John Row
Enchanting Storyteller and Poet
Content
About John Row
John's School Visits
John's Latest Book
Samples of John's Poetry
Recommendations & Reviews
Download Information Sheet for Schools
To Make a Booking
About John Row
John Row has been visiting schools, colleges, prisons, museums, festivals and arts centres in the UK, USA, and mainland Europe for over 25 years.
He has created characters for re-cycling and public information road shows and scripted films and plays in prisons.
As a compere he has worked on children's festivals and in circuses.
His weekly radio show for "Ipswich Community Radio" "Trains Planes + Roadtrips" is webcast 10.00am (UK time), Thursdays on www.icrfm.co.uk
© Anna Lyons
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John Row's School Visits
John Row is available for several activities and projects in schools, festivals, prisons, and more.
He works with all age groups and has visited hundreds of schools around the UK, Germany, Ireland and Texas.
A qualified teacher, John understands how schools operate and employs a flexible approach to adapt to the needs of each school.
John offers a programme of storytelling and poetry that help develop the listening and speaking skills for pupils as well as broadening their understanding of other cultures.
He uses anecdotes to bring the art of writing alive and builds stories with the students using an interactive approach.
Storytelling for All Ages
John is able to tailor his set for any age group and fit it into any venue. He performs regularly to family audiences.
Customers have included Center Parcs, Chelmsford Council, Cambridge Council, Suffolk County Council Library Service and museums in Colchester, Ipswich and Chester.
He has told stories in schools across England, Ireland, Germany and Texas.
He encourages participation when telling and encourages listeners to repeat the stories to other people.
His repertoire includes wonder tales like ‘Grandfather All Know’, ‘Mossycoat’, ‘Kate Crackernuts’ and ‘The Golden Ram’ as well as humorous children’s stories like ‘Lazy Jack’ and ‘The Old Woman and the Pig’.
A veteran performer at village and community days, John collects his own audiences and holds them spellbound with his stories. Listeners return year after year to hear him perform at festivals.
He has appeared at storytelling festivals in England and Texas.
John Row Tells Rory With No Story:
English as a Second Language
John presents a workshop entitled "The Uses of Storytelling in the teaching of English as a Second Language" at the University of East Anglia, Norwich, to visiting teachers and students. He has also told stories to students and school children learning English in Germany and Mexico.
Festivals
John is a familiar figure at literature festivals worldwide. He has told stories at Cambridge Children's Festival, Glastonbury, Guilfest, Cropready, Cambridge Folk Festival, Keerville Folk Festival (Texas), George West Storyfest (Texas), Austin International Poetry Festival, Eastern Haze and Strawberry Fair, as well as numerous village, town and city open air events.
John looks after the storytelling tent on the Kids Field at Glastonbury and the story telling area at Cambridge Folk Festival.
© Anna Lyons
Prisons
John has been running arts projects in prisons and young offender institutions since 1989. In 1999 he was appointed "Story teller in Residence" at H.M.P. Wayland through the 'Writers in Prisons Network' and became Britain's first prison storyteller in residence.
John can offer prisons:
1. Storytelling workshops leading to recording + producing cds for "Storybook Dads" schemes.
2. 'Play in 5 Days', where offenders work across five dayus to create + produce a play.
3. Performance poetry workshops
Arts Projects
John has worked on a number of community arts projects involving a range of art forms.
He most recently worked with photographer Bob Clayden on a series of projects in Southend as part of 'Being Here', a scheme administered by Momentum Arts. During the three years of the project John and Bob worked with young people on Southend High Street to produce 'Clockin it', a street newspaper that developed into a shiny magazine and later into a four by four version called 'Clockin it, the Big Book.'
Workshop sessions for an individual class or a class size group
Over one hundred and fifty young people were involved with the production for this piece.
John and Bob also produced a DVD entitled 'Ball and Wheels' with young people in Shoebury as well as helping them design and produce a mobile performance space, 'Band Box'.
Text-Collecting
Text-Collecting involves standing around on street corners, in parks, shop doorways, doctors' surgeries, libraries and special events and collecting the memories and visions of passers-by.
