KUSUMIKA CHATERGEE

Biography: Kusumika once worked with Mother Theresa and came to Coventry from her native Calcutta many years ago. She has an MA in English laguage and literature and has worked with Coventry's Performing Arts Service.She uses traditional Indian story-telling and puppets to highlight issues of social inequality, the environment and anti-rasism to primay school children. Kusumika Chattergee & Pru Porretta now work freqently together as “Kath O Kahini” in the project Imagination reading Cafes.  The Imagination Reading Cafes are as the name implies storytelling for children and families led by professional storytellers and held in a relaxed Café atmosphere with free food and refreshments being available.

Title: "Kath O Kahini" - Story telling across cultures

Summary: The Imagination Café Storytellers have visited primary schools primarily in deprived urban areas, and have enthralled children, teachers and support staff alike with the amazing range of stories linking the history and myths of Coventry with the tales and legends of the Indian sub- continent. This project entitled “Kath O Kahini” – “stories and more stories” has reached over 1,000 children in schools in some of Coventry most deprived communities and in some of the areas with the highest concentration of children from minority ethnic communities and where many children from refugee and asylum seeker communities also attend school. Teachers have commented on how the stories told by Pru and Kusumika and the inter-action between the children and the
storytellers has made a great difference to their reading and schooling.