Habibi Artist Talk: Wangari The Storyteller

Wangari Grace is a passionate performer who combines her stories with song, dance, chants and other performances. The result is an intimate interaction with her audience. She has performed or led workshops as a storyteller in her native Kenya as well as in India, Iran, Germany, Sweden, Tanzania and Somaliland.

As Wangari The Storyteller, she combines storytelling, music and dance to create entertaining performances. Her repertoire of stories includes multicultural folk and contemporary tales from around the world. Audience participation is key - be it through song, dance, call and response or dialog. Their performances are as educational as they are entertaining and can be incorporated into any theme. The idea is to promote appreciation for the world’s oral traditions. Wangari uses the past to shape the future.

In the Habibi Kiosk, she talks to Sebastian Reier about her work as a storyteller and children’s book author, but also about her new co-production with musician Sven Kacirek at the Münchner Kammerspiele: “Postcolonialism - A new Musical Oral History Performance”.

Wangari Grace has also told stories for television - both for children’s programs and for broadcasts for the general public. She can currently be seen weekly in Kenya in the program Big Minds on KBC TV.