Ceri John Phillips (Gwas Awen) is Cyfarwydd for Bro Dinefwr and Associate Storyteller with People Speak Up, an Arts Charity based in Llanelli. He has previously been an actor, comic, and writer, working for S4C, BBC, ITV, in films, TV shows, radio and on stage.

Ceri has performed in a variety of settings: from conducting story walks and donning the stage at the Beyond the Border International Storytelling Festival to providing tales for school groups, from making the ladies at the WI chuckle with bawdy stories to sharing the ancient and enigmatic myths of Wales next to a bonfire.

Creative consultations also undertaken - creative project management, collaborative inspiration alongside other art forms, leading a creative approach to history, literacy, epistemology, and language, are all projects that Ceri has overseen or aided in bringing to fruition.

You may have noticed the term 'Cyfarwydd' is used to describe Ceri's role, alongside the term 'storyteller'. This is largely due to his outlook as a neo-traditionalist: one who has a deep and abiding reverence for the past, extant, and ancient culture, but who concurrently recognises the need to (carefully) adapt. The contemporary role of Cyfarwydd, as Ceri has conceived it, is that of both Storyteller in the oral tradition and of a lay philosopher: Keeper of the Brythonic tradition and a sympathetic critic.

His interests are not confined to Wales and Welsh culture, however. As a proud xenophile, falling in love with the varied cultures of our world as often as the winds blow over the hills, Ceri embraces the need to reach forth to other traditions, to play at the edges, inviting them in and asking to cross their threshold in return.

Originator of the 'Revenant Cyfarwydd' model for embedded storytelling.

Hoping there may be answers to find in the telling of a tale or two ~ Knowing that finding the right questions is achievable.

VASA FABULARUM SUMUS.

“Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire.”

― Gustav Mahler.

For a more thorough outline of the philosophical foundation for Ceri's practice, observations and lessons he's learned, please click here to read my Substack articles.

If you are interested in funding my work directly, click here for Patreon, which includes tailored perks for patrons, or here to "buy me a coffee".

To hear Ceri discuss the nature his work more thoroughly, give this podcast a listen.

Diolch.

ΔΩ