Wednesday, 29 May 2019

CHAPTER 8 - 29th May 2019





STORIES
1. Yasim Yusuff - Symbols and Signs

 Yasmin Yusuff
2. Gowri Paary - Vijay and the Capsicum
Gowri Paary

3. Dr. Jayanti Bhave - Dr Anandhi Gopalrao Joshi

Dr Jayanthi Bhave
MUSIC
1. Bhizhu - "Bright veins" & "Tainted temples"


Bhizhu - "Bright veins"


Bhizhu - "Tainted temples"




YASMIN YUSUFF
Bio: Yasmin Yusuff is one of the most familiar voices in Malaysia, having been on radio for 18 years,and has beenthe voice for countless radio and TV commercials, phone-answering services, elevators, and until recently, the LRT and the KLIA Aerotrain.
She conducted the FIRST live radio telephone “call in” ever on Malaysian radio at Radio 4. She was voted “Most Popular Radio DJ” in 1997 by “Malay Mail” reader poll.
Malaysian Music Academy “AIM” award winner in 1997, in recognition for most contribution to Radio – the first and only time this award has been given out “Best DJ Award 2001” from MACP (Music Copyright Protection body) while at WOWfm.
She recorded 2 albums in the early 80's which produced 2 number one singles. As an actress, she played Jessica in the longest running
TV drama series in Malaysia, Opah, which ran for 15 years. She has also acted in movies, TV dramas, and in a telemovie co-starring with Kabir Bedi.
She is one of the most successful Miss Malaysia Universe title holders. She won 3rd place for Best National Costume at Miss Universe 1978, the first time Miss Malaysia brought home a trophy. Currently Yasmin is a much sought-after MC, and is also busy as Lady Golf Captain of the Royal Selangor Golf Club.

Gowri Paary is highly passionate about children's literacy. She also likes to bring more diversity into her books. she had grown up reading books that she could not identify with. Thus, Vijay and the capsicum was born. Gowri likes to includes moral values in her stories and family values play a vital role in her stories. in her book, she includes a question segment for parents and teachers to help discuss themes in the story with their children.
Gowri is a constant migrant, educator and actor amongst other things. She is extremely passionate about sewing, performing arts and travelling. She currently lives in Australia with her husband, son and daughter. Vijay and the capsicum is the second book she has written. Her book is available for purchase via email and also at Silverfish bookstores, Bangsar Village 2.
Dr. Jayanti Bhave is Deputy Director at IBSAR group of colleges, Karjat Campus.  She has a social science background and also worked in with NGOs. She is a Ph.D from Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS). Her expertise areas of interest are story telling for all age groups (as pedagogical tool), conducting soft skills training programs on motivation, leadership, and team work and confidence building.
Bihzhu Penang-born nightingale BIHZHU is blessed with a rich, soulful voice. Combined with her genuine songcraft that she calls 'heart music', her charming presence has enchanted audiences all over the world, from intimate acoustic concerts to music festivals all over Malaysia, Indonesia, South Korea, China, and Australia, and she’s fresh from her tour in India, January 2019.

After years with pop-jazz band Rhapsody and dub outfit Layan Sound System, Bihzhu embarked on her solo career in 2011, launching it as a featured artist in Julie's Biscuits Nationwide 'Share The Love' campaign with her smile-inducing single, "The Heart Way".

The infectious tune was also chosen for a Penang Global Tourism ad featuring the famed shoe couturier Dato’ Jimmy Choo on the Asian Food Channel that aired for 14 weeks in 10 different countries.
Bihzhu also recently made a cameo appearance in the 2017 Penang Hokkien movie "You Mean The World To Me" directed by Saw Teong Hin, performing 'The Heart Way'.

In 2011, her debut album 'Nightingale Tales' received much airplay on Malaysia’s national radio stations 9.88FM, Capital FM, BFM Radio, Traxx FM, AFO Radio, Hitz.FM, RedFM as well as the Los Angeles-based ‘Woman of Substance’ radio and Minneapolis’ Big Brain Radio Show in the United States.

Her single "Bright Veins", released in March 2015, continues in the vein of uplifting music and she also penned the lyrics for "We Will Believe Again", the upbeat theme song for 2016's box office hit 'Ola Bola', by Chiu Keng Guan, Director of 'The Journey'.

