Erudite Stories promotes the art of storytelling, spreading stories that will educate and make us wiser. The stories will evoke feelings, memories or images in our minds. The stories will excite our curiosity about our surroundings and people.
Swee Yean has been a full-time storyteller for 16 years and involved in the storytelling scene both in Singapore and overseas. She was President of the Storytelling Association (Singapore) for 4 years and the Creative Director of the 398.2 Storytelling Festival 2019 held annually at the National Library of Singapore.
Swee Yean’s storytelling skill and experience is diverse because of the wide range of people she has worked with. They include children, secondary students, young adults, adults, senior citizens as well as teenagers with specific learning abilities ranging from low ability to highly gifted. She is able to vary her style to engage and influence. Her manner of storytelling is warm, inviting and non-didactic, stirring up empathy and creating gentle positive change.
Swee Yean has performed commissioned works for the Singapore Land Authority, the Urban Redevelopment Authority, Malay Heritage Centre, Singapore Heritage Festival and more. She has also provided customised workshops on storytelling in education for organizations such as the Ministry of Education, National Library Board, pre-schools, government schools and churches.
Swee Yean has also advocated the value of storytelling in organizational change. She has conducted workshops on harnessing the power of storytelling in the workplace for organizations like Toastmasters, Housing Development Board, National Technological University, Yale-NUS College, Nanyang Polytechnic, the Ministry of Education, and Singapore Discovery Centre.
Being fluent in the Mandarin, Swee Yean has taught storytelling skills to pre-school Mandarin teachers and performed in neighbouring countries like Malaysia and Taiwan. Recently, she carried out intergenerational storytelling projects for senior citizens digitally and onsite for seniors. The projects, supported by the National Arts Council, foster community building and improve self-esteem.
Performances and workshops are 'tailor-made' according to the needs of clients. Since 1998, Swee Yean has been teaching to a variety of age groups and specialty groups on public speaking skills and storytelling techniques. education performing arts organizational storytelling Singapore
Come and see what's happening in the coming months.
There are books here that will inspire the storyteller in us.
Children can still enjoy an interactive and participative experience with storytelling on Zoom.
Seniors can lead an active life cognitively and socially through the digital format. It is limitless!
The pandemic has made us more resilient. Some storytellers got together to produce more than 100 videos that schools, parents and organizations can use for education, nation building, character moulding and entertainment.
I first got to see the art of storytelling by Swee Yean during the Silver Arts event and was impressed by the way storytelling could empower people and decided to approach Swee Yean and team to work with the elderly at our centre. Swee Yean not only brought joy & laughter but also friendship and safe space for our elderly to share their stories. Some of her strengths aside from storytelling was her humbleness and keen sense to learn that allows a person centric approach to take place & hence allowing empowerment to happen. It has been a privilege and wonderful experience working with Swee Yean.
Thank you for taking our students through the 3 sessions and preparing the scaffolded materials. You were also patient and encouraging, and our students need that.