Memory Lab: listening and storytelling session for the Elders under the guidance of Joaninha Duarte
On International Day of Older People, which is celebrated every year on October 1, the Library is organizing this workshop, which aims to provide a moment for collecting and rehabilitating oral memory. Listening to and narrating life stories are excellent ways of raising awareness of the culture of emotional memory, providing physical, emotional and social well-being.
“The table is set. I'm serving you from a time when there were mondadeiras, charcoal burners, harvesters, cork cutters and even a few Maltese. A few more come to mind: tavernkeepers, seamstresses, merchants, embroiderers, almocreves and even those who walked around the village. I'm a little bit of each one. I'm all as “shriveled” as olives. I'm only comforted by a small grape. It's the wandering of this time that I'm made of. I am the trough of all the fountains, where my father stopped and quenched his thirst. I am my grandmother Ludovina's little song to rid me of soft water. I am the cambric fold on my mother's lap. I'm the warm broth served in my grandfather Pina's tarro. I am the twist of the oil lamp, short and with a weak flame, capable of illuminating the stories I carry in my chest. “Once upon a time there was a boy who ran around the world...”, Ti Tóda used to say, and I was served the most beautiful stories. That's how I was brought up by the fire. Sitting at the owl's nest listening to stories. I go back to that time over and over again. I'm the table's lame leg. I lift the lace and linen napkin. I open the drawer of the little knife, the crochet hook, the matchbox... and the stories stored there are served to me again. Cheers... are you served?” Joaninha Duarte
Joaninha Duarte is a writer, researcher and, above all, a storyteller. She is a PhD candidate in Adult Education and Training - research into the experiential training of the storyteller, at the Institute of Education of the University of Lisbon; mentor and coordinator of the first “Art of Storytelling” postgraduate course at the Higher Institute of Education and Sciences and a teacher in higher education. Throughout her career she has carried out various activities, always with an anchor in culture and art. In the field of publications, she has articles in specialist magazines and several literary works published solo and in co-authorship, such as “Tales of Entanglements and Entrelines” or “The Light of the Lime at the Corner of the Fire”.
Target audience: ≥ 55 years old
Registration: HERE
More information: +351 214 815 403/4 (national landline) | weekdays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Organization: Cascais City Council