                                          Host - Shanthini Venugopal 

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Wednesday, 22 May 2019

CHAPTER 7 - 22nd May 2019



We feature Anne Shimojima from the United States with a Japanese folk tale ‘Golden Crane’ a story of miracles and transformation, Sheila Wee from Singapore with ‘The old man in the corner’ a Nepali folktale she adapted, Munia Islam, a student doing her honors in English Literature in Bangladesh with her story ‘Beowulf’ and 6 year old Dashwin Samuel Saravanan from Malaysia about Henry who finds a lost and hungry baby seal titled, ‘Littlest Lighthouse Keeper’.


On Storytime Music we have Bihzhu from Malaysia with her original songs ‘A Chord Green’ & ‘Palpitations’



The Old Man in the Corner - Sheila Wee

Links to other sites to listen to podcast
iTunes: https://apple.co/2V23bws
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2VvTmGw
Stitcher : https://bit.ly/2GJHXcG
Northeast Storytelling:  http://www.lanes.org
Buzzsprout: https://www.buzzsprout.com/276938

STORIES
1. ANNE SHIMOJIMA - Golden Crane
2. SHEILA WEE - The Old Man in the Corner
3. MUNIA ISLAM - Beowulf 
4. DASHWIN SAMUEL SARAVANAN - Littlest Lighthouse Keeper to the Rescue
SONGS
1. BIHZHU - "A Green Chord" & "Palpatations"



ANNE SHIMOJIMA
Anne Shimojima has been delighting audiences across the United States for over thirty years in schools, libraries, festivals, gardens, museums, and senior communities, telling literary stories, folk and fairy tales, and her Japanese American family’s World War II story.  Anne was a New Voice Teller at the National Storytelling Festival and Teller-in-Residence at the International Storytelling Center in Tennessee. She has also performed at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Timpanogos Storytelling Conference, the 1st Asian American Storytelling Festival, and the Hans Christian Andersen Statue in Central Park, New York City. Anne’s 2017 CD, Sakura Tales; Stories from Japan, includes some of her favorite Japanese folk tales and is available on her website.
www.anneshimojima.com

SHEILA WEE 
Sheila Wee has been a professional storyteller for 20 years, and because of her work in pioneering the revival of storytelling in Singapore, has been described as a Godmother of Singapore storytelling. Sheila co-founded Singapore’s first storytelling circle and its first professional storytelling company. She was instrumental in the development and organisation of the Asian Congress of Storytellers and the International Storytelling Showcases (from 2000 to 2009) which in 2006 were rebranded as the Singapore International Storytelling Festival. Sheila is a founding Professional Member and Committee Member, a 3 term President, 3-term Vice-President and the current Workshop Chair of the Storytelling Association (Singapore).
Sheila was a pioneer of storytelling to both child and adult audiences in Singapore. She is comfortable telling to both small and large audiences of all ages and is adept at varying her storytelling style according to her audience. Her storytelling has been described variously, as warm, engaging, elegant and captivating.
Sheila’s storytelling experience is deep and wide-ranging, she has performed for thousands of preschool, primary and secondary students, trained teachers and created a storytelling manual for the Hong Kong Bureau of Education, trained tourist guides and docents for museums and art galleries, trained teachers and lecturers to use storytelling in their teaching and corporate, military and civil service leaders in the use of storytelling as an organisational tool.
As well as running her storytelling company Storywise, Sheila is a director of Story Connection, a non-profit company she set up with fellow storyteller Roger Jenkins, to run the annual the 398.2 Storytelling Festival, the Storytelling Carnival @ Enabling Village and other community storytelling events. She is also a founding director of FEAST (the Federation of Asian Storytellers), an international non-profit which supports Asian storytellers and promotes the development of storytelling in Asia.
Sheila’s international work as a performer and workshop leader has taken her to Australia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, the UK and Vietnam.
Contact: sheila@storywise.com.sg
www.storywise.com.sgLink to 
FEAST website www.feast-story.org

 MUNIA ISLAM
Munia Islam is a second year university student, doing her honors in English Literature and living in Bangladesh. She is a self proclaimed storyteller who loves to talk and eat a lot but despises talking while eating. With hopes for a better world she fights her battle with pen, paper and her awfully loud voice.

















DASHWIN SAMUEL SARAVANAN
I am 6 years old, studying in Year 2 in an International School in Selangor, Malaysia. I love science, art and playing drums. I love dolphins, Penguins and polar bears. I love to travel to many places with my family. I love to see animals in their natural habitats.

















