The NGC Bocas Lit Fest is Trinidad and Tobago’s annual literary festival but it is Caribbean in scope. The festival season starts with a series of storytelling sessions with the NGC Children’s Bocas Lit Fest Storytelling Caravan at venues all around the country throughout March and April. This year is the 14th children’s festival taking the Caravan to ten locations throughout Trinidad and Tobago. For the first time ever, the NGC Children’s Bocas Lit Fest Storytelling Caravan will include a schools’ tour in our endeavours to reach some of the more remote locations throughout Trinidad and Tobago; and to engage in more focussed story creation workshops. Last year’s Caravan produced an anthology of 18 stories created by the nation’s children, which will soon be released.
During these FREE sessions, our storytellers tell stories, then encourage the children to craft a story based on a suggested title, unleashing and guiding their creativity and inspiring them to value self-expression through the written word in a story writing workshop.
The workshop teaches the construction of a story and we record the contributions made by children in the group.
The stories are then edited and put into a book with their names listed as authors. The stories are also published in the Sunday Express.
Who is Dragonzilla?
Dragonzilla is the mascot of the NGC Children’s Bocas Lit Fest. This smiling friendly dragon lives in the Bocas del Dragón (Dragon’s Mouths) in the Gulf of Paria, but comes out to visit children who take part in the Children’s Storytelling Caravan, helping them to develop a love for reading, writing and storytelling.Â
The festival season starts with a series of storytelling sessions with the NGC Children’s Bocas Lit Fest Storytelling Caravan at venues all around the country from 7 March to 27 April 2024. This year is the 14th children’s festival taking the Caravan to ten locations throughout Trinidad and Tobago.
Thank you for your interest in our Children’s Storytelling Caravan. Our online registration for this event is closed.
Thank you for your interest in our Children’s Storytelling Caravan. Our online registration for this event is closed.
Thank you for your interest in our Children’s Storytelling Caravan. Our online registration for this event is closed.
Thank you for your interest in our Children’s Storytelling Caravan. Our online registration for this event is closed.
Thank you for your interest in our Children’s Storytelling Caravan. Our online registration for this event is closed.
Thank you for your interest in our Children’s Storytelling Caravan. Our online registration for this event is closed.
Thank you for your interest in our Children’s Storytelling Caravan. Our online registration for this event is closed.
Bocas Storytime is a dedicated home for children’s videos showcasing Caribbean words, stories and ideas, including book read-alouds, local storytelling, author interviews and more — growing new readers in our region with every fun video.
Access on-demand content for children on our Bocas Storytime YouTube channel!
After eleven years of offering lively, innovative events and programmes for young readers, the NGC Children’s Bocas Lit Fest presents an exciting new resource — Bocas Storytime, a dedicated YouTube channel for children! Bocas Storytime has diverse range of videos available on demand — read-alouds, animations, storytelling, and fun workshops — all inspired by Caribbean writing and culture.
Head to Bocas Storytime to watch our #Bocas2022 playlist of videos in the programme below, and make sure to subscribe on YouTube to get notifications about our growing library of children’s content!
The NGC Children’s Bocas Lit Fest’s move to producing online content for young viewers was a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, after health restrictions made it impossible to continue the festival’s beloved in-person events in 2020 and 2021. Over the past two years, dramatised storytelling videos, animations, and Dragonzilla’s Short Story Writing Challenge gave young audiences access to stimulating local content, even during the pandemic lockdown. The new YouTube channel is the next step in stewarding this treasure trove of free, age-appropriate online content for children, even as we plan the return of the Children’s Storytelling Caravan later this year!
Sponsored by
