susana tornero

Llegeix-me en Català
Léeme en Castellano

On this day ten years ago I began the tradition of greeting all my blog subscribers a happy new year with a little folktale.

This time it has been really difficult, as we all had to endure a difficult time. But after reading lots of stories, and dreaming them as well, I think I found a suitable one, mixing different versions of it and retelling at my own way.

The picture is a beech forest I visited with a friend 3 years ago, that is on the 3rd BC (Before Coronavirus), when we were still able to travel freely.

I remember I was really impressed by all these trees that, in spite of their apparently stillness from our eyes, through their roots they are feeding, helping, protecting each other, maybe even they whisper each other stories like this one:

A folktale in Middle East says there was an old man who wanted to leave to his family as legacy something that will comfort them at any situation in life, so he went to see a wise woman who lived in a beech forest. After listening carefully, she told him to give them a simple ring, with no ornamentation except the following inscription inside: «This too shall pass». His offspring should read the inscription in difficult times, to feel comforted, as well as in happy moments, to enjoy them fully.

And so they did and learnt to appreciate life with all its lights and shadows, and the ring passed from one hand to another, until frequent use erased the words and were forgotten.

Fortunately, we still have the folktale, that I have retold to you in my own words to wish you the best for this new year that may bring us uncertainty, but also hope.

Happy 2021

Llegeix-me en Català
Léeme en Castellano

Unfortunately the storytelling session programmed for next Sunday 18th at 12 at the Pedralbes Monastery has been cancelled.
I hope to be inform you soon about a new performance date.
Here there is a little story as a way of apology.
Good night and good stories…

They say there was a little sparrow that when there was a storm, it used to lie on the ground and raise its little legs to the sky.
―What are you doing? ―asked the fox.
―I try to protect the Earth and all the creatures which live in it! ―answered the sparrow ―. If the sky falls down suddenly, imagine what a tragedy. That is why I raise my legs, to help holding the sky.
―And with these weakling legs do you want to hold the sky immensity?  ―answered the fox, laughing at the little sparrow.
―Here each one of us has its own sky,  ―answered the sparrow―, and its own way to hold it.

Llegeix-me en Català
Léeme en Castellano

Today the Tramontana is visiting us, the perfect match for doing the laundry. While I see my clothes dry by blowing in the wind, I tune my kokle and let my folktales to get a bit of fresh air for next Sunday’s performance at the Pedralbes Monastery: stories of washerwomen which remind us how hard it was to wash clothes by hand, and makes me think how much things have change since my grandmother’s days.

On that occasion, due to the new normality, it will also not be possible to tell the stories at the so-called “cat’s cloister”, where in the past the Clare Sisters used to do their laundry. For that reason I recommend you, before coming to the stories, to pay a visit to the cloister and imagine these women there, soaking, scrubbing and beating clothes, sharing stories to the rhythm of the washing paddle and the water splash.

We are indeed in October, month of two full moons, so I will seize the opportunity of telling and singing stories about the Midnight Washerwomen, just in case on the 31st, the second full moon of the month, you may have an unexpected meeting near the river. Because although it is true that many things have changed and we don’t go to do the laundry to the riverside anymore, the human necessity of telling and listening to stories remains alive as always.

Sunday 18th October at 12h
Tanta roba i tan poc sabó
Folktales and folksongs of washerwomen and water nymphs
For families with children +5 years
Entrance: 3€
Activity with limited seats, prior booking:
reservesmonestirpedralbes@bcn.cat

Monestir de Pedralbes
Baixada del monestir, 9
08024 Barcelona
FGC: Reina Elisenda (L6)
bus: 68, 75, 63

Llegeix-me en Català
Léeme en Castellano

Sometimes clouds obscure the landscape hiding everything else from our sight. Luckily the tramuntana wind sends all these clouds away, discovering again the landscape. It is just a matter of time, as the prisoner in Constantinople says, on the folktale that will substitute virtually my presence on the Festival EVA, En Veu Alta, of this year. It is so important to remind audiences that there is plenty of brave artist trying to take forward many good cultural projects like this one, adapting to the situation with lots of creativity and enthusiasm.

