Music, Storytelling and Climate Justice with Emmanuela Yogolelo

We are on the eve of COP26 here in Scotland, and today I am joined by Emmanuela Yogolelo from Manchester who is going to talk to me about her work with story and climate justice.  Emmanuela is a well known singer and musician known for her voice, harmonies, unique melodies and now storytelling and interactive performances.  Her music draws on her cultural roots in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and she has been instrumental in co-developing ‘Amani Creatives’ in Manchester, which nourishes, celebrates and promotes African arts and culture and African artists in the city and beyond.


Emmanuela has been commissioned by HOME arts centre in Manchester and Community Arts North West to put together an interactive live performance which will debut this Friday, October 29th (2021).  In this piece she will explore climate justice activism through a range of art forms including music and storytelling.
Emmanuela would really like to hear from others working in the area of arts and climate justice.  She is open to feedback, collaborations and more.  Please get in touch with her through her website.


Emmanuela shares a teaser from her upcoming performance, Tales from the Congo Basin.  If you are in the Manchester area, you can catch this performance on Friday the 29th of October at HOME.  More information and tickets here: https://www.creativetourist.com/event/tales-from-the-congo-basin-at-home/

Emmanuela’s website, with videos and music recordings can be found here:https://emmanuelayogolelo.com/about/

Amani Creatives https://www.amanicreatives.co.uk/

Sustainability, STEM Equals and Storytelling with Allison Galbraith

In this episode, I speak with my friend and colleague Allison Galbraith.  Allison and I co-wrote Dancing with Trees: Eco-Tales of the British Isles and she has recently launched her book Lanarkshire Folktales.  Allison is a storyteller, student of folklore, voice artist and author.  She has backgrounds as an actor and as a teacher of pupils with additional support needs.  She joined me from her cottage just outside of Lanark in Scotland to talk about how storytelling can help make STEM education more accessible and equitable.  Our conversation took us from her work on storytelling and climate change with local farmers through to a recent project at Culzean Castle where she worked with scientists to create original stories about the lithosphere, atmosphere, biosphere and hydrosphere.

The story Allison shared was ‘The Fairies of Merlin’s Crag’ from her recent book, Lanarkshire Folk Tales (History Press, 2021), which you can find here: https://smarturl.it/LanarkshireFT

More information on Allison Galbraith can be found here: www.voiceandstory.com

Culzean Castle: Dolphin House Outdoor Education Centre: https://www.thedolphinhouse.co.uk

Dumfries House: STEM Education: https://dumfries-house.org.uk/education/morphy-richards-engineering-education-centre

GROWL, Glasgow Region Outdoor & Woodland Learning | Outdoor and Woodland Learning (owlscotland.org): https://www.owlscotland.org/local-groups/glasgow_fei

The Children’s Wood and North Kelvin Meadow – The Childrens Wood: https://www.thechildrenswood.co.uk/

photo credit: Finlay Stevenson

Become Aware and Dare to Care, my conversation with Fran Stallings about responding to environmental crises through story

How do stories help people become aware of and care about environmental issues?

How does storytelling support people in daring to take action?In this episode, I speak to Fran Stallings in Oklahoma.  I met Fran through the Earth Up! Festival that she co-organised through the National Storytelling Network in April of 2021.  Earth Up! brought together storytellers from around the world who are passionate about using their craft to help reconnect people to the rest of the natural world and to bring about change in relation to sustainability.  Fran has had twin interests in stories and biology since she was quite a young person.  She trained in biology and taught it at university, before leaving academia to become a full-time storyteller and trainer of storytelling.  She has had a long, illustrious and international career in storytelling.  Currently, she brings together her scientific background and her storytelling experience in writing the Earth Teller Tales column, which is available on her blog and through Oklahoma City University’s Environmentor.  And she hosts the Artists Standing Strong Together online Climate Conversations.  Join me in finding out more about Fran’s work; her aware, care, dare approach to telling; stealth eco-telling and EarthUp! 2022.

Fran Stalling’s website is: https://www.franstallings.com/

EarthTeller Tales can be found here: https://www.franstallings.com/web/Environmentor

The Oklahoma City University Enviromentor page is here: https://www.okcu.edu/artsci/enrichment/environmentor

Watch this space at the National Storytelling Society for more information on EarthUp! 2022: https://storynet.org/earth-up/

Artists Standing Strong Together Climate Conversations can be found on their Events page here: https://www.artistsstandingstrongtogether.net/upcoming-events

With their resources page here: https://www.artistsstandingstrongtogether.net/climate-resources

photo credit: James McColloch