Dan Yashinsky - Toronto, ON
Dan Yashinsky is a Toronto-based storyteller, radio host, author, and community organizer. He received, in 1999, the first Jane Jacobs Prize for his work with storytelling in the community. He founded the Toronto Festival of Storytelling (in 1979) and co-founded the Storytellers School of Toronto. Dan also began the longest-running open session in North America: 1,001 Friday Nights of Storytelling (in 1978). He has performed and taught at festivals in Israel, Wales, England, Germany, Brazil, Austria, France, the U.S., Singapore, Ireland, and across Canada. He is the editor of four acclaimed collections of Canadian storytelling and the author of Suddenly They Heard Footsteps — Storytelling for the Twenty-first Century. He developed and hosted Talking Stick, a national storytelling radio show on CBC. Dan has an M.A. in Sociology in Education from the University of Toronto, and a B.A. in Literature. Dan has been a storyteller-in-residence for UNICEF Canada, Queen's University, and Toronto Public Library.
Programs
A Performance & Keynote
With Brian Katz (composer/musician) The true story of a family's journey through the neo-natal intensive care unit. Talking you in is based on interviews with parents and medical personnel, and on Dan Yashinsky's own experience as a father who had a son in the NICU. Talking You In begins as a baby boy is born with an Apgar score of two. The mother and father are instantly plunged into the overwhelming world of the NICU. Trying to humanize and make sense of the high-tech medical "environment," the mother declares, "I don't want our son's first words to be 'beep beep beep..." Talking You In shows how storytelling and the human voice can provide an essential link to our humanity in the modern medical environments that both save and silence us. In their use of stories, rhymes, and songs, the parents in this piece bring the language of the imagination into the clinical setting of the NICU. As they become emergency storytellers, they reveal the necessity to balance scientific knowledge with the truth, beauty, and wisdom of stories. Leadership Tools: Workshop Oral stories exert great power in our lives. From family lore to traditional folktales, stories provide a framework for understanding difficult relationships, connecting to hereditary wisdom, and imagining possible futures. Leadership Tools teaches stories of leadership. Enrich your storytelling repertoire, gain confidence telling stories out loud, and discover powerful listening skills. Take away a personalized story ready for you to tell in your own leadership setting. Dan also provides a selection of first class storytelling programs for entertainment at your function. |
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