Judith Poirier

Judith Poirier is renowned as a teller who brings the warmth, the delight, the depth, the humour, the music of her beloved French Canada, alive for audiences across the country. Her bi-lingual telling has a luminous and expressive quality that grows from a palpable gnerosity of spirit. Her répertoire is extensive, grounded in family tales and French-Canadian folktales, woven with the music that surrounded her in the communities where she grew up.

Judith has developed a very particular style of melding family stories and traditional material which began with the creation of All Aboard the Streetcar Named Story! This seminal work, supported by a Canada Council grant, explores how her grand-parents grew up first in the villages of Quebec and then moved to the big city of Montreal.

Judith has told to audiences of all ages in all manner of venues across Canada. She has been featured in many major festivals including: Quebec’s Intercultural Storytelling, Toronto Storytelling Festival, Ottawa Storytelling Festival, St. John’s Storytelling Festival, Yukon Storytelling Festival, Festival Festiloup Children’s Festival in Montreal, Festival du conte de Rigaud and Bouche à oreille.

As well as being a skilled performance teller, Judith uses storytelling in her work with young children, training family workers and parents in storytelling. in 2009, she published Des histoires pour les toutes petites oreilles. She speaks regularly about storytelling at literacy Conferences across Canada.

A major force in promoting storytelling, locally, provincially and nationally, Judith was a co-founder of Cercle des conteurs de Montréal, a founding member of Regroupment de Conteurs du Quebec, National Francophone Representative for Storytellers of Canada/Conteurs du Canada