The text is written in felt tip on flip charts so everyone can see what has been written and agree it is what they said.
The material is then left in its unedited form or converted into a poem. It is then displayed in a public place to be added to or put on a poster or leaflet. It is entirely up to the client.
Recent collections have included a project with Pembrokeshire Library Service organized by the county arts development officer, collecting Favourite Moments in Tenby and a day outside a run-down youth club in St. Albans entitled “If I Ruled This Acre”.
Past projects have included ‘Sunday Memories’, which celebratee the opening of Suffolk’s Libraries on Sundays, ‘Ganges Memories’, collected as part of the centenary celebrations for HMS Ganges, projects for Adult Learners Week, and the Time Travelling project with Suffolk Record’s Office. Downham Market, Chelmsford, Alrewas, and March and Sandwell are among the towns and villages where memory collecting projects have taken place.
Friction Arts in Birmingham used ‘If I Ruled’, a vision-collecting technique in their leaflet ‘Your Streets, Your Voices’. This was part of their project ‘Neighbour Hood Watch’ addressing gun and gang crime in some parts of Birmingham. John worked with Ed Henderson an Afro-American poet from Chicago on this.
Text-Collecting was also used as part of the ‘Clockin’ It’ project in Southend when John worked with photographer Bob Clayton on ‘Being Here’ for Momentum Arts.
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John’s Latest Book
**John signs all copies of his book purchased by students on the day of his visit.**
Out of The Hat: Stories From Many Lands Retold by John Row
You are sitting by a fire with all of your friends listening to the storyteller in a time before texting, internet, television, radio, or even books.
The storyteller carries you to magical islands and enchanted forests where you meet brave princesses, valiant brothers, loveable tricksters and wicked kings.
Join enchanting storyteller and poet John Row as he retells these fantastic tales from countries around the world.
Then release their power:
Read them out loud.
Tell them to a someone else
and send them on their way-
round and round the world forever...
Click here to read a few pages from this book!
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Recommendations & Reviews
“John Row’s visit was a wonderful climax to our Book Week. Dressed in character he quickly brought the stories to life and engaged the pupils from the first minute. His workshops and presentation to Key stage 2 were of high quality, pupil centred and will certainly help our children be more creative in their writing.
Many thanks Authors Abroad and we look forward to working with you again!"
- Gilbard Honey-Jones, Headmaster, the British School of Kuala Lumpur
“Just a brief note to say how brilliant John Row was today. A real hero himself performing for all 7 lessons and keeping them all thoroughly involved. Very interesting and enjoyable.
He was a very good performer and will be a hard act to follow!
Thank you for the hard work that went into the organisation."
- Sue Rowlatt, Head of English, St. George’s College, Weybridge, UK
Excerpt from a 2008 article in The Independent:
“Outside the children's tent [at the Cropredy Festival] was a crowd of kids (up to the age of at least 58) sitting rapt before John Row, a storyteller with a big black hat, a long white beard and eyes as blue as in any story. He was bewitching. As he unwound his tales, layers of stress and bluster fell away and left a crowd of children at a parent's knee. Later, Row told me about the bardic tradition and his work in prisons: he's the most famous storyteller-in-residence at HMP Wayland after Jeffrey Archer, but, unlike Archer, the Storybook Dads scheme he takes part in is proven to reduce reoffending."
- Katy Guest, The Week In Books: Once upon a time in a field at a festival, The Independent, Friday, 15 August 2008
Click Here to read the full article.
To read a review of John's visit to an international school in Austria last year, click here.
If you would like us to put you in touch with any of the schools that John has recently visited, please don't hesitate to ask us for contact details.
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Download Information for Schools
The following information is designed to send home to parents about one week prior to Sonia's visit. Please download it, modify as you wish, and then print out and make copies for pupils to take home with them.
Information Sheet & Book Order Form for John's school visits
To Make a Booking
To make an enquiry about John Row or any of the other authors, poets & illustrators listed on this website, please phone Trevor Wilson on +44 (0) 1535 656015, or email him at info@authorsabroad.com
Further information on John Row is available on his website: www.johnrow.com