Dan Yashinsky

Dan Yashinsky storyteller Performance	Dan Yashinsky (www.tellery.com) has been a storyteller for more than thirty years. Drawing on his own crossroads heritage (Jewish, Turkish, Romanian, American, French) and the unforgettable stories collected on his travels, he has performed at schools and festivals around the world. Dan is the founder of Toronto's 1,001 Friday Nights of Storytelling, the longest-running storytelling series in North America. He is the author of Suddenly They Heard Footsteps - Storytelling for the Twenty-First Century (Vintage Canada), that won the 2007 Anne Izard Storyteller's Choice Award. He created the Telling Bee Curriculum Project, a family oral literacy program that he has led in many Ontario schools. In 1999 Dan received the Jane Jacobs Prize for his work with storytelling in the community. He is also the 2010 Storyteller-in-Residence at the Artscape Wychwood Barnes, and was a 2009 recipient of a Chalmers Arts Fellowship from the Ontario Arts Council.
Village of Storytellers 4 to 12 Welcome to Dan Yashinsky’s Village of Storytellers! This highly interactive storytelling concert includes riddle contests, family stories, dilemma tales, and traditional folktales from Canada and around the world. Dan is a warm, enthusiastic guide into the world of oral storytelling. Using his much-travelled talking stick, he invites the audience to discover the power of voice, memory, and story to build a strong sense of community. Even the shyest students (and teachers!) may find themselves taking the talking stick when they come to the Village of Storytellers.
Curriculum connections: Oral language, listening skills, creative writing, drama, intercultural awareness, ESL