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www.kiravan.com

Kira Van Deusen: Traveling in Siberia's forests, tundra, and steppe, Kira formed a deep
connection with indigenous traditions, stories, and people — their lives,
history, spirituality, and sense of humour. She performs stories and music
extensively and has also arranged cultural exchanges between Siberia and
Canada. Kira tells stories accompanied by her evocative original cello
music, based on Siberian folk melodies. She has published several books on
storytelling in Siberia, and conducts workshops on improvisational music.

Philomena Jordan: Born and raised in the West of Ireland Philomena personifies the Irish gift for telling stories reciting poetry and spontaneous singing. Since coming to Canada she has entertained audiences at house concerts and schools, at festivals and on television with stories, songs and poetry from her own childhood and from the rich heritage of her native tradition.

Melanie Ray: Melanie has listened to stories since she first heard her father's rendition of Rapunzel. Telling them started with a wakeful little sister, and has stretched over most of her life into 21 years as a professional. Her latest, telling a two hour Medieval romance to adults across Canada.

Martin Clarke

Dawn Zoe: A local musician and songwriter, Dawn shares her songs through the medium of voice, accordion & piano. Possessing a varied musical background, Dawn has performed in the West Kootenays, Vancouver, Seattle & San Francisco, with bands ranging from bluegrass to art metal to electronica.
Co-founder of Alchemy, an East Vancouver based trio, Dawn has also composed music for theatre and dance performances. Upcoming projects include arranging and releasing her first compilation of solo work. For the storytelling event at the In the House Festival, Dawn will be providing a musical transition between the tales told.

Kai Simpson with Amiel Flett-Brown: Kai Simpson is an eleven year old who attends Windsor House, a democratic, publicly funded parent-participation school in North Vancouver. Kai is an aspiring drummer, writer and illustrator. He enjoys creating weird, wonderful characters out of clay and intricate, innovative Lego structures. He has recently written his first story in a series, The Lazy Adventures of Joojoo. The characters in the story are inspired by his real-life friends. He will be telling this tale with his friend and school-mate, Amiel Flett-Brown, at the In the House Festival.

10 year old hero-boy Amiel Flett-Brown speaks fluently in a dozen languages which must be either extinct or have never quite come to daily use, has a vivid imagination which leads to his endlessly drafting technical plans for inventions the practical function of which is not always so clear and the illustration of mystical creatures which must live under his bed. He has single handedly re-instated the masterful theatric performances of Monty Python and other such thespians through his daily pageantry. Amiel has led legions of victorious Lego armies to war, he has memorized the first five episodes of Star Wars, and has designs to spend the rest of his natural born life in his armory headquarters in the forest behind Windsor House School.

Robert Stelmach: The story I would like to tell is: My First Poem, the story of the first poem I ever wrote, the poem that turned me from a path of brain-dead teenager to a lover of reading and writing.

Abegael Fisher-Lang and Aiden Fisher-Lang: Abegael Fisher-Lang is well-known for her tales that span the 'mythopoetic' to the good ol' everyday amazing. She has performed at Word-on-the-Street, the Wosk Centre for Dialogue, Celtic Woollens, SFU, and a bunch of conferences, festivals and epic weekends. As Mythopoetica Storytelling, she presents workshops on community building, personal storycrafting and baby cronehood. Storytelling is her passion because nothing is more powerful than our collective imagination.

Aiden Fisher-Lang, a gentle bard, brought the house down at the Disability Arts and Cultural Festival in November with his energetic retelling of King Arthur and the Black Knight. Yesterday was his 18th birthday! He wants to tell you what it's like to be 18 years-&-one-day old with a heart full of stories, a belly full of cake, and a muse named Merlin.