Leeds Storytelling Takeover
"It's smack in the centre of a what it is to be human, to tell a story." Margaret Atwood
In 2019 we joined up with Carriageworks Theatre to create the very first, Leeds Storytelling Takeover as part of Leeds Lit Fest.
The Takeover was an intoxicating weekend of stories - from the shoots of conversations about the transformative power of storytelling from several speakers including, Michael Harvey, Lisa Schneidau, Christine McMahon, Peter Chand, Ana Duša, Clare Murphy & Sita Brand to the glory that was the MYTH OFF; from skill sharing in workshops, to uncovering the fairytale secrets of Leeds’ streets with Ursula Holden Gill’s Story Walk; a whole host of top notch storytelling performances to our very first livestream storytelling event, the whole weekend was by turns, enlightening, thought-provoking, powerful, but overwhelmingly, it was a joy from start to finish!
Launching with a MYTH OFF on Friday, and running through to a family-focused Sunday, the weekend offered an exciting mix of inspiring, dreamy, scary, hilarious, shocking, weird and downright wonderful stories. With stories from across the globe featuring legendary storytellers – Clare Muireann Murphy, Tim Ralphs, Peter Chand, Ursula Holden Gill, Xanthe Gresham Knight as well as leading European artists.
With true stories from the front line, a unique take on ‘him downstairs’, tales from Syria and Ireland, epic Persian adventures, flavours from the Punjab with a hip hop twist, plus workshops and a city centre story walk – it was a simply fabulous weekend!
We would like to say a HUGE thanks to Carriageworks Theatre for inviting us and being such wonderful hosts, Leeds Lit Fest for their inspired plan to start the Leeds Lit Fest & of course Arts Council England & Federation for European Storytelling / Creative Europe for funding the event.
Big thanks are also due to our marvellous filmmaker Gavin Repton, all the Leeds Lit Fest volunteers, Emma Watkins and all the wonderful people of Leeds and beyond that came to share the Takeover with us!
The whole event has been superb and the quality of the storytelling has really impressed me.Audience Feedback
I saw four different events over the weekend and all the storytellers were so different in the way they told their stories, but it gave you a real sense of how powerful story is!Audience Feedback
I thought ‘I, anarchist’ was fresh and edgy and it was great to hear such modern storytelling from someone who was actually there! Tongue-tied and twisted – Always a pleasure to hear Peter Chand tell stories.
Ursula Holden Gill leads a story walk in Leeds Millennium Square
Clare Murphy
Tim Ralphs
Christine McMahon
Filming the livestream with Tim Ralphs and Gavin Repton
The MYTH OFF line up
Michael Harvey
Erik Valenčič and Ana Duša
