“We are the World” by Gloria Francis, Getsy Moreno and children. (Alfonso Blijden photo)
Participants in Beyond Kultura Events Foundation’s Storytelling and Expression Programme on stage at Philipsburg Cultural Centre on Saturday, July 6. (Alfonso Blijden photo)
PHILIPSBURG--Beyond Kultura Events (BKE) Foundation hosted Kids Night Out at the Philipsburg Cultural Centre on Saturday evening. Many children and their parents enjoyed the programme which consisted of a variety of dancing, singing, acting skits, gymnastics, storytelling and a raffle to win prizes.
For the last past three months, BKE has been training 14 adults of 18 years and older to become storytellers. During a two-day workshop in March they obtained the basic skills in storytelling, including puppet-show. Teachers and facilitators of the weekend training were authors and storytellers Diana Lebacs and Loekie Morales.
Right after the training the storyteller-candidates embarked on a practical phase, which started in April and lasted until June. Ten primary schools, two community centres, some afterschool programmes and a children’s home participated in this project.
As part of their assignment and grading the storyteller- candidates had to cooperate in organising the Kids Night Out, which was well visited.
“With this ‘exposure moment,’ the storytellers could show the world what skills they mastered in not only creating their own stories and telling those to children and adults, but to also organising the story-telling and the entourage around it,” said Lebacs, who was flown in from Curaçao, to grade the storytellers’ work.
Marjan de Visser visited Kids Night Out on behalf of the Dutch Language Union (“Nederlandse Taal Unie”), which was one of the sponsors of the event. She said she was “happy to see the Kids Night Out as one of the results of the storytelling programme.”
The Prince Bernhard Cultural Fund and Cooperating Funds (“Samenwerkende Fondsen”) supported the Beyond Storytelling and Expression Programme as well.
“We have seen many happy faces during this Kids Night Out, and that is exactly our goal,” said BKE chairwoman Morales in a press release on Monday.
