Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - The Arab Education Forum and the 'Hakaya' Network will celebrate the World Storytelling Day on March 20th, during which people in many countries will be holding a host of activities including tale and story telling in many languages sharing them with others. The Forum will launch a campaign to mark the Day and focus attention on the importance of storytelling in the life of individuals and their societies under the slogan of 'Each of Us Has a Story to Tell'.

The campaign will urge all people on that day to share their stories at home and school and in the streets and cafes- by "sprinkling the seeds of stories around so that they grow and blossom in the soil of the society"- which will make them become part of a world movement in which they share their stories in different tongues with others around the world. 'Hakaya' network aspires to regain appreciation of the tales and stories and a movement in this area of activity, either at local or regional and Mediterranean levels.

Many Arab organizations and institutions will organize on this occasion-first celebrated in Sweden in 1991- various cultural activities in their countries such as in Jordan, Palestine and Tunisia, in collaboration with the 'Hakaya' network.

In Amman, the storyteller, Denise Asaad, of Palestine presented an evening of 'stories of love and revolution" at 'Baladna'
gallery in Jabal Luweibdeh. A workshop entitled 'stories unveiled' is being held at 'Al-balad' theatre under supervision of artist Fadi Skeikar. Techniques of movement and speech improvisation, stage art, popular storytelling and interactive theatre are being used in training in the workshop. Other workshops were conducted focusing on the 'reading aloud' theme. They were organized through an initiative by Dr. Rana Al-Dajani at the Zaha Cultural Center in Amman and in Zarqa. Other activities are being organized in some Arab countries within a partnership with the 'Hakaya' network. For more information, visit the network's website: http://www.hakaya.org/calendar/2011-03

The World Storytelling Day is celebrated during springtime in the northern parts of the world, and on the first day of the autumnal equinox in the southern parts. In 1991, the 'Day of Storytelling' was observed on March 20th in Sweden, after which the Swedish National Storytelling Network was established. In 1997, storytellers in Western Australia set up a five-week festival for storytelling, and designated March 20th as the World Day of Storytelling, which was later observed by Mexico and other countries in South America. Norway, Denmark, Finland and Estonia, followed suit in 2002, until the number of countries celebrating the occasion reached 25 in 2006. Later in 2009, all world countries began to celebrate the Day on March, 20th, every year.

Hakaya is a culmination of several years of cooperation and dialogue amongst various individuals and groups in the Arab world regarding the centrality of “stories” in individual development, and cultural growth. This project brings together artists, oral historians, story-tellers, and educators in a network, residencies, workshops, and an itinerant festival which will present “story-telling” in its various forms and how it enriches the theatre, the arts, and is crucial to the development of literacy and the formation of identity and inter-cultural dialogue. The Program has been funded by the European Union since January, 2010. The funding will last three years.