BIHZHU
Penang-born nightingale BIHZHU is blessed with a rich, soulful voice. Combined with her genuine songcraft that she calls 'heart music', her charming presence has enchanted audiences all over the world, from intimate acoustic concerts to music festivals all over Malaysia, Indonesia, South Korea, China, and Australia, and she’s fresh from her tour in India, January 2019.

After years with pop-jazz band Rhapsody and dub outfit Layan Sound System, Bihzhu embarked on her solo career in 2011, launching it as a featured artist in Julie's Biscuits Nationwide 'Share The Love' campaign with her smile-inducing single, "The Heart Way".

The infectious tune was also chosen for a Penang Global Tourism ad featuring the famed shoe couturier Dato’ Jimmy Choo on the Asian Food Channel that aired for 14 weeks in 10 different countries.
 Bihzhu also recently made a cameo appearance in the 2017 Penang Hokkien movie "You Mean The World To Me" directed by Saw Teong Hin, performing 'The Heart Way'.

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Tuesday, 14 May 2019

CHAPTER 6 - 14th May 2019




Today’s line up is Kiran Shah from Singapore now a resident in Australia tells her original story about a Wombat and other animals found in Australia, Sangeetha Goel from India tells us a tale based on mythology of Indian Plants and featuring our youngest storyteller, 7 year old Nikil Ezra Devan who’ll tell you how to hunt a bear!
In StoryTime music, we feature songs and stories from our multi-talented home grown artist, Resh with his Malay hit single, 'Oh Anok Anok' and 'Half the Man'
STORIES

1. Kiran Shah - Australia- Wombat goes walkabout 
2. Sangeeta Goel - India - When Parijtha rose from her ashes
3. Nikhil Ezra Devan - M'sia - Going on a bear hunt!
MUSIC
1. Resh -  Oh Anok Anok  and Half the Man

Links to other sites to listen to podcast
iTunes: https://apple.co/2V23bws
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2VvTmGw
Stitcher : https://bit.ly/2GJHXcG
Northeast Storytelling:  http://www.lanes.org
Buzzsprout: https://www.buzzsprout.com/276938



 Kiran Shah moved from being a social worker and early childhood educator and became a professional storyteller in Singapore 20 years ago. She has been called the Godmother of Storytelling in Singapore (along with Sheila Wee) in being instrumental in reviving the art of oral storytelling. She loves telling folktales from her heritage and is particularly drawn to Asian folktales. She enjoys telling stories to anyone, anywhere. Her audiences have ranged from babies to seniors and she has told in schools, libraries, museums, parks, art galleries and even on trains! Apart from performances, she also conducts storytelling workshops and has participated in conferences and festivals all over Asia (Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, India, Indonesia) and in Australia, where she now lives.   Web: www.kiranstoryteller.com


Sangeeta Goel is a Performance Storyteller, Story Trainer, Playback Theatre Artist, Sexuality Educator.  She tells stories to children, adolescents and adults. She believes in stories that can foster open conversation. With this aim she uses her skills as a storyteller and sexuality educator to tell stories leading to open conversations on sexuality. Some of her story based training programme include training for teachers, parents, sexuality educators and corporate. She has written two original story books for children and various articles on Gender Diversity, Sexual Harassment and Sexuality Education. Email: goelsangeeta@gmail.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sangeeta-goel-347b0722/


Nikhil Ezra Devan is a 7 year old who loves books and reading. Before he was reading, he used to imitate the expressions in picture books. He loves performing, mostly at home, and a few times for the public.
LINK TO VIEW HIS VIDEO ON FACEBOOK- POSTED BY RESHMA (mum) https://www.facebook.com/reshma.stanislaus/videos/10156058495712034/






Resh unleashed himself onto the entertainment scene in 2003 when he released his debut Walk Away and It's You That Matters. The album earned him a whopping seven nominations at the premier Malaysian music industry award show, Anugerah Industri Muzik (AIM) in 2004, of which he proudly bagged three awards (Best Male Vocals, Best English-language Artiste, Best Engineering for an Album).
album entitled “Monumental” under the then moniker, Reshmonu. The album took critics and fans by storm with hit singles like 
He has since established himself as the premier English Language market entertainer in Malaysia, loved and admired by fans worldwide and respected by his peers, and is among an elite few Malaysian artists who have consistently performed as opening act for internationally acclaimed acts touring in Malaysia such as Alicia Keys, Prodigy, Pussycat Dolls, The Black Eyed Peas, Nicole Scherzinger, Girls Generation, and many more. Taking his passion for music one step further, RESH also took on the role of director
his music video for ‘The Way It Makes You Move’, which went on to earn him a nomination in the 2008 AIM Awards under the ‘Best Music Video’ Award category. Most recently, RESH was selected to be featured in the video campaign for THE GLOBAL GOALS FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT CAMPAIGN, a ground-breaking collaboration of campaigners, public figures, companies and civil society groups.




