Brigid's Day
Brigid, Goddess and Saint, is celebrated on February 1st – the day when the hinge of winter swings open to welcome in the spring. It’s time to light a candle, make a cross of reeds and have a get together. Song, dance and joyous rituals are just what is needed to kick start the sun so that she will burn brighter and brighter as she rolls toward summer.

The new incarnation of the GuestHouse Storytellers began last January (building on 17 years where the Club was shaped by Newhaven's Triple Goddesses: Umi Sinha, Wendy Atkinson and Anne-Marie Harrison) and to celebrate their first birthday, they are teaming up with us, community arts and wellbeing organisation Hospitable Environment, to celebrate our third birthday. 

From 3 – 7 there will be fire, making, family time and food and at 7.30pm an adult show…

Free to attend and open to all. No need to book afternoon events:

3 - 5pm Weave a St Brigid's Cross with Emma Carlow and Sarah Lawrence. Listen to family-friendly stories from GuestHouse's talented tellers. 

5 - 7pm Join Hospitable Environment as we celebrate the third birthday of Soup & Social with our 25th shared meal and community conversation. Enjoy a free hand massage with the fabulous team from A Touch of Gentleness. Free to attend and open to all - you're always invited!

Ticketed evening event 

7 - 10pm  Brigid in Flames – an Evening of Light in Darkness (for ages 16+). Book your tickets NOW!

Brigid was a Fire Goddess before she was a Saint, a blacksmith who moulded the flame of compassion into hospitality, and the spark of creativity into poetry. She is the midwife to new life. In the middle of winter, it requires imagination to see Brigit’s spark igniting seeds in the dark - but good company improves vision! Come and join world-renowned Irish storyteller Kate Corkery and Xanthe Gresham Knight as they share the stories of this magnificent Goddess. Expect music, laughter, wild rhythms, quiet rituals and a cornucopia of nurturing stories to kindle your heart.

Kate Corkery
Born in Cork and living in London, Kate is much in demand all over the world, she is fluent in Irish, French and Spanish. She has been a guest storyteller at international festivals such as Edinburgh, North Pennines, Belfast, Derry, Dublin, Newcastle and Salford. Kate was Storyteller-in-Residence at the Cape Clear Island Festival and has won a Fringe First Award for her work as a storyteller in residence at the Irish Cultural Centre in London. Kate connects her stories to ancient sources: 'A heady mix of bloodthirsty, funny, passionate and moving stories kept our ancestors enthralled on dark evenings long ago. They have survived on the lips of storytellers for generations and can still live on in our imaginations today. I hope you enjoy them.' Kate is also an author and an actor. Her book ‘Cork Folk Tales’ was published in 2017.

Xanthe Gresham Knight
Xanthe is Artistic Director of GuestHouse Storytellers. Her passions are Goddesses, Plants and Eco-feminist performance. She ‘unfolds each story like the petals of a lotus. At the end you leave with something beautiful created in your own mind' (British Theatre Review). Internationally acclaimed, she has performed at the National Theatre, the Barbican, and Cheltenham Literature Festival and festivals worldwide. Residencies include Harvard University, The Smithsonian and The Chelsea Physic Garden. She is the author of ‘Goddesses and Heroines’ and ‘A Herba Mythica, Myths and Folktales of Sacred Healing Plants’ and ‘Sussex Folktales.’

Doors 7pm for a 7.30pm start. Tickets £12 (£8 concessions and low waged). 

There are 4 helping hands spots for anyone who would like to lend a hand on the evening in return for their seat.

We are looking forward to welcoming you. We hope you can join us.

Hospitable Environment CIC

Hospitable Environment is a community arts and wellbeing organisation that brings people together to explore how we can create safe, connected and resilient communities. By creating shared experiences around food and creativity, we invite positive interactions that foster friendship across differences, celebrate our culture and landscape, and that promote community cohesion. 

Join us! You're always invited. Find out more about our work at hospitable-environment.com and follow us on Instagram @hospitable_environment