Jan Blake is an internationally renowned storyteller, consultant, mentor, plenary speaker and IATEFL Patron. She has been performing world-wide, teaching and delivering storytelling workshops since 1986. Jan has appeared at most major international storytelling festivals - leads storytelling workshops for schools and universities and has been a contributor to BBC Radio programmes. She is currently storytelling advisor and presenter for the CBeebies/ BBC Philharmonic programme, ‘Musical Storyland.’ She is also storytelling consultant to Barnardo’s SEEN. SEEN is a Barnardo’s initiative building a core foundation of knowledge, a network of people and advocacy for those with authentic experience We are working to achieve a system change in the provision of services to tackle the disproportionate outcomes which children and young people of African, Asian and Caribbean heritage face.

Career highlights include storyteller in-residence at Hay Festival, artist in-residence at the Southbank Centre, the Viljandi International Folk Music Festival in Estonia and TEDx Warsaw & TEDx Manchester.

In 2011 as part of an Arts and Kids Celebration of Children & the Arts, it was her greatest honour to tell stories in the presence of King Charles and Queen Camilla (then Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles) and other dignitaries, at the Royal Academy of Arts. In the same year she told stories at Marlborough College in the presence of Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie.

As part of the World Shakespeare Festival in 2012, Jan was the curator for Shakespeare’s Stories, a landmark exhibition that explored themes of journey and identity, in conjunction with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.

She has developed relationships with several major organisations, including the National Theatre - where she spent a decade as the Storytelling Consultant - BBC Philharmonic Orchestra; London Philharmonic Orchestra; Royal Geographical Society; Natural History Museum; Barnardo’s UNHCR; and The British Council. Jan was recently appointed patron of The International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language (IATEFL).

Jan is consistently innovating, creating, performing and working in partnership with the Crick Crack Club and Apples and Snakes Poetry, proving that Storytelling is not just for children.

When not doing that, she spends her time as a storyteller working in schools, developing teaching tools which help children to practice active listening and speaking skills.

Originally subsidised in 2005 by the London Borough of Westminster Excellence in Cities Programme in a bid to promote Equality, Diversity & Inclusion in the classroom, Jan’s Bedtime Stories Project was created for primary schools, and she most recently completed a residency at St. Lukes Primary School, Manchester, a role which will be extended into the autumn next term.

Storytelling residence at the innovative children’s arts space Z-Arts, in Manchester.

In 2021 she launched her own online storytelling school, the Akua Storytelling Project. The school is devoted to developing a new generation of international storytellers, as well as helping teachers to become great storytellers in the classroom.

For more details see: https://www.janblakestories.co.uk/

Awards:
In 2011, Jan was the recipient of the biannual Thüringer Märchen Preis, awarded to scholars or performers who have devoted their lives to the service of storytelling. She is the first non-German to be awarded the prize, which included a cash prize of €2,500. In 2012, she was awarded the British Awards for Storytelling Excellence (BASE) for Outstanding Female Storyteller. In 2013, The Old Woman, The Buffalo, and The Lion of Manding created and performed with musicians Kouame and Raymond Sereba toured to acclaim winning a British Award for Storytelling Excellence (BASE) for outstanding adaptation of a classical text. In the same year she was also awarded the Asia Pacific Brands Foundation Award (Brand Laureate) for the World’s Leading Storyteller and contribution to the world of literature.