For Media Queries: contact ALAN TANG from UNIVERSAL MUSIC SINGAPORE :(65) 6589 7556  alan.tang@umusic.com
 Social Media: https://www.facebook.com/reshmonuofficially TWITTER: www.twitter.com/reshmonu      Instagram:Reshmonu       

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Wednesday, 8 May 2019

CHAPTER 5 -8th May 2019





Markers for stories are found here in Buzzsprout
Shanthini tells how the 12 animals earned their place in the Chinese Zodiac, Wong Swee Yean from Singapore tells a Vietnamese folktale about a boy who loves to shoot pebbles, Shyna, an up and coming storyteller from  Singapore who informs us that there are 2 parrots living in our mind and StoryTime Music- Resh tells his stories about his songs before singing Walkaway slow jam- his first hit song and Hey Waley
STORIES
1. Shanthini - M'sia - The Chinese Zodiac
2. Wong Swee Yean - S'pore- Thao Kham - a Vietnamese Folktale 
3. Shyna - (Nandini Nagpal) S'pore - 2 parrots
MUSIC
1. Resh - M'sia - "Walkaway" & "Hey Waley"



WONG SWEE YEAN  has been telling stories to young and old for 15 years. Her stories stir up the imagination of her audience and creates gentle positive change. She has been involved in programmes to share the rich folktale heritage of ASEAN and is keen to educate the young about good character values through storytelling.


SHYNA NAGPAL is a budding storyteller and an artist who loves painting a picture in the audience’s mind. She started telling stories to share the enjoyment with her mother,

Nandini. Last year,she told stories at the 398.2 Storytelling Festival at the National Library as well as at the Story Carnival in Singapore. She has also told stories in her class at school. Shyna loves seeing the smile on her audience's faces when they are enjoying her stories.
Email contact for Shyna will be nandininagpal@gmail.com



RESH is a multi-talented, multiple award-winning artist and has forged a career in the Malaysian and International music scene virtually single-handedly, going from humble beginnings as a sound engineer to becoming one of the most recognizable faces of the Malaysian English music industry in the past eight years.  

RESH describes his music as “R&B fusion” and cites some of his greatest influences as Harry Belafonte, Bob Marley, Marvin Gaye, Brian Mcknight, Luther Vandross and even 'Remember The Shakthi' a fusion of jazz and Indian traditional music, & fusion works by British producer Nittin Sawhney.


In 2003 he released his debut album entitled “Monumental” under the then moniker, Reshmonu. The album took critics and fans by storm with hit singles like Walk Away and It's You That Matters. The album earned him seven nominations at the premier Malaysian music industry award show, Anugerah Industri Muzik (AIM) in 2004, of which he bagged three awards (Best Male Vocals, Best English-language Artiste, Best Engineering for an Album). 
He is among an elite few Malaysian artists who have consistently performed as opening act for internationally acclaimed acts touring in Malaysia such as Alicia Keys, Prodigy, Pussycat Dolls, The Black Eyed Peas, Nicole Scherzinger, Girls Generation, and many more. Taking his passion for music one step further, RESH also took on the role of director in his music video for ‘The Way It Makes You Move’, which earned him a nomination in the 2008 AIM Awards under the ‘Best Music Video’ Award category. 

Most recently, RESH was selected to be featured in the video campaign for THE GLOBAL GOALS FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT CAMPAIGN, a ground-breaking collaboration of campaigners, public figures, companies and civil society groups.
For Media Queries: contact ALAN TANG from UNIVERSAL MUSIC SINGAPORE :(65) 6589 7556  alan.tang@umusic.com
 Social Media: https://www.facebook.com/reshmonuofficially TWITTER: www.twitter.com/reshmonu      Instagram:Reshmonu    
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Wednesday, 1 May 2019

CHAPTER 4 1st May 2019





STORIES
1. Pritvii- M'sia - Pearl of Love
2. Roger Jenkins - S'pore - 2 grains of sand
3. Oni Lasana - USA - The Wife's doilies
4. Edwin Sumun - M'sia - Blind Date ; story by Kevin McIvor

