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Sound recording, story; a folk tale of African or Asian origin told by Amoafi Kwapong at the High Summer Storytelling Clubnight, in the Garden of No. 4 Shaa Road, Acton, London, 21st July 1984

A story told by Amoafi Kwapong. A folk tale about a husband and wife who both farm a piece of land. On the piece of land the wife farms, there is a bird who sings for the grass to grow again, so however hard she works, the grass continues to grow. The husband and wife capture the bird, but their children let if free, and the released bird continues to sing.

audience:- adult; contributing storytellers
    recording quality
condition:- fair
completeness:- complete
duration:- 0 hours, 3 minutes, 41 seconds

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 The clubnights were superseded by the formation of the Company of Storytellers who pioneered the touring of adult evening shows throughout the UK, and by the formation of the Crick Crack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:- storyteller: Amoafi Kwapong; Abenaa Kwapong
female / Ghanaian

origin:- Africa Asia


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Flyer for the High Summer Storytelling Clubnight

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Flyer for the High Summer Storytelling Clubnight

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


storytelling:- Shaa Road, 4, Acton, London, England
21 Jul 1984
storytelling club: Storytelling Unit Clubnight
storytelling club: High Summer Storytelling Clubnight


gift from:- storyteller: Ben Haggarty


©  The London Centre for International Storytelling: 2007
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