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Firelight in the Boatyard


Our roving storytelling evening sets up camp in Gweek Boatyard  on Thursday 12th July. Come join us!

By: Phyllida Bluemel,   2 minutes

The days are long and skies are clear, and we’re bringing Firelight back.

Come and join us round the fire, this time at The Boatyard Cafe in Gweek. Where journeys end and begin, amid masts and sails on the banks of the Helford; we’ll be hearing from the usual mix of inspiring speakers, gathered from our creative network of friends and collaborators, each with their own unique story to tell.

Grab a chilled glass from the Tarquin’s gin contingent, hearty bonfire fodder from the cafe, and settle in for a relaxed evening of stories shared and life lessons learnt.

To whet your appetite, here are the speakers who’ll be sitting down with us:

 

Clare Tavernor

 

Clare is a Penryn based documentary filmmaker who tells character-led stories about people and places. Her most recent series, Africa: A Journey Into Music, aired on BBC Four in June. 

At Firelight she’ll be giving us the full making-of experience – documenting ancient melodies and contemporary conflict in Mali, meeting the man who invented the rotating guitar strap in Nigeria, and filming some of the biggest names in African music  – not to mention dealing with a very real threat of kidnapping. 

She’ll be soundtracking her talk with music from the films, on a portable turntable that somehow made it back from the Sahara desert in one piece.  

 

Simon Cohen

Simon doesn’t just share stories. He shapes them. Simon’s worked with the Dalai Lama, Gandhi’s grandson and Jedi Knights – and gave away his company for the riches of family life.

At 24, Simon set up Global Tolerance, an international communications agency, to spread messages of hope. Over the next decade, his work with the likes of the Prince of Wales, TED and the UN, reached hundreds of millions of people. A Pause for Thought contributor on the Chris Evans show on Radio 2 for two years, Simon is a deep thinker and doer. Inspired by Nelson Mandela and the legacy of love and leadership that he himself wanted to leave, he gave away his £1m company to be a stay-at-home dad. He’ll be questioning everything that we think we know about success.

 

Sam Bleakley

Sam Bleakley

Sam is a writer, longboard champion, filmmaker, surf contest commentator, husband and dad from the very western tip of west Cornwall. He has a PhD from Falmouth University (researching travel writing and surf exploration in Haiti) and an MA in Geography from the University of Cambridge, and produces a wide variety of creative and intellectual work on surfing through books, films, articles, workshops, events and educational programs. Sam’s work focuses on more challenging off-the-beaten-track locations – many of which are post-conflict or post-environmental disaster – celebrating surfing’s potential to inspire positive change in both local and global contexts. His latest book explores mindfulness and surfing and he also presents a processional series of hour-long documentaries called Brilliant Corners, celebrating cultural exchange and the power of surfing for social good in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean. His roots, however, remain in Penwith, where he lives with his family, close to Land’s End. Sam will be sharing a few heartfelt stories from his alternative upbringing, Cambridge education, love of longboarding, and travels to the Haitian underworld – all shaped by the people who have inspired him most to live by the motto of ‘projects driven by passion not profit’.

You in? Tickets are free but limited. 

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