Isle of Story Festival Welcomes Guest Storyteller, Marta Singh

The Isle of Story Festival committee is very pleased to welcome Marta Singh as this year’s guest storyteller. As guest storyteller, Ms. Singh will tell stories at a number of events during the Festival and will perform her one-woman show, Landscapes of Silence, at the Highland Arts Theatre on Thursday, May 3 at 7:30 pm. Admission to this event is pay what you can.

Marta will also be hosting a storytelling workshop, Stories to Tell, on Saturday, May 5 from 9 am to noon at the Membertou Heritage Park. This workshop is based on the premise that story is our first language and storytelling is an art form. Marta will work with participants on developing this language and cultivating this art. This workshop is free and open to everyone but space is limited and pre-registration is required. Please phone the McConnell Library at 902-562-3161 to register.

Marta Singh grew up in Argentina under the rule of that country’s last military junta. Landscapes of Silence is her personal story of how she and her family survived those years. “The history of a country’s good people who strived to live at a time when silence meant survival – the story of a mother and a daughter who traveled across their silence, to reach out for what they had lost.”

As a solo artist, Marta has performed in English and Spanish across North and South America. Her repertoire, which includes literary and personal material, is deeply rooted in fairy lore. Renowned for the skill of her crafting, her poetic use of language and her unique expressiveness, performances by Marta are said to leave audiences spellbound.

Born and raised in Argentina, Marta lives and works in Ottawa. From 2005 through 2018, she was a featured artist in the Ottawa Storytellers’ Fourth Stage Series at Ottawa’s National Arts Centre, where she was also one of the eighteen passionate tellers who performed the twelve-hour epic tellings of The Odyssey and The Iliad.

The Isle of Story Festival will take place May 1-5 in Sydney, celebrating the past, present, and future of storytelling in Cape Breton. Over the 5 days of the Festival there will be opportunities to attend feature workshops, a “Story Swap” with audience participation, storytelling events and more. All events are free and open to everyone. For more details, go to facebook.com/isleofstory.
The Isle of Story Festival has been made possible by a collaboration of local organizations, including Breton Books, the Cape Breton Regional Library, Cape Breton University's Beaton Institute, the Centre for Sounds Communities – CBU and Membertou Heritage Park. Support to make these events possible has been received from the Cape Breton Regional Municipality, Membertou Governance, Support 4 Culture, Nova Scotia Community Culture & Heritage, and Storytellers of Canada.