Associate Cyfarwyddion in partnership with People Speak Up – West Wales
Artist - Associate Cyfarwyddion in partnership with People Speak Up – West Wales
Phil Okwedy – West Wales
Based in Tenby
Associate Cyfarwyddion in partnership with People Speak UP
Phil is a performance storyteller and myth-maker who draws deeply on his dual heritage and multiple cultures. He regularly performs in storytelling clubs and festivals across Wales, as well as at Kea Festival in Greece and Fabula Festival in Sweden.
His first book, Will & the Welsh Black Cattle, is a set of Welsh folktales that are woven together and framed around the mythology of the ancient cattle drovers.
Phil has recently been working with National Theatre Wales on Go Tell the Bees and was commissioned as part of Literature Wales’ Representing Wales, Developing Writers of Colour programme.
Deb Winter – West Wales
Associate Cyfarwyddion in partnership with People Speak UP
Deb Winter is a storyteller and a writer who performs across Wales and the UK. Deb was launched into story-telling by winning the ‘Yarn-spinner’ prize at Bristol Story Slam and was invited back with four new shows to Bristol Storyfest in 2016 -19. In 2021 she won the Gwobr Esyllt Harker Award for Women Storytellers in Wales, jointly with musician/storyteller Ailsa Mair Fox. She founded and hosts Fishguard Storytelling/Straeon Gwaun.
As well as being a writer and storyteller, Deb worked for many years in the voluntary sector, leading training courses for volunteers, staff, trustees and service-users of charities. She specialised in confidence-building, communication skills, public speaking, training & group-facilitation skills. She is known for running supportive workshops welcoming to all. Deb has led many Storytelling Skills/Improv workshops and also specialises in lively Creative Writing Workshops. Because of her voluntary sector background she brings the experience of working with vulnerable people into her work in the field of ‘applied storytelling’ as an Associate Storyteller with PeopleSpeakUp and Beyond the Border.
Currently, as part of her role as Cyfarwydd, Deb is creating new ‘green’ shows, inspired by a love of the wild and rising to the challenge of using storytelling to raise awareness of climate change, working on new stories about rising sea levels, deforestation and the impact of ‘fast fashion’, in partnership with environmental groups. She’s also creating links with local groups to promote the use of storytelling in the area of mental health and well-being, particularly for isolated and/or vulnerable people.
