SJSTF: Talking to Strangers with Dan Yashinsky
Date: Sep 27
7:00 pm
- 8:00 pm
Where: Theatre
St. John’s Storytelling Festival: Talking to Strangers with Dan Yashinsky
Do we build fences or bridges in today's world of fake news and extreme views? This storytelling journey uses a mix of personal and traditional stories to explore what it means when a stranger comes to your door.
Dan Yashinsky is a storyteller, writer, and community animator. His books include Suddenly They Heard Footsteps - Storytelling for the Twenty-first Century, The Golden Apples, and I Am Full - a read-aloud requiem for Jacob Evan Yashinsky-Zavitz (to be published in winter, 2023). He has worked as a storyteller-in-residence at Toronto Public Library, The Stop Community Food Centre, and Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care. Recent projects include collaborations with dance artist Annemarie Cabri on a series of "danced stories", and developing a documentary film called The Wisdom of Solomon’s.
Tickets: $12 (+HST), Free for Rooms Members and SJSTF members. Get your ticket online or by calling (709) 757-8090.
This program is in collaboration with the St. John’s Storytelling Festival, a not-for-profit organization that has been active in the Storytelling community of Newfoundland and Labrador since 2004. SJS hosts and organizes an annual Storytelling festival bringing storytellers from across the province, Canada and internationally to the stage in St. John’s.
Events & Programs
Unleash Your Inner Artist at The Rooms!
Come draw at The Rooms and practice your skills with focused exercises.
What to Expect:
Our experienced instructor will guide you through fundamental drawing techniques. Each session focuses on a different theme, from drawing the harbour view to capturing the details of our natural history collection.
This is a creative and supportive environment; all skill levels and experience are welcome! Designed for ages 15 and up.
Quality drawing supplies are available, or feel free to bring your own sketchbook.
Cost: $20 plus HST. 10% discount for Rooms members. Drop-ins welcome!
Fishing for Cod
For centuries, fishing for cod has played a vital role in the lives of the peoples of Newfoundland and Labrador. Generations of fishing men, women, and children made use of the land and sea to sustain them and spent their lives “making fish.”
Join us each day for an interpretive guided tour in one of our galleries. From the story of the cod fishery to visiting a current art exhibition to a Family Rainbow Tour, there is something for everyone.
Each tour is approximately 30–40 minutes and is included in the cost of admission. Free for Rooms members.
Unleash Your Inner Artist at The Rooms!
Come draw at The Rooms and practice your skills with focused exercises.
What to Expect:
Our experienced instructor will guide you through fundamental drawing techniques. Each session focuses on a different theme, from drawing the harbour view to capturing the details of our natural history collection.
This is a creative and supportive environment; all skill levels and experience are welcome! Designed for ages 15 and up.
Quality drawing supplies are available, or feel free to bring your own sketchbook.
Cost: $20 plus HST. 10% discount for Rooms members. Drop-ins welcome!
There are divergent theories about the origins of suffrage movements. How does Newfoundland fit into these narratives? What is known about the movement and what remains unexplored? How does this formative social movement complicate traditional histories of the former Dominion?
Join us for a special keynote lecture by Dr. Margot Duley for the “Up She Rises! A Public Forum about Women and Gender in Newfoundland & Labrador History” Symposium.
Cost: Free, but a ticket is required. Reserve your free ticket online or by calling (709) 757-8090.
This event is presented in partnership with The Newfoundland & Labrador Historical Society.
About the Keynote Speaker:
Margot I. Duley is the preeminent scholar on the history of the women’s suffrage movement in Newfoundland, and author of Where Once Our Mothers Stood We Stand: Women’s Suffrage in Newfoundland, 1890-1925 (1993) and Extraordinary Passages: The Life and Times of Margaret Iris Duley, Newfoundland's Pathbreaking Novelist (2024). Her enlarged and revised history of the suffrage movement, From Silence to Suffrage: Women's Path to Citizenship in Newfoundland, 1803-1949, has just been released by Boulder Books (2025).
She is Professor Emerita of History and Women's Studies at Eastern Michigan University, and Dean Emerita, College of Arts and Sciences, University of Springfield. Dr. Duley has also contributed extensively to the community, including serving as a board member with the Newfoundland & Labrador Historical Society and with PerSIStence Theatre Company. Notably, she chaired a campaign to erect a statue to suffrage leader Armine Gosling, unveiled in June in Bannerman Park—the first singular statue to a named woman in the City of St. John’s and the first public statue in the province designed by a woman (sculptor Sheila Coultas).
For the symposium, Dr. Duley will revisit her research on the suffrage movement and present new findings related to its complex and formative history.