The third phase of the project designated as "Tell Me Other Tales - Assorted Stories from Europe" takes place this week on the Western Group islands, with sessions for schools, the elderly attending day and social centres, and the population in general.
The sessions began today at Lajes das Flores School with a session of elementary and middle school students. On Wednesday and Thursday, October 24 and 25, the Municipal Auditorium of Santa Cruz das Flores hosts the sessions directed to the students enrolled at Flores Basic Education and Secondary School in the elementary, middle and junior high school levels as well as to the senior public. These session are organised in collaboration with the Municipal Council of Santa Cruz.
Also, on October 25, a session will be held at Ponta Delgada School and another at the local Day Centre, while the Municipal Auditorium will host a night of traditional European tales at 9:30 PM; the event is open to the public in general.
Corvo Island welcomes the initiative on Friday, October 26, with a session for students attending Mouzinho da Silveira Basic Education and Secondary School, which will take place at the Library at 4 PM. There will be another session for the senior public at the Social Centre of "Santa Casa da Misericórdia," in addition to a night of traditional European tales for the public in general.
The oral storytelling of traditional European stories in this intergenerational activity will be carried out by Azorean actor and storyteller Valter Peres, who will be charge of promoting the project, an initiative promoted by the Office of the Regional Assistant Secretary of the Presidency for External Relations on the nine islands of the archipelago.
The initiative falls within the "European Citizenship - Europe for the Azoreans 2017/2020" programme. It aims to disseminate and value the richness of European intangible cultural heritage, namely the oral storytelling. The latter has greatly contributed to the dissemination of knowledge, beliefs, ethnography, in addition to preserving the continuity of cultural traits of different peoples.
This year, two dozen session have taken place on the islands of Faial, São Jorge and Graciosa, following the organisation of three dozen sessions in 2017 on the islands of Pico, Terceira, São Miguel and Santa Maria for various target audiences. They are held in non-formal education spaces as well as in cultural promotion spaces in all municipalities of the Region.
In 2018, a session of this project was organised at Futuralia in Lisbon, the largest education and training fair in Portugal, under the celebrations of the European Year of Cultural Heritage.
For further information about this project and its sessions, those who are interest may visit the Regional Government Portal at the address http://www.azores.gov.pt/Portal/pt/entidades/srapre/textoImagem/Conta-me_otros_contos.htm.