Story sessions give children a voice – in many languages
Arts Week by Dara Bradley
A story celebrating language is among the free events at five libraries across Galway this October as part of the outreach programme of Baboró International Arts Festival for Children.
‘What to do on a Rainy Day’ tells the story of Brazilian girl Grace who moves to Ireland with her family and finds it challenging to adapt to a new life, a new house, and to make new friends.
The multi-disciplinary piece for children aged three to six years begins with storytelling and includes puppetry, performance, interactive workshop, and playtime.
The audience is invited to participate in their native tongue.
“The children and families help me to tell the story, through their own language if they have a language other than English,” explained multi-disciplinary artist, Fernanda Ferrari.
“I speak Portuguese, and I invite the children to learn some new words in Portuguese. If you have someone in the audience who speaks Spanish or Italian or Irish, I invite them to say ‘sun’ in Irish or ‘rain’ in Spanish,” she said.
It’s all about making people feel comfortable speaking their native language, or a language other than English.
From Piracicaba City in Sao Paula state in Brazil, Fernanda moved to Ireland nine years ago and lives on a farm in Camolin, County Wexford, beside her caravan art studio that is surrounded by sheep.
Pictured: Artist Fernanda Ferrari who will perform ‘What to do on a Rainy Day’, pictured with Sadhbh Chang, Eoghan Chang, Theo Adlaon, Faye and Elliot Nicholls Sames. This free outreach event is being held in five libraries across the county as part of the annual Baboró arts festival for children. The festival runs from Friday, October 13, to Sunday, October 22. PHOTO: DECLAN COLOHAN.