Jennifer Cayley’s repertoire favours, epic, myth and traditional folk and fairy tales but she also tells literary and personal material. She has a particular interest in making the old stories vivid and compelling for contemporary audiences of all ages. She tells regularly at Stories Through the Ages where great epics such as the Iliad, the Odyssey, and the Mahabarata are heard on winter Sundays. She is also a regular a teller at the N.A.C.’s Fourth Stage and the Ottawa Storytelling Festival. Jennifer has recently retired as co-founder and executive director of MASC , an arts education organization bringing artists from diverse disciplines and cultural backgrounds into schools and community settings.

Classic folk and fairy tales introduce young children to heroes and heroines who are more than a match for any beast or baddie that may be encountered. Sometimes laughing, sometimes holding their breath as the stories unfold, students will always rejoice when the victory is won. In the words of G.K. Chesterton, “Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.”

Compelling journey tales, from a diversity of cultural backgrounds, take listeners traveling through a world of adventure and revelation. Students may find themselves riding on a great black bull, searching for lost kingdoms, battling evil kings, finding the bones of a dead chief or simply climbing a hill in company with a simple water carrier. Humour, kindness, daring, determination, good sense and creativity abound in long ago adventures that still speak strongly to students about their own lives and the world around them.

A compelling introduction to Homer’s Odyssey and the world of Greek myth, through a telling of the classic tale of Odysseus’ struggles to save his men from being devoured by the ferocious one-eyed Cyclops. On request, other stories from the Odyssey or other Greek mythology can also be presented.