UCDVO Forum Storytelling Recordings

Listen to recordings of the 6 Storytellers all together:

 

Or listen to each storyteller recording individually:

RuthStoryteller: Ruth Powell

Ruth Powell is an Irish-Welsh writer, living in Dublin. Several of her short stories have been published in magazines and she self-published a selection of flash fiction and vignettes, with the Brazilian photographer, Carolina Murari, in 2019. Ruth writes for her blog, "Shorter than me" and was a member of the Dublin Writer's Forum from 2013-2019. She reads often at the Sunflower Sessions, on the last Thursday of the month at the Lord Edward, and contributes to a regular book club for writers.

Storyteller: Bulelani Mfaco

Bulelani Mfaco is a former spokesperson for the Movement of Asylum Seekers in Ireland (MASI). MASI is a grassroots campaign group which campaigns for an end to the abhorrent system of direct provision and deportations, defends the fundamental right to seek asylum, and agitates for a more humane asylum process. Bulelani cut his campaigning teeth in his native South Africa where from an early age he was involved in protests for adequate housing, access to land, and healthcare. Bulelani is currently on the board of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, and the Hope and Courage Collective.

Storyteller: Oein DeBhairduin

Oein DeBhairduin is a writer, activist and educator with a passion for preserving the beauty of Traveller tales, sayings, retellings and historic exchanges. Oein is the author of the award-winning Why the moon travels. His other works are Weave, The Slug and the Snail and Twiggy Woman. He is the Inclusive Histories Curator of Traveller Culture with the National Museum of Ireland and seeks to pair community activism with cultural celebration, recalling old tales with fresh modern connections and, most of all, he wishes to rekindle the hearth fires of a shared kinship.

Storyteller: Sr. Jo Kennedy

Jo Kennedy is a Mercy Sister and a feminist with a background in Family Therapy and Community Development. She has lived and worked for many years in a marginalised community in the South West area of Dublin City. She set up several key local projects, such as The Family Resource Centre, St. Michael's Youth Project, and Hessed House Counselling service. She is currently a member of The Regeneration Team.

Storyteller: Safia Hassan

Safia Hassan has 12 years experience working with NGOs and UN humanitarian agencies in Somalia. She recently graduated from UCD Access lifelong Art, Humanities Social Sciences and Law in UCD and is part of the Women's Network Program at Glencree Centre for Peace and Reconciliation Ireland. She is passionate about poetry, and says "as a Somali we have a profound and inseparable relationship with poetry". She has participated in a Muslim Women's Storytelling Workshop with the poet and facilitator Fióna Bolger.

Storyteller: Kelvyn Fields

Kelvyn has been volunteering since his teenage years, and has been an active member of UCDVO since 2019, Over his final academic year, he was the Auditor of the UCDVO Student Society, and sat on UCDVO's Board, whilst he was completing his MA degree in Gender, Sexuality, and Culture. The previous academic year he took part in UCDVO's Volunteering Programme, volunteering with partner organisations AKD and MOEI in Cambodia. That same year he also began to organise with UCD Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions, and United Against Racism Ireland.