Just Tell - Federation of Asian Storytellers

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JUST TELL is an informal and often intimmate story swap session that debutted in 2023 as a space where Members can come along and . . just tell!

We welcome work in progress. Given the leisurely annd informal setting, there's often discussion after the telling. If you want ideas about how to make the most of this feedback opportunity, listen to Kendall Haven's splenddid advice which he shared during his excellent Learning Capsule (January 2024 - it's available on our Store in our archive.)

Unilke our Story Swaps, there's no need to register (just show up on the day) and there's no theme. We have made a commitment to let everyone who wants to tell at the seession - it hasn't happened yet, but if we have more than four keen to tell, we will go into break-out rooms and split the adudience accordingly.

Just Tell meets on the first Thursday of (almost) every month and is one of your free benefits of being a member of FEAST!

I have written before about JUST TELL (see post below) and after yesterday’s session (5 November 2026) I want to tell you about it again! Hopefully it will explain why I consider Just Tell one of FEAST’s most valuable, and yet least appreciated, initiatives. Over its 80 minutes, eight members attended but for much of the session we were only five.

Note:

Just Tell is, in my opinion, also the least predictable of all FEAST’s activities. (Yes, I know Plot Luck is improvised and full of the unexpected. which makes it great fun, but it is predictably unpredictable!)

In Just Tell, the telling is often rough (unpolished, unpractised) and raw (because the tellers are emotionally invested in the story) but the potholes (and plotholes!) are the reason why we are there – to help our fellow tellers navigate their story less stressfully and more successfully (and perhaps in the process, by helping others, we help ourselves?) - Roger Jenkins, Director

Our opening socialising chat, in which we shared health updates (one participant is recovering from a major operation) set the pattern for the evening, in which one story naturally led to another one-or-two thematically-related tales. A personal story about Sai Baba and his healing powers led to two other participants sharing stories related to him.

Lavanya then ‘just read’ a story she wrote 13 years ago(!) inspired by Meenakshi, a warrior princess from Tamil mythology who had three breasts, and gave one up when she met her future husband. In the process, she becomes shy and coy, no longer the warrior. Lavanya’s daughter (aged 8 at the time) had asked why? Why give up the third breast, and why did that mean giving up being a warrior woman?

It’s a story Lavanya recently re-discovered and which she wants to tell, so the reading aloud was an important first step. The group felt it was a powerful and engaging story, rich in symbol and metaphor (such as how our physical appearance shapes our identity, the need to conform to societal expectation, a woman’s public/personal roles.)

As is often the case with original narratives, or shaping a tale not from the oral tradition, our feedback focused on restructuring the narrative, particularly as Lavanya is concerned to make the story accessible for international audiences (eyeing a future festival appearance?!) Where do you begin? Lavanya’s very contemporary re-telling has several principal characters, so whose point of view do you tell it from? How do you switch from character to another? We talked about using role signifiers and ways of staging the telling (to demarcate the present and the past, for example).

Discussing themes in Lavanya’s story led me to talk about my hemiplegia (a mild spasticity that affects my right side) and my classic club-foot (my podiatrist took a photo to share at his lecture for trainee doctors!) Sentenced to 10 years at a boys’ boarding school, I was often mocked for my limp and my physical weakness, and naturally I resented my infirmity. However, heavily favouring my left side throughout my life has resulted in stimulating the right side of my brain (apparently its visibly larger on a scan than my left!) It’s the right brain which is responsible for creativity and spontaneity. So all the time I was berating my body growing up, it was in fact shaping me to be much of the person I’ve become!

Several members then shared their experiences as left-handed people, including how they were forced to write with their right hands in the past. Our conversation explored how cultural pressures to conform to right-handedness affected creativity and brain development, with Hideko mentioning research about the connection between brain hemispheres and creativity, particularly in women.

Renu then shared a story about how fire came to humans, based on a tale by Mara Menzies – a gripping telling, especially when fire came down the mountain devouring everything in its path. Our feedback led to sharing about other fire-bringing stories, such as Grandma Spider brings the light (Cherokee native American) and the Rainbow bird, which in turn led me to talk about the south American (Ecuador) tale of the brave grey parrot which tries to put out a raging forest fire and is rewarded when it flies through the rainbow, transforming its plumage.

It was a fascinating session, rich in stories and inter-personal and inter-cultural connection.

Here's what i wrote about the very first JUST TELL, back in February 2023:

We had the inaugural session of JUST TELL on 28th February. At 7.30 there were 'just' the 5 Directors in the room (Just Gossiping? ) but by 7.35 we had another six in the room and the next hour passed very quickly in a serendipitous flow of stories that none of us anticipated.

Sheila began with a story drawn from the dark back-alleyways of colonial Singapore, a story which she was telling for only the second time, so still rough around the edges and we had questions and suggestions all around. The chance to see a story in the process of being honed and polished by an experienced storyteller (rather than just the finished article) was in itself a rare treat.

Oshima then did something never done before by any storyteller in FEAST's five years - she told a story in Japanese and Japanese Sign Language! As a result, we all understood what she was telling (one of Aesop's fables) even the moral which she added at the end (and a moral is usually tough to communicate as it is more abstract than concrete!) Interesting fact: the Japanese sign for 'brother' has a very rude meaning in most western cultures!

We were delighted to welcome back Ahn Sook from South Korea, to tell us her first story in a long time. She told us a wonderfully comic story about a Salt Peddler (a character she seems to specialise in!) and the Shin Bone Ghost. We thoroughly enjoyed her telling (especially the toothless Grandma eagerly asking, repeatedly, 'What happened next?")

The story seems to have variations all around the world (the shin bone's connected to the thigh bone?) and Anabelle summarised a very popular Spanish/South American version which involves a naughty boy sent shopping to the butchers, a cemetery - and an unusual set of ribs mother cooked for dinner . . .

Jaguar (South America) This naturally led to talking about ghost stories (Interest fact #2: in Japan they tell ghost stories in the summer! Why? Because it's hot - and ghost stories gives the chills & shivers!) Anabelle rounded off the session with a story from the pampas (the vast plains of Argentina) about men who turn into jaguars (or jaguars that turn into men) in which a conceited boss was so scared by his encounter with the jaguar that the story had a very smelly end!

We didn't record the session, because the charm of JUST TELL lies both in its informality and its intimacy. Among friends we don't have to worry about grammar (non native-speakers please take note!) and we are free to tell the stories from our hearts.