The Prisoner in Constantinople (in Catalan)

«In 10 years anything could happen…» said the prisoner reassuring his friends. And even in a short time everything can happen, so it is worthwhile to see the course of time with optimism and keep an eye to the gifts that life can bring us.

For instance, this storytelling session at the Carles Fages de Climent Library in Figueres, which was initially planned for a performance about Narcís Monturiol, but due to an unexpected fact, I have been asked to tell stories with my humble kamishibai. I thank this distinguished inventor from Figueres, and on this stories we may see some water beings which he may well have seen inside his submarine, and others very powerful that maybe they were on the imaginary of the people of his time. Stories with a taste of salt, full of fantastic creatures from the Mediterranean as well as from colder and distant waters.
Good day… and good stories.

Saturday 26th September, 12h
bimbirimboo! sea stories with kamishibai
free activity with limited capacity and previous registration
Carles Fages de Climent Library
Plaça del Sol, 11
Figueres

Llegeix-me en Català

Léeme en Castellano

These days in my town we had to go back to confinement due to a discrete covid-19 outbreak which put us on the map and forced us to cancel all activities programmed for the Summer World Book Day, a sort of rescue operation of the 23rd April for the publishing sector, already very affected by the crisis. The cancellation of all activities devoted to books upsets me not only because it indicates the little consideration given to culture in the balance comparing with the crowded beaches and bars, but also because after some days of conditional release, I feel again as a prisoner at home.

However, acquired practice during these months makes it more bearable: it is not the same a surprise confinement like in March than an expert level of confinement. Of course, there are many kinds of prisons. And although they took away from me one of my biggest pleasures, that is, to wander through bookshops, the alternative of staying cool at home with a pile of books during the heat of the day does not seem to me the worst punishment of all. The mental chains and irons constructed by ourselves can be much heavier, especially if they blind us to see the range of possibilities at your fingertips.

This reminds me a story from the show «Sabir, sabir», inspired in the extinct Lingua franca or Sabir. I found the story camouflaged in a Cervantes’ play, and it seemed to me a great discovery. I really hated that story because I listened to it thousands of times everywhere, when a famous self-help author included it on one of his books. Nevertheless, the fact of rediscovering it at La gran sultana restored to the folktale its dignity, as it became clear that the story already circulated by word of mouth in the 15th century. Maybe it is much older than this, but I like to imagine its birth in some Mediterranean coast’s dungeons, which Cervantes should have known very well. It seems that, as for the main character in that story, in spite of captivity he didn’t lost his sense of humour, nor his taste for life.

Therefore, as it seems I can’t celebrate the Summer World Book Day according to plan, as it happened with Saint George’s Day last spring, I came to the idea of recording from the freshness of my confinement the story of The Prisoner that was rescued for us centuries ago by one of the greatest writers. And as they say that the 23rd April, in addition to Saint George’s day, we commemorate the death of Cervantes and Shakespeare altogether, as I have never understood these strange habit of conciliating deaths with festivities, it has come to my mind, why not to set a new tradition and establish the 23rd July as a celebration, but not of Cervantes’ death, but for his life. And for Shakespeare’s life as well, and many others (included booksellers and translators, publishers and proofreaders…), because thanks to their lifes that lead them to writing that allow us every day to fly away and live other lives from our armchair.

Good afternoon, good readings and good stories!

Listen to The Prisoner at Soundcloud

The storytelling performance programmed tomorrow Wednesday 20th won’t be at 11h, but at 12h.

You can enter the instagram channel here:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CATponThBSM/

Sorry for the inconvenience!

Llegeix-me en Català
Léeme en Castellano

Sorry for this long silence. As in many folktales, I had to undertake a journey and overcome many obstacles. It was not an easy job, but fortunately, on my way I met many extraordinary beings which helped me with advice, gifts, magic objects or good company, whether near or far. Thanks to them and to my faith in marvel, finally a couple of weeks ago I arrived to the right place at the right time, like the snail to the cherries (you can read the story here).

This situation reminded me a past experience at Library Poble Sec Francesc Boix of Barcelona that confirmed to me in some way the benefits of wonder tales specially for people from 5 years and older. And I say that because I have the feeling that often folktales are perceived as a futile entertainment, even questionable from an educational point of view, with no other use than keep quiet little babies, what gives me food for thought about an upsetting way of seeing not only tales, but also children.

