Freedom To Tell Tales

It aims to train and support storytellers in Hull, to give them a performance platform in The Freedom Festival, and to create one or more autonomous storytelling groups.

Leading up to the freedom festival of 2014 the participants received training and guidance from professional storytellers, with national and international reputations. Training covered all aspects of storytelling, from how to structure a narrative, to how to deliver a tale.

At the Freedom Festival seven participants performed their stories, sharing the stage with 6 professional storytellers. A matter of weeks later, 6 of the participants also performed at the Cornucopia Festival, again sharing the stage with storytellers of international renown.

This first cohort of “graduates” from Freedom to Tell Tales have now formed a storytelling group that meets and performs regularly.

In all 124 people took part in the project in 2014, and an audience of over 1600 audience members listened to the stories they had to tell.

This year Freedom to Tell Tales has focused on younger adults, and expanded its artistic remit to include other narratives forms, such as rap, narrative poetry and the reading aloud of written stories.

This project has been singularly successful in supporting and developing a cohort of committed artists, in an artform that was virtually unrepresented in the city a couple of years ago.

Award: £100,000