- 12:00

Malvern St James Girls’ School

Join storyteller Michael Harvey for an introduction to Welsh myths from the Mabinogion with the opportunity for group and individual poetry writing.

Family Stories

11:00

- 12:00

Malvern St James Girls’ School

Storyteller Peter Chand invites you to lively interactive tales from around the world, including drumming percussion and call and response.

It’s Not About Whiteness, It’s About Wealth

11:00

- 12:00

Malvern St James Girls’ School

Remi Adekoya provides a courageous and urgent intervention into one of the most important debates of our time - one in which we often seem curiously incurious about what would lead to genuine equality among groups.

Cocoa Magazines: Giving black children a voice

12:15

- 13:15

Malvern St James Girls’ School

Serlina Boyd defied the doubters when she launched ‘Cocoa Girl’ and ‘Cocoa Boy’, which have attracted more than a million readers. Come and hear how she overcame ‘sabotage’, tackled a deep-rooted problem and inspires the younger generation.

The MindTravels Experience

12:15

- 13:15

Malvern St James Girls’ School

Mark Hutchinson presents a mental health awareness journey of spoken word with improvised piano and a challenging yet uplifting narrative

Council of the World’s Animals

12:15

- 13:15

Malvern St James Girls’ School

In the dock is the human race. Come and choose an animal to witness for or against our species.

Extinction – Nature’s nightmare or best thing ever??

14:00

- 15:00

Malvern St James Girls’ School

Professor Ben Garrod asks why do some species go extinct and what can we do to save endangered species?

Art to Imagine a Better Future

14:00

- 15:30

Malvern St James Girls’ School

Join Malvern Art to Imagine in creating stories and art to imagine a better future – where humanity has done everything it can by 2035 to solve the climate and nature crisis. What would life be like in 2035? Let’s imagine that future!

Stories of Welsh Myths (5-11 years)

15:30

- 16:30

Malvern St James Girls’ School

Join storyteller Michael Harvey for an introduction to Welsh myths from the Mabinogion with the opportunity for group and individual poetry writing.

Humans, not Numbers: Knowing the Stories of Migrants and Asylum Seekers

15:30

- 16:30

Malvern St James Girls’ School

Journalist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown explores the personal narratives of migrants and asylum seekers, transcending statistics. She advocates for empathy, dispels stereotypes, and urges a compassionate understanding of the shared humanity within the global migration discourse.

Puzzling Tales for Teens

15:30

- 16:30

Malvern St James Girls’ School

Join Storyteller Peter Chand as he shares some of his favourite stories and riddles from around the world. Conundrums, mind-benders and sparkling interactive stories from one of Europe’s renowned storytellers.

Tales from the Motherland for Adults

17:00

- 18:00

Malvern St James Girls’ School

Storyteller Peter Chand presents a heady collection of some of his favourite traditional stories.

Confessions of a documentary filmmaker

19:30

- 21:00

Malvern St James Girls’ School

Award winning documentary filmmaker Randall Wright explores the problem of trying to tell the truth and a good story at the same time.

03

March (Sunday)

My battle for justice

09:30

- 10:30

Malvern St James Girls’ School

Danielle Hindley is a businesswoman and a mother, who found herself targeted by a national newspaper. Danielle tells the story of how an inaccurate and damaging article severely impacted her business and personal life. In conversation with HackedOff journalist Alice Watkins.

Exploring the power of ‘restorative narratives’ to transform lives

11:00

- 12:00

Malvern St James Girls’ School

Marina Cantacuzino, founder of The Forgiveness Project, shares stories of people whose life has been shattered by violence, tragedy and injustice and who are learning to forgive, reconcile and move on. Marina’s unique and radical work is a study in compassion.

Feeding bellies not Bins . . . The story of how we saved food from going to waste

12:15

- 13:15

Malvern St James Girls’ School

Come and hear the story of how Malvern Green Space saves food from going to waste with their Community Lunches and other food projects.

Songs of Hope

12:15

- 13:15

Malvern St James Girls’ School

Liz Johnson leads this creative singing workshop on the theme of hope. Come and learn songs and compose lyrics for a brand-new song for performance in the final session of the day. No previous experience needed, just enthusiasm!

What happens when the Earth raises an invoice?

12:15

- 13:15

Malvern St James Girls’ School

How are ecology and empathy changing economics? In this call-to-action, Mark Hutchinson is inviting us all to encourage the raising of invoices on behalf of our Earth.

Personal Pioneering for Vulnerable Families

12:15

- 13:15

Malvern St James Girls’ School

Trevor and Pam Birtle will share their inspirational, personal journey in establishing a charity that aims to keep together some our most vulnerable families and the extraordinary results attained using their powerful and innovative model.

Threads from the refugee crisis

14:00

- 15:00

Malvern St James Girls’ School

850,000 people fled to Europe last year. Many thousands died in the Mediterranean Sea. A few thousand washed up Calais. Combining the techniques of eyewitness reportage with comic-book storytelling, Kate Evans tells their story, which is shocking, angering and heartbreaking.

Songs and Stories – Seeking Asylum

15:30

- 16:30

Malvern St James Girls’ School

Abdullah Tamo and Liz Johnson will be in conversation about Abdullah’s experiences resettling in Malvern having left his war-torn home in Syria and living in an Iraqi refugee camp for six years. Wael Abdulkarem will accompany Abdullah with a selection of beautiful Kurdish songs.

Speakers

Discover this year’s theme

Details of this year’s venues, speakers and programme are released on our homepage as they are agreed.

Inspiring innovation, creativity & critical thinking

Malvern St James Girls' School

7 -

9 March 2025

Tickets are now available for GENERAL ADMISSION OR INDIVIDUAL SESSIONS

The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed by Festival speakers are solely those of the speakers, and do not necessarily reflect those of the Festival organisers, the Festival suppliers or the Festival sponsors. All speakers are invited in good faith as appropriate contributers to chosen topics for lawful free speech and for questioning by the public.

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