7th All Japan High School Speech Contest Finals and Narration Concert

 I thoroughly enjoyed the 7th All Japan High School Speech Contest Finals (全国高等学校英語スピーチコンテスト) that was held at the Youth Olympic Memorial Center in Tokyo on Sunday, 9th February, 2014.

The eighteen finalists had been selected from thousands of applicants by winning the local and regional preliminary contests, so they came from all over Japan, and everyone of them managed to make it the day before despite the snow storm, thick snow and cancelled flights. 

I am always interested in hearing these speeches as I am teaching at two high schools and also train my students in how to give speeches and presentations. But the level in this contest is extremely high. All of the participants were completely fluent and confident speakers and the subject matter of their speeches was moving, interesting, stimulating and sometimes amusing.

Whilst the judges were making their decision I gave a narration concert on the stage with a gigantic screen and background music. This was the sixth time for me to have the great pleasure and honour of being invited to give a narration concert at this speech contest.

I started off with a narration of "Lily and the Moon"  and after that narrated "A Star of My Own," a story I wrote in a group using the art made in the Face of Wonder Art workshops run by Kaneko Mitsushi.
These art workshops enable people with intellectual disabilities to express themselves freely. The first time I saw the many pieces of art collected in the workshops I was struck by the intensity of the expression in the art and a story came to me sooner than I had expected. Later we formed a group called Mikeneko and we rewrote some parts of the story together.
The story is about a little frog that goes in search of his parents but instead of his parents he finds many strange creatures on his journey that that teach him a little about the meaning of life.
Unlike my other stories, this depth of the story and language used are more suited to more advanced readers or adults. It will be available in e-book form later this year. 
                                                                                                                                                                                   
 
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3 Picture Book writers in Koganei 〜小金井の絵本作家たちー3人の作家を招いて〜

On Saturday night (1st February) I was invited to give a book-reading and take part in a talk show with two other picture book creators who live in Koganei - Kuroki Osamu and Miyamaeito, at the Chateau Art cafe.
Chateau Art cafe is an open and friendly cafe/bar that holds all kinds of events connected to art, music and storytelling. It is one of my favourite places to hang out. 

It was really interesting for me to watch and listen to the performances of Kuroki-san and Miyamaeito.
Kuroki-san gave a riveting performance as he told some local stories connected to the history and mythology of Koganei with his beautiful water colours in traditional kami-shibai style and perfectly timed Japanese percussion.
Miyamaeito, the illustrator of "Tom and Jerry's Trip to London" took a totally different approach and made a hand-drawn 3D park scene on the spot with the children present (see the work in progress in the picture below.)
I did my usual storytelling in English using two of my stories (Blue Mouse, Yellow Mouse and Lily and the Moon) with games geared for the smaller members of the audience.

In the evening the cafe turned into a bar and people enjoyed a drink while the three of us "storytellers" were asked questions by the MC.
All three of us answered differently to the question - what is the process of creating your stories? What comes first - the art or the story? For Miyameito it is the art. For Kuroki-san it is the story. For me, it is the message, something I want to convey comes before the story and the art always comes last.

I'd like to thank everyone who took the time to come to this event. You were a great audience!  

2月 1日(土):東京都小金井市シャトー2Fカフェ 特別企画 絵本カフェ&ナイト
〜小金井の絵本作家たちー3人の作家を招いて〜

黒木修『星になった銀治郎さん』Patricia Daly Oe「Lily and the Moon」みやまえいと『トムとジェリーのたびのえほん』

主催:アートフルアクション/シャトー2Fカフェ お問い合わせ:090 9345 2407 (担当:木村)

       

                                                                                                               




 
| Books, events and activities (past and upcoming) | 08:59 | comments(2) | trackbacks(0) | pookmark |

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