Artistic experience

The RidEL conference focuses on English language education, as this is a discipline where the ubiquitous power of story may be explored and harnessed for its vigour in valuing the music but also the criticality of language together with the poetry of cultural diversity. If the power of story is what caused homo sapiens to achieve a cognitive edge and develop the organizational skills that allowed us to overpower all other species – as is often claimed – then it is surely the power of story that must help us save the world from ourselves.

But we do not want to obscure the local in seeking the global. Therefore, we have arranged two magical storytelling events in the beautiful Bodø library and cultural centre: Stormen bibliotek, with its wooden stairway to library heaven for young readers. We invite delegates to a Northern Norway artistic experience on two evenings: the first event will be with mesmerising Norwegian poet and picturebook maker Gro Dahle, the second event will be an enchanting celebration of Sámi language and culture, as the conference takes place in the region of Sápme, where the Sámi people have lived in harmony with nature since time immemorial.

These events are open to all conference delegates and their partners who have registered for participation in the cultural programme.