Latitudes Storytelling Festival

Stories

Every individual has one to tell. Every community shares them. Stories are a magical way to retain cultural practices, to celebrate the interconnectedness of this world, to make a mark, to educate.

Latitudes is more than a two-day festival in June. We hold at least one other event during the year, usually around World Day of Storytelling, March 20 (or 21, depending on which circles you travel in). Also, you can find us partnering with other artists, arts organizations, and agencies in the community.

Festival 2011

We had great weather and a healthy turnout for this year's festival at the end of June.

Go on a photographic tour, or listen to some of the performances (coming soon!).

Offering a new spin on geocaching, Latitudes invited an exchange of stories: take one of ours, and leave one of yours behind. The geocache was in place in Victoria Park in early June, and the stories left in our cache found a home on our stages at the festival at the end of June.

This year, the festival unveiled its Latitudes and Longitudes digital storytelling project. Facilitated by Dwight Storring, the stories launched at the festival are the end result of a six-week workshop held through April and May.

Two more series of workshops will be offered later in the year.

Doors Open Waterloo Region

Sept. 17, 2011

Our event at the Steckle Farm in Kitchener, featuring a digital story experiment and crafts for children, was a huge success.

The Word on the Street

Latitudes Storytelling Festival had its very own tent at the 2011 The Word on the Street in Kitchener's Victoria Park on Sept. 25, 2011.

We hosted an afternoon of edgy storytelling – thinking outside the books -- with word weavers who mix experience and tradition with the arts in imaginative ways.

Partners

In the past, we have partnered with a number of local organizations for programming, funding and storymaking:

  • Tapestry (City of Kitchener)
  • Trinity United Church
  • Wordsworth Books
  • The New Quarterly
  • Kitchener-Waterloo Iranian Association
  • Kitchener Public Library
  • Waterloo Public Library
  • Baden Storytellers Guild
  • Guelph Guild of Storytellers -- provides presenters on festival weekend
  • Reaching Our Outdoor Friends (ROOF)
  • Working Centre
  • The Writers' Union -- funds in part member storytellers who appear at the festival
  • City of Kitchener
  • Kitchener-Waterloo Community Foundation

Emerging partnerships:

  • Spark of Brilliance - a non-profit organization that helps break down barriers and facilitate healing through creative arts, particularly with regard to mental illness
  • Waterloo Region Children's Museum
  • Canada Council for the Arts
  • Dwight Storring's Latitudes digital storytelling project

Online Story

Listen to a story online: Jack and the Dancing Trees, from Susie Minto (3.4 MB - requires Flash).