I don’t know if due to that, or maybe because the haste of some parents to bring their offspring to activities focused on older children, the fact is that the age of the audience at Story time in libraries has gradually decreased to the point that on the sessions for children of +5 years you finish up telling for babies, leaving all the rest orphan of stories, or even worst, maybe with the feeling that stories are not for them.

The day I am talking you about, though, the audience was a group of children between 6 and 10 years that were constantly asking questions, greatly interested in what happened, and deeply moved by the story… and myself, too. It was a tale filled with giants and dragons, and with a poor, little and fragile hero.

In a good folktale there is always a conflict arising, and honestly our hero was in a big trouble. Suddenly, one of the children was so caught by the story that he asked me, really worried:
― It ends well?
And before I had time to react, another child, a bit older, answered him very confidently:
―Yes, folktales always end well.
―Really? ―I asked, amused by the situation. And the older boy replied:
―Yes, at the beginning it always seems that everything will go bad, or very bad, but at the end everything will be ok.

The answer fascinated me. Commonly I have to deal with parents worried about the traumas their kids could have due to listening to stories with monsters, evil beings and all kind of dangers. I would like to have them there, listening this argument for resilience, so they could see that their kids are in good hands with folktales. Children up to 5 years use to distinguish very clearly between tale and real world, and it is a pity that adults, by contrast, they use to judge folktales from a real world perspective, and they don’t see instead that within these stories there is the beating of thousands of people’s experience that lived hard times and somehow they got ahead inspired by this stories where the fragile, the vulnerable, the one who confronted a world full of danger, finally succeeded.

Folktales for me are a sort of simulator, a safe environment to gain confidence against danger, a guide that helps you for a fearless journey through the map of life. And however there is a pedagogical trend which tends to strip dangers and problems from stories in order to protect children, as if erasing all trouble in stories would make them disappear from real life.

Folktales start with a “but”, a conflict, an adversity. Without conflict, there is no problem, no fight nor learning and, with a few exceptions, even no folktale at all. There is no better way of learning than a world where everything is possible, event to confront the most terrible fears, where you can enter or exit in every moment, and doing so, the day we will have to face strange times, we will be able to handle danger with resilience, a gift that sometimes people has said I possess, but believe, if it is so, I am sure that it has granted to me by a druid or another magical being from the stories I use to pass through.

In one week, next Wednesday 20th May at 11am you can find me on the Instagram channel of direct story time from the Barcelona Libraries’ Network with two stories more from the storytelling session «Bimbirimboo! part 2». I had no time to announce you the first part, but I hope there will be more occasions for repeating these stories, or different ones.
To tell stories through Instagram is a strange feeling, because the presentiality is not real: I can’t see you, nor adapt the story to an audience reunited under the same ceiling, so if you have any comments or suggestions to tell me after the session, I will be delighted to hear about them through email.

There will be two sea stories, this time from cold waters. The first one, from the Orkney islands, has a poor and vulnerable hero who undertakes a journey to fight a monster, and on the second one we will discover one of the heroes of the Inuit people, who are used to live in extreme conditions. It was told to me by the explorer and anthropologist Francesc Bailon, who listened it in Greenland from an Inuk hunter. Both stories have been drawn by Maribel Tornero, who every day has to undertake a journey not free from dangers to reach the pharmacy where she works. I would like the applause from this session will be devoted to her.

Wednesday 20th May at 11h
bimbirimboo! part 2: stories with kamishibai, folktales from the sea
storytelling session of 20 minutes in Catalan
from an instagram account on the phone: bibliotequesbcn_acasa
from an instagram account on the computer: www.instagram.com/bibliotequesbcn_acasa/
the session would be visible on the same channel only 24 hours

stories on the phone
you can write me suggesting date and time and a place where you would like to travel, and I will choose the most suitable story from my repertoire. looking forward to hearing from you!

where you can see and listen to stories during these days
the association of professionals of storytelling AEDA has made this list for the people who want to listen to stories

Llegeix-me en Català
Léeme en Castellano

On Thursday I performed a tour of stories and songs related with trees from the Ciutadella Park in Barcelona, which allowed us to travel safely around the world and forget the virus that in a few days has changed our lives in so many ways. But as you can imagine, the rest of activities that I annouced you in the previous blog entry have been postponed until further notice due to the health alarm.

