About

Long before television or phones lit up a yard at night, this is how the Caribbean passed things down: on verandas, after church, at the fish fry. Someone always had a story, and everyone always had time for one.

Gimistory treats that tradition as a living practice, not a museum piece - something a community still does together, not just something it watches.

Gimistory was founded in 1998 under the artistic direction of Dr. Henry Muttoo, and developed through the Cayman National Cultural Foundation with managing director Ms. Marcia Muttoo, as part of CNCF's broader mission to preserve and promote Caymanian cultural expression. From day one, it was built to be both local and international - proudly Caymanian, and open to storytelling traditions from everywhere else.

Instead of one venue, Gimistory travels around the island. Performances pop up on beaches, in public parks, at heritage sites, and in spaces across all three islands. Admission is free throughout, supported primarily by the Ministry of Culture and Heritage as well a community sponsors.

Gimistory has hosted storytellers, musicians, and cultural practitioners from every corner of the tradition:

• Regional pioneers - Ken Corsbie and Dr. Amina Blackwood-Meeks, whose work helped shape Caribbean storytelling as a recognized cultural discipline, alongside musician and cultural commentator Dave Martins.
• International visitors - including The Storycrafters (Jeri Burns and Barry Marshall), Robert "Bobaloo" Basey, and theatre historian Raymond Funk.
• Caribbean musical storytelling - Swanky Kitchen Band (Caymanian kitchen music, since 2009) and calypso/extempo artists like Kairi Kaiso and Black Sage.
• Caymanian voices - Nasaria Suckoo-Chollette and Donna Tull-Cox, carrying the local literary and theatrical tradition forward.

The Cayman Islands are home to more than 160 nationalities - so a Gimistory audience rarely hears just one tradition in a night. West African folktales sit next to Caribbean calypso; Caymanian kitchen music sits next to a visiting scholar-storyteller. It's proof that storytelling is both one of humanity's oldest practices and a living, local one - still passed voice to voice.

New tellers, new venues, the occasional hurricane-shuffled schedule — since 1998, Gimistory has kept doing one job: keep the story going, and keep the circle open.