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WOSAS : F581 WOSAS/CD210/track2
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Ananse and the Sky God
an Ananse story

Sound recording, story; Ananse and the Sky God, an Ananse story, a trickster tale, creation myth and aetiological tale or how and why story from Ghana, told by The West London Storytelling Unit, at the second West London Storytelling Unit Clubnight, at The Last Chance Centre, Hammersmith, London, 19th May 1983

Story told by members of The West London Storytelling Unit. Ananse goes to visit Papa God to ask for his stories, Papa God asks Ananse to find him a python, a leopard, some hornets and a forest spirit. Ananse tricks each animal in turn and takes them to Papa God. Papa God gives Ananse his stories, but Ananse drops them as he is climbing back to earth, and they fall all over the globe, which is how stories came onto Earth.

audience:- adult; contributing storytellers
    recording quality
condition:- fair
completeness:- complete
duration:- 0 hours, 17 minutes

The West London Storytelling Unit at this time comprised Ben Haggarty, TUUP and Daisy Keable.

The West London Storytelling Unit (W.L.S.T.U), was founded in 1981, by members Ben Haggarty, Godfrey Duncan and Daisy Keable and based in an Afro-Caribbean Youth Centre, the Priory in Acton. The members worked together and as solo artists, telling stories mainly in school and community contexts in London. Over time performances for adults also began to be developed. In 1983 W.L.S.T.U became The Storytelling Unit with Marva Cumberbatch, Pomme Clayton and Daisy Keable. In or around 1985 Daisy Keable and Marva Cumberbatch left the Storytelling Unit, at which point Ben Haggarty rejoined and worked with Sally Pomme Clayton for a brief period before the group was disbanded. The increased interest and demand for storytelling performance for adults led to the formation of The Company of Storytellers in 1985.

The West London Storytelling Unit Clubnights or The Storytelling Unit Clubnights were begun by Ben Haggarty, TUUP and Daisy Keable in 1982 shortly after beginning to work together as the West London Storytelling Unit (W.L.S.T.U). They took place on roughly a fortnightly basis during the atumn and winter months, in community centres in Acton, Shepherds Bush and Hammersmith. The clubnights were an opportunity for anyone to come and tell a story, or perform music on the condition that it had a toe-hold in tradition. The performance of original poetry and the reading of original writing was actively discouraged as there were plenty of other fora for 'new writing' elsewhere in London. In 2007 Ben Haggarty explained that the clubnight format was in part inspired by the College of Storytellers, but with the aim of doing something less bourgeois, for a younger audience and which was not dominated by Idries Shah's mission to promote his vision of Sufi storytelling. The clubnights also took inspiration from the anarchy of the London Musicians Collective clubnight events in Camden. The clubnights led Ben Haggarty to inaugurate the First UK International Storytelling Festival at Battersea Arts Centre in London in January 1985. After the 1985 festival a few further clubnights were run, before ending in 1986. The clubnights were superseded by the formation of the Company of Storytellers who pioneered the touring of adult evening shows throughout the UK, and by the formation of the Crick Crack Club in 1987, which focused on the programming and development of professional storytellers, their performance skills and their repertoire for adult audiences.

storytelling:- storytelling group: The West London Storytelling Unit

storytelling:- storyteller: Daisy Keable; Georgiana Jerstad; Georgiana Keable
female / British / Norwegian

storytelling:- storyteller; musician; singer: TUUP; Godfrey Duncan
male / British / Guyanese

storytelling:- storyteller: Ben Haggarty
male / British / born 30.11.1958

origin:- Jamaica Caribbean Ghana, Africa


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White version of flyer for clubnight 2

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Blue version of flyer for clubnight 2

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Clubnight letter written my members of The West London Storytelling Unit

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Letter written to Time Out listings magazine about listing the clubnight

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administration:- storyteller; promoter: Ben Haggarty
storyteller: Daisy Keable; Georgiana Jerstad; Georgiana Keable
storyteller; musician: TUUP; Godfrey Duncan


storytelling:- Hammersmith, London, England: The Last Chance Centre
19 May 1983
storytelling club: West London Storytelling Unit Clubnight
storytelling club: Clubnight 2


gift from:- storyteller: Ben Haggarty


©  The London Centre for International Storytelling: 2007
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