This weekend I wanted to visit the family, but it is time to be responsible not only for oneself, but for the others, and to stay at home in order to slow down the spread of the virus. It is important to control de nomad instinct and stay in place. That is why I have planted myself at home for 15 days taking example of our biggest brothers, the trees. They now a lot about waiting. At the end of autumn they close their kitchens and curled themselves inside their trunks, waiting for spring, but not only fifteen days, but three months. They begin to wake up just now, if you pay attention, you’ll see their little leaves sprouting, and how very discreetly, without boasting they begin to help us to breath better. I think that we talk a lot about allergies caused by the pollen of the trees, but not much about the tones of CO₂ they are sparing us all their leaves. Spring not only brings pollen, but also an extraordinary increase on air quality after a winter on all responsibility has fallen to the perennial trees.

Some folktales talk about times when trees talked, walked or even danced. But in a certain moment they decided to stay quiet instead of escape. During millions of years they have been learning to be self-sufficient, and they do it without moving from place to place. They have not only learnt to create their own food, but in addition they feed the rest of living beings, either directly or indirectly, so they are many steps ahead us.

That is why instead of thinking about all that I can’t do today, I had the idea of playing as if I was a tree in many different ways.

Instead of travelling, I stay at home and from my window I rise my head as I want to grow up and watch the sky and the clouds and observe their shapes, because very often they hide fantastic creatures, like dragons.

Or I sit on my chair I watch the branches of the London plane inf ront of my window to see which birds are visiting it. Some days ago a great tit came to visit, with his unmistakable black tie, and spent a good time hoping from branch to branch. And this morning in the center of Barcelona you could listen to the birds singing loud and clear, maybe happy of not having to rise their voices above the traffic noise to warn for danger or look for a partner. Maybe one of the good things of all this woill be that we will have more birds this spring?

Or I spread seeds in my tiny urban garden (very tiny indeed) and I watch what happens one day after the other. It is made of recicled reciipents, bottles or carafes from the neighbours… Sometimes I just don’t plant any seed and wait to see which seed will decide to sprout spontaneously, like  happens with folktales, appearing in the most unexpected places. And so unexpected was the visit this morning: when I was folding the linen, I found in it a ladybird, and very carefully I brought her back to my balcony, just in case she wanted to have some aphids for breakfast from my flowerpots. You can see her on the picture, beside a future oak.

I am just telling you all this just in case you don’t know what to do these days at home and you want to play to be trees and watch the world with another eyes and spread seeds. It is the perfect moment to sow and possibly  in many supermarkets you’ll find seeds. If not, you can rescue some basil sprouts and give them another chance instead of leave them to day of sadness on the cooling section. You have only to put them in water on a glass jar, find them a good place with sun, and wait. In about a week, if the plants feels good, it will began to make roots, and when time for going back to school will arrive, you will be able to plant it on a flowerpot.

You can also tell the folktale of the Girl and the Basil Plant, or any other folktale, because if you don’t have soil, nor balcony, don’t worry, as we will always have stories to comfort us, stories full of wise trees and other fantastic creatures. Maybe at home anybody knows a story, or two.

Or you can also ask me for a story over the phone, I will be delighted to help you to spend the hours happier, as my stories also get bored of not being told. You just have to send me an email (hola@susanatornero.com) to arrange time and day. And if you send me a picture of the clouds you can see from your place, I will feel really grateful for that.

More ideas about…

sow: Toni, a gardener from Asturias, makes fantastic videos about planting and explains it very well at La huertina de Toni (in Spanish).

observe: if you do’nt have any tree for bird watching, you can watch the live cameras of SEO Birdlife.

watch: the stories of Draw me a story. Their version of Tiny Tom (Patufet in Catalan) has delighted many of my little friends, and this funny version of Fearless Peter may give you many ideas for telling a story with objects that you can find at home.

listen to: El bosque habitado, a radio program from Radio 3 where you can discover books, music, ideas and initiatives from people working for a greener, fairer and sustainable world.

