A story is the best excuse to be together, sit together, and relax; Once again, on Wednesday nights, Uncle Kourosh’s storytelling brings together families, young and old, this time at Cafe Ghouli.
On the last Wednesday night of the month of Khordad (July), storytelling started at Cafe Ghouli. On this occasion we spoke with Kourosh Vafadari, the owner of Ghouli brand and the initiator of “Shabe Ghesseh”, about stories and storytelling. Pointing out that stories are about daily events, he described how stories can be effective in institutionalizing values of life. Storytelling is an ancient tradition. Man has been telling stories from the beginning of his existence, since warriors and hunters related their daily events and activities. They are stories. So, stories are about my life and your life. Each day that we spend and recall the memory of that day, we are telling a story. Stories are life itself. We describe the routine of life and give it wings. Building characters and imagination in stories are all about ourselves. The holy books and the prophets also spoke with stories so that people could take direction and try to be good people of stories.
He added: “While being an ancient custom of human beings, storytelling is also an old and beautiful Iranian culture. In the past, grandmothers and grandfathers used to tell stories in family gatherings such as Shab Cheleh, which was a cultural custom that has been carried on for many years, where people would gather in cafes, listen to stories about good or bad times; stories in which the characters would receive useful advices. A storyteller spreads light, and awareness. But unfortunately, with the advent of technology, virtual space, and media, people moved away from sitting together and moved inward. Since then, the excellent custom of telling stories, listening to stories, sitting together, having a good mood, and gaining energy unfortunately disappeared.”
Kourosh Vafadari has a list of successes such as being the country’s chosen storyteller in five national festivals, the best storyteller of the best and the judge of the storytelling festival of 1393, winning first place and the statue of the best director in the children’s group of the Shamseh festival, the author of the first research educational book in the field of painting education for children and teenagers according to The educational conditions of the country and winning the third place in the Roshd Festival, the founder of Iran’s first storytelling house, a member of the Astizh Center (International Theater Center), the center for the intellectual development of children and adolescents, in his talented career. Uncle Kourosh, with a history of active participation in festivals, continued his conversation by describing his experience of setting up the first storytelling event and the storytelling cafe: “Participating in festivals and being in touch with foreign artists, I came to know that abroad they have opened storytelling cafe’s, based on the Iranian experience and culture. In the cafe they have opened up storytelling rooms so that with this excuse people gather and start interconnecting. This is while in Iran there is none such storytelling places. The foreign artists were wondering why there is no sign of this tradition in Iran, who was the initiator of storytelling in public places. The foreign artists wonder why there is no sign of this tradition in Iran, who was the initiator of storytelling in public places. So, then I decided to open a storytelling cafe and thus revive this old and Iranian tradition.
I started a storytelling project in the Zoroastrian Culture and Arts House, for the first time. The corona years disrupted the storytelling atmosphere. But I did not give up and was determined to continue pushing this project forward. Then, we found out that Ghouli Cafe has a suitable space for storytelling and storytelling nights could be set up there; Ghouli’s meaning, giant, is a symbol of goodness, a place for great and good people, far from evil and darkness. Storytelling nights started off.
Kourosh Vafadari studied at Boys Fine Arts Academy and Faculty of Art and Architecture in the field of painting, is a lecturer at the University of Applied Sciences and the University of the Center for Intellectual Development of Children and Adolescents, the art instructor at the Center for Intellectual Development of Children and Adolescents. He continued his conversation by pointing out that telling stories and listening to stories is not restricted to big or small people. Regarding the reason for choosing Wednesday as the storytelling night, he said: While we read stories for children we are the first to wish to be the good person of the story; the children are by nature pure and full of love. That is why in the storytelling space all the big and small members of the family sit next to each other and thus give life to the stories. This program is carried out on Wednesday nights, the day after which is Thursday, when children do not have school, and so families can easily participate in the storytelling night together with their children. We usually start telling stories at 8 pm, so that the families have had enough time to have their dinner. The first night of storytelling began on the 31st of Khordad, after several years away from storytelling. We hope families will gather and storytelling will continue.