MUSIC
1. Weijun - M'sia - "Back to Life" &  Love Rise above"

ONI LASANA is the "drama mama" of storytelling! She was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the USA. She now lives on the island of Tobago, in the Caribbean sea.
Her professional life as a storyteller started in 1994 and has presented her one woman show in theaters, schools, universities and storytelling festivals, across the USA, Germany and in Zimbabwe, Africa.
To learn more about Oni. Visit  www.OniLasana.com



PRITVII SANTHENA DEVANDRAN was born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. She is a natural born storyteller and has strong oratory skills.  She is fascinated by different people, places
and culture and is always keen to learn their stories.  Her favourite genre is folk tales.
Pritvii attended primary school at Sekolah Rendah Bandar Sri Damansara 1 and was involved in numerous storytelling competition. It was at this time that storytelling reemerged as something she wanted to learn more about. In the 6 years she was there, she began to make storytelling a central part of her performance life.
Pritvii won the district storytelling championship organized by Ministry of Education in 2016 and 2017. Pritvii also emerged as the state storytelling champion in the competition organized by Ministry of Education in 2016.  Ms Shanthini Venugopal, the renowned story teller was instrumental in sharpening Pritvii’s story telling skills during her preparation for these competitions.
This recording for StoryTime will be the first of its kind for Pritvii. She hopes of being successful like Ms Shantini and Donna Washington in storytelling. Pritvii also aspires to write story books for children in the future following the footsteps of her trainer and mentor Ms Shanthini Venugopal. 
Pritvii is also a classical dancer inTemple of Fine Arts Malaysia. She has performed on many stages and celebrates her dancing skills with joy. She also trained some storytellers among her primary school juniors in a succession plan.  Her ability to tell stories was recognized by National University of Malaysia Alumni and was invited to demonstrate her skills to Tamil School Children around Klang Valley and was honored in many events.
Pritvii also performs very well in her studies and obtained straight A’s in her primary school public exam and her ambition is to read law in one of the Ivy League universities.



ROGER JENKINS is a Singaporean storyteller - really (born there and lived there over 40 years). He founded Singapore's annual 398.2 Storytelling Festival in 2015 and along with Sheila Wee andJeeva Raghunath is a Director of FEAST, the Federation of Asian Storytellers, which aims to promote the art of storytelling and tellers working in Asia. He has performed frequently at the PINKS Festival in Penang as well as in story festivals in Bangkok, Chennai, Jakarta, Kuching and Nairobi.  www.rogerjenkins.com.sg




WEIJUN is no stranger in the Malaysian performing arts scene. Since his return to Malaysia
after completing a Bachelor of Arts, Dance Degree in 2001 at Queensland University of
Technology (Australia), he has been involved in many acclaimed theatre productions. He is best known for his involvements with Sutra Foundation under the artistic direction of Datuk Ramli Ibrahim.
His many interests include photography, figure skating, teaching, multimedia production and making music.
On the music front Weijun has produced music for numerous local theatre productions, short films and also dabbled in pop music.
Weijun was nominated twice for Best Music & Sound Design for Dance at the BOH Cameronian Arts Awards
A finalist in the SUTASI Song writing competition , 2 top10 songs on the AMP Channel[V] charts, (no2. Move It/Make Your Body Mine, no8. Back To Life)
Currently producing a show titled In Pieces featuring top Malaysian contemporary choreographers and actors with music and artistic direction by Weijun


EDWIN SUMUN is an Award-winning Theatre Practitioner, however he is most recognised today for his work as his alter-ego, SHELAH.
Little known fact: Edwin is a tech and comic geek (self-declared) and enjoys his bookshelf & reading corner. Shelah, on the other hand, enjoys entertaining. They make a cute couple. #relationshipgoals





KEVIN MCIVOR (WRITER - Blind Date) 
....is finally free after 30 years locked up in the corporate world “I have 2 grown up
daughters who no longer call at MY bank account”. He has lived in London, Prague, Panama City and now lives in Kuala Lumpur.
He has been writing for 30 years and is still looking for an agent and publisher although he doesn’t look on a Wednesday. Kevin has three novels, a screenplay and a comedy series in the can plus numerous other short works including a children’s book
He’s interested in art and paints (“but only in my studio in England”) & is fascinated by eyes. He hates discrimination in all its forms
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