Llegeix-me en Català
Léeme en Castellano

For some time meteorological spring visits us ahead of time. But astronomical spring, on the equinox, when night equals day, keeps on the 21st March. It seems a good idea to celebrate a new year at this point, as people in Persia and other regions in Central Asia do, doing spring cleaning and germinating seed of wheat and lentils. In my case I felt the urge to make laundries with homemade soap and plant sunflowers, tomatoes and basil, and I see them already sprouting and stretching under the sun, as well as some stories that slept for a while and now are reacting like grateful seeds that sprout at first opportunity. The bulbul bird, the guarani flood, the magic tree, the hummingbird and the sky… all of them are like old friends visiting and making you feel that no time has passed. You can listen to some of these stories among the branches of the trees at Parc de la Ciutadella, inside the travelling kamishibai on libraries, or at the Pedralbes Monastery, flying over the cloister’s garden, like carrier pigeons talking us about different ways of seeing the world.

And in the waning half of the March moon, also known as plough moon, because they say the moonlight helped to plough until late, the storytelling circle comes again, a place for telling, listening and sharing marvels like the story of The Bear’s Son (ATU 301B), which we began to unveil last month and from which I hope some new variants will sprout soon. A good way of celebrating spring as well.

Hope to see you in the middle of all this sprouting stories.

Friday 12th March from 11 to 12:30h
arboretumtum: discover trees
storytelling route of trees and folktales for young and adult audience
limited seats, inscription here
meeting point: main entrance Parc de la Ciutadella (Passeig Pujades/Lluis Companys)
metro: Arc de Triomf (L1), Urquinaona (L4)
train: Arc de Triomf (R1, R2S, R4, R7)
bus: H16, 40, 42, V21, B20

Friday 12th March at 18h
bimbirimboo! stories with kamishibai
Biblioteca Vallcarca i els Penitents – M. Antonieta Cot
Pg. de la Vall d’Hebron, 65-69
metro: Penitents (L3), Vall d’Hebron (L3 y L5)
bus: 19, 27, 60, 73, 119, 123, 124, 129, B19, V15

Tuesday 18t February at 19h
folktales from the neighbourhood
limited seats, previous registration: b.barcelona.lr@diba.cat
Les Roquetes Library
Via Favència, 288-B
08042 – Barcelona
Metro: Les Roquetes (L3), Via Júlia (L4)
Bus: 11, 12, 27, 32, 50, 51, 60, 80, 81, 127

Sunday 22nd March at 12h
stories from the other side of the world
price: 3 €, limited seats, reservations at reservesmonestirpedralbes@bcn.cat
Pedralbes Monastery
Baixada del monestir, 9
08024 Barcelona
FGC: Reina Elisenda (L6)
bus: 68, 75, 63

Llegeix-me en Català
Léeme en Castellano

February it is famous for being the coldest month here, but also when the almond tree flourishes, but who knows what has the climate change in store for us. To date, it begins with a challenge: I will go to the forests to accompany with my folktales a group of high school students which have chosen to devote their community service hours to the Coastal mountain range Natural Park. The forest rangers are overwhelmed with the damages resulting from the storm Gloria, so we will focus on myths of origin about weather, in the hope that this return to the origins will inspire us on our search for original alternatives to face the environmental challenges of the natural park.

Meanwhile, the travelling suitcase of my kamishibai will be travelling, this time to the Horta district, and at the Les Roquetes Library we will gather again the storytelling circle, which is growing little by little. Here you have the  events of the shortest month of the year, in case you want to join us while waiting the almond tree flourish.

Friday 14th February at 18h
bimbirimboo! stories with kamishibai
Biblioteca Horta – Can Mariner
C/ Vent, 1
metro: Horta (L5)
bus: 19, 39, 45, 86, 87, 102, 112, 185

Tuesday 18t February at 19h
folktales from the neighbourhood
free activity, previous registration: b.barcelona.lr@diba.cat
Les Roquetes Library
Via Favència, 288-B
08042 – Barcelona
Metro: Les Roquetes (L3), Via Júlia (L4)
Bus: 11, 12, 27, 32, 50, 51, 60, 80, 81, 127