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About Us

FEAST was founded by a group of experienced storytellers with a vision of promoting the art of storytelling, and a love of Asian stories, in Asia. It was officially launched in Chennai on 24 August 2018. Through the work of the FEAST we want to:

Create more opportunities for tellers to perform, internationally and inter-culturally, by organising festivals, performances and teller exchanges and fostering collaborations.
To offer learning opportunities that enable our members to hone and improve their skills, no matter their current skill level

We look forward to welcoming you to the FEAST, either as a chef (our tellers!) or as someone hungry to be fed (our audience).

Who We Are

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Founders

A group of storytellers from India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand (as well as representatives from Australia and Europe) met in Bangkok in January 2018 and developed FEAST's Mission Statement and Objectives. Given their experience of performing in international festivals together, and of presenting storytelling events, they wanted to create an organisation to broaden the appeal and awareness of storytelling and storytellers in Asia.

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Directors

The three Founding Directors were Roger Jenkins (Singapore), Jeeva Raghunath (India) and Sheila Wee (Singapore.) Krupa Vinayagamoorthy (2020), Priti Modyiyer (2021) and Ambujavalli Nagarajan(2023) joined as Consulting Directors. Kiran Shan, an active member from the very beginning, came on board in December 2024 as Krupa stepped back in 2025 to work on her Masters.

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Fulcrum 22

The Fulcrum was established in January 2022 in response to FEAST's rapid growth, both as a means to boost our admin effectiveness and enable more active member participation and programming. It also provides members with the opportunity to take on challenging responsibilities for their own personal growth and development.

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Members

Members join us from all over Asia and beyond. We have very active members supporting us in Australia, Argentina, Canada, England, Hawaii, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and the USA. Mentees have also come from the UAE, Eqypt and Denmark You may search our Member Directory to know more.

What We Do

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Storytelling Events

We love telling stories! We hold regular Story Swaps (which are open to members and non-members, both as tellers and listeners!) In 2024 we introduced Story Showcases featuring members of our INSTITUTIONAL MEMBERS who alternate in a programme telling with some of our full members Just Tell is an informal and often very intimate session only for members when anyone who has a story to tell (and it can be a work-in-progress) can share it aqnd receive feedback. Ad-hoc events include the FEAST FEST (held in 2021) and our OLIOS (showcases with 4-5 stories in each one) launched in 2022 to promote collaboration amongst our members.

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Learning Events

Learning is central to Feast's philosophy. Our webinar series - now called LEARNING CAPSULES - feature 8-10 sessions per year covering both the art of storytelling and its application as a business. Facilitators have included some of the world most experienced practitioners. Our Conference (and its online substitute, the Learning Fest) offer more intensive learning experiences. The Foundations of Oral Storytelling course is conducted online over 10 sessions of 105 mintes each and is co-facilitated by three of our most experienced members - Roger Jenkins, Kiran Shah and Sheila Wee. It provides a structured and solid grounding for anyone looking to deevelop their understanding of and competency in, the art of oral storytelling. The Prop Swap (2024) was a member driven seriies featuring 18 diverse techniques for enricjing your telling. Recordings are aqvailable on the Store.

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Development Opportunities

We are proud of our Mentorship programmes as, to date, we have offered mentees the chance to learn about telling stories to adult audiences, telling to those with special needs, in cultural sites/museums, telling with puppets and telling perswonaql stories.. A webinar on podcasting led to the founding of The Story Wok in 2021, produced entirely by our members, with rotating personnel each season.

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Special Interest Groups

Our Special Interest Groups enable members to share their passion and experience with like-minded tellers. Since mid 2023, PLOT LUCK, our improvised storytelling group, has been meeting monthly and has a core group of 10-12 players who love to be spontaqneous in a warm and supportive environment. The Story Wok Podcast, and Eco-Storytelling SIG have currently lapsed. As long as there are 6 - 8 members sharing a similar interest, FEAST welcomes members' initiative in starting a new SIG.

What We've Done

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Events

Conferences - Singapore (2018), Bangalore (2019) Jakarta 2023, Suwon in S. Korea, 2024

Webinars – 55 by December 2024!

FEAST FEST 2021 – 17 days, 51 hours, 168 tellers from 24 countries and 5,435 views!

Publications – 4 anthologies of Asian folktales (available in the Store)

Mentorships – 10 benefitting 42 members by December 2024

Story Wok podcast – 2021 & 2022

International events – 2 showcases for NSN, and a storytelling performance in collaboration with North-East Storytelling. During the Conference in Suwon (2024) almost 30 tellers told at the Bookizcon International Book Fair held at the same venue, oftwen in tansdem with korean tellers, gaining valuable experience telling to young audiences with limited English.

Building bridges with Institutional members in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea and Singapore.

Social Responsibility - In 2021 we collaborated with 5 NGOs, providing them access to the FEAST festival for free

WHY WE DO WHAT WE DO

WHAT PEOPLE SAY

Our Objectives

1. To foster the practice of storytelling in Asia, by facilitating festivals, performances, workshops, storyteller exchanges and such activities that will provide storytellers with opportunities to develop their craft and broaden their audience base.

2. To welcome tellers, regardless of their race or origin, who have an interest in Asian stories, and who are keen to create a community of tellers helping each other to achieve these objectives.

3. To raise the visibility of storytelling in Asia, by celebrating the diverse work of our storytellers, so as to educate audiences, policy makers and arts organisations to the power and effectiveness of storytelling in society.

4. To encourage our storytellers to tell to anyone, anywhere, exploring new venues and reaching out to different audiences.

5. Through story, to re-connect communities with their common heritage and celebrate their shared sense of place.

6. To develop a new generation of storytellers who are confident, capable and committed to sustaining and sharing stories – the tales we love, the ones we have neglected, and the tales yet to be told.

7. To raise funding for storytelling, both for the training of tellers and for presenting stories through programmes that meet any of these objectives.

8. To showcase the richness and variety of Asian storytelling to the world.

9. To collaborate with storytellers from around the world to bring awareness, appreciation and recognition to the art of Asian storytelling.

10. To pursue our love of storytelling with playfulness and joy, for a spirit of playfulness and joy inspired FEAST’s founding storytellers to sit down together in camaraderie and respect, to prepare this menu for all like-minded tellers to share