Myriame El Yamani

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Presentation

 

Myriame El Yamani, a woman of words, draws her inspiration from the memory of those she knows and is close to. Consequently, her stories recall the briny footpaths of Arcadia, the secrets of her grandmother from the Vendée, the colors and arabesques of the Maghreb and Yemen, and the African wisdom and mysteries of the Mediterranean. She loves to listen to people from all over and her stories are rooted in the intangible liminal world.

Myriame El Yamani has performed as a storyteller at numerous festivals in Quebec, New Brunswick and in France and has recently done a performance of erotic tales from A Thousand and One Nights at the Museum of Beaux Arts in Montreal and in other cultural settings in Montreal. She also likes to share her view of the world through talks she does about storytelling for adult audiences.

Myriame El Yamani also participates in Quebec’s program for visiting performers in the schools and has led, within this format, since 2001, more than 600 workshops in New Brunswick and in Quebec for groups of primary and secondary school students. She also leads beginner workshops for adults and provides apprenticeship opportunities for novice storytellers.

Myriame El Yamani can be accompanied, upon request, by the lute player and musician Hasssan El Hadi.

 

In the Press

 

Myriame El Yamani knows better than anyone that in order for storytelling to remain lively and fresh it has to travel. The repertoire of a storyteller is a knapsack that he has with him throughout his travels and which he fills bit by bit with his little discoveries. Born in Morocco, Myriame El Yamani grew up in France, set off for America and made the lingo of Acadia in New Brunswick her own. Her story titled the Flying Clothes Line (published by Bouton d’or d’Acadie, 2002) is a repository of this wealth: A clothes line travels from the West to the East and serves as an explanation for the colors of the houses along the coat line of the Acadian peninsula.

The storyteller currently possesses a cross-cultural repertoire of African, European and American tales, and she affirms that when you hear these tales you retain the memory of all the ancestral speeches: “My craft doesn’t take itself for something outside of the society in which I live. It’s my duty to convey my knowledge of the world to others. Storytellers are those who pass things on. But it’s all really a thing of pleasure, a pleasure of the senses,” the messenger makes clear.

Geneviève Thibault / Le libraire.org

 

Moroccan by birth, adoptive resident of New Brunswick, Myriame El Yamani opened an evening in which everything was possible (...) there being something especially for every taste. Storytelling is an art, and Myriame El Yamani devotes herself to it full-time(...) Myriames’s festival is the International Night of the Story in Acadia, which is in its fourth year this fall.

Sabin Desmeules / L’Acadie Nouvelle (21/01/2005)

 

To listen some excerpts of the stories of Myriame El Yamani , click here.
To acces the website of Myriame El Yamani, click here.