Episode Details

Welcome to Season 2 of Dragonfly Tales, a story podcast for children of all ages.

It's the merry month of May, and we can feel summer drawing near. We'd love to see some photos of your outdoor activities - don't forget to post them in the FaceBook Group.

This episode, we welcome storyteller Valentine Hanson to the podcast.

Valentine is an actor and storyteller from East London. He's played lots of characters from history and told of their lives to audiences and families in schools, museums, heritage sites and, most recently, online to families at home.

Valentine likes to tells stories from African and Caribbean folklore.

This particular tale is a Swahili story called The Heart of the Monkey. Swahili is a language spoken in countries like Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda in East of Africa.

You can learn more about Swahili HERE and more about Swahili folktales HERE.

Our story is in celebration of the Gaelic/Celtic festival Bealtaine, also known as May Day across Europe. It's a fire festival, and like the Samhain, a time when faery folk are about. 

You can find out more about celebrating this time of year HERE.

The story is part folktale, part original tale. We took lots of influence from the Estonian Folktale 'Mikku and the Trees', retold by Margaret Read MacDonald, for the first part.

But the arrival of the Green goddess is our own imagining of what she looks like, how she speaks and, most importantly, what she wants us to remember. We are all guardians of nature and the earth.

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Thanks for listening!

Theme Music by Leo Grazebrook on GarageBand

Storytelling and songs by Emily Hanna-Grazebrook 

Guitar & Production by Andy Grazebrook

Art by Light Creative

Sound effects by Uppbeat

Music from Soulpacifica - tihana.net/soulpacifica