Stories in Transit XVI: The Shelter of Stories

This workshop at Compton Verney took place with Giocherenda, as part of the programme for 'The Shelter of Stories' (25 October 2025 - 22 February 2026).

On Saturday 7 February 2026, there was a day of events at Compton Verney - 'Meet the Storymakers'. The day was full of activities and events: film screenings of Lotte Reiniger, Ben Haggarty storytelling, live music from Celebrating Sanctuary, a workshop with Sophie Herxheimer, alongside the Stories in Transit/Giocherenda all-day workshop and performance. Here are details from the Compton Verney website.

For the workshop and performance, we took as our prompt a tale from the Thousand and One Nights (a segment of the Second Dervish's Tale), which we had worked with previously in 2023. 'The Prince, the Monkey, and the Genie' was translated and told by Wafa' Tarnowska, then transformed and retold at the closing of the day, with masks and props made by participants, and featuring a backdrop and collaged animals made at Sophie Herxheimer's workshop earlier in the day. The brilliant Olivia Wilson supported creating masks, props and textile elements for the performance. Amadou, Magassouba, Dine and Numu from Giocherenda all joined to share their work and be part of retelling the story. Millicent Chapanda from Celebrating Sanctuary led the group to make sounds and music for the performance, made with tradition Zimbabwean instruments.

Participants

Alongside all our brilliant participants who came to join us from all over, and support from the Compton Verney team, collaborators for the workshop included:

Joan Ashworth - artist, filmmaker and independent scholar (website here)

Clelia Bartoli - teacher, writer and lecturer in Human Rights at the Department of Legal Sciences of the University of Palermo, she has served as an expert at the Italian Ministry of Integration

Valentina Castagna - lecturer, translator, writer, former Associate Research Fellow at the Birkbeck College (University of London), worked for several years as an independent interpreter and translator for the Law Courts of Palermo

Millicent Chapanda - British-based Zimbabwean Shona cultural artist, traditional mbira player, percussionist, singer, dancer and storyteller. Member of Celebrating Sanctuary

Amadou Diallo - member of Giocherenda

Saifoudiny Diallo - member of Giocherenda

Magassouba Gassimou - member of Giocherenda

Hannah Machover - workshop coordinator of Stories in Transit and artist (website here)

Roger Malbert - former Head of Hayward Touring and author of Drawing in the Present Tense (2023)

Wafa' Tarnowska - children's writer, storyteller and translator (website here)

Numu S Touray - DJ, member of Giocherenda

Marina Warner – writer and cultural historian (website here)

Olivia Wilson - mixed media artist and educator (website here)