Myth and Voice spent a wonderful late afternoon in late June at ‘Nature Late’, a three-part extravaganza organised by the Rumble museum, East Oxford founded and co-directed by Dr Lorna Robinson at Cheney school. A most enlightening plenary about the wonders of insects and the perils they face was followed by the Ecology Festival, where our Myth and Voice participated, and the event concluded with a special hands-on experience, Moth Night, that took place in the very late evening and into the night. Lorna and I have joined forces a few times already creating happy memories of community storytelling at her Iris Classics centre, a vibrant community learning project for people of all ages. But this event was big and buzzy and I’m so pleased Myth and Voice was part of it!

For the Ecology Festival, about 30 local groups, school clubs, green initiatives, conservation associations, science societies, a local bookshop – all linked by a shared desire to understand, protect and celebrate our natural environment – gathered at the grounds of the school and welcomed a constant stream of local visitors. Our Myth and Voice participation was arranged in three parts: street theatre, light craft and collective creative writing. A brief pop-up show lured with dance and movement our spectators into the imaginary grove of Goddess Demeter; it invited them to join those reading, chatting, resting under the thick shade of Demeter’s sacred grove. The light craft stall offered the opportunity for those passing to make a tree offering: a hope, a wish, a fear, a thought, a memory they would like to let the tree know (the ancient one and/or the one in the thicket right next to them). The creative writing stall waited for those intrigued, in their own pace, to join in and help steer an evolving collective poem: ‘Under the Green Wood Tree’.

I tried to capture the spirit of the occasion in a photo essay. And those interested in more details and further impressions can dip into a short reflective entry I have prepared. I am already making plans in my head and thinking of improvements for next time – if there is a next time …

Supporting open, drop-in groups in immersive storytelling is an activity that aligns very closely with the principles of the Myth and Voice program and its belief in the power of temporary communities pulled together through a shared curiosity for the stories of others. Ever since our partnership properly took off, Lorna Robinson and I have been pondering about jointly running collaborative storytelling events open to all.

The first such opportunity emerged this past February 2025, when Lorna and I joined forces to run a special session in the fortnightly creative writing workshop series she offered to the local community this past winter out of St Albans at East Oxford. Later that afternoon, Lorna had organised a small launch for The Birder, her magic realist novel set in modern-day Oxford, where humans were destined to transform to an animal form at some point in their life. We thought it appropriate to look for a myth of change for our immersive storytelling workshop and so we chose the ancient tale of King Ceux and Queen Alcyone, who were both turned to birds in tragic circumstances. 

A medley of participants of all ages, alone or with a friend, turned up. We listened to each other’s take of the story, we searched for words together. We tried ‘to speak as birds’, we made wings of words, we added feathers, and we let them fly.

As we got stuck into the tale, backstories, alternative plotlines and twists emerged, fleshing out the myth or turning it to face new directions: an imaginative backstory about Ceyx’s relationship with a fiercely antagonistic brother; Ceyx’s heartache during the last moments of his life; Alcyone’s birdsong; an entry from Alcyone’s diary as she is waiting for Ceyx’s return; reflective mappings of the story’s entangled emotions and of the mortal-divine tussle in it, and more.  

I tried to capture some of the magic of co-creation that afternoon in a short reflection (including a brief review of Lorna’s spell binding novel) and I very much hope to bring Myth and Voice back to the local community off Iffley Road again soon.

Being Human is a unique annual, UK-wide, cultural environment and opportunity. For a week every November academic researchers, creative practitioners of all kinds, social partners, and local communities come together to celebrate ideas and cultures that shape our towns, our cities and our neighbourhoods.  

Myth and Voice was truly excited to have been included into the program of the 2024 Being Human festival with ‘Rebuilding Troy in Hammersmith’ , an art and creative writing workshop that took place in Kite community art Studios in Shepherds Bush. It was a heart-warming afternoon of immersive and collective storytelling. We all cherished the wall of memory we built for the women of Troy, ancient and modern alike. And then we sat down to give voice to our Trojan woman, first sitting at the beach of Troy, and then at a moment of hope some years in the future.  

There was energy and care and a joyful blending of expression that released us into a space of connectedness that afternoon. I tried to capture some of this spirit in this short photo-essay.   

Being part of Being Human offered to Myth and Voice invaluable experience of working with neighbourhood partners and local communities that we hope to hone and expand within the festival’s supportive buffer and beyond, in years to come.