A 'World' of words

The Funda Festival debuts in Providence and Newport

by Johnette Rodriguez

Chosen as one of 10 communities nationwide to kick off the PBS celebration of African-American culture entitled "I'll Make Me a World," Rhode Island will host the first New England festival of black storytelling, the Funda Festival, this weekend

in Providence and Newport. Organized by the Rhode Island Black Storytellers, Funda (Swahili for "learn") will feature local favorites Ramona Bass, Len Cabral and Valerie Tutson; up-and-coming Rhode Island tellers Priscilla Harris, Abigail Jefferson, Melodie Thompson and 14-year-old Reggie Williams; and nationally-known storytellers Brother Blue, Derek Burrows, Onawumi Jean Moss and Teju Ologboni.

From griots to rappers, the oral tradition of African Americans has been kept alive through their storytellers: women singing or spinning tales to their children; men sharing drink or drums while weaving anedotes into adventures. Growing up in Jackson, Tennessee, Onawumi Jean Moss's mother told her stories when she had done something wrong, stories with a moral. Her father told her eery stories about the stars -- the Lyra that he called "little David's harp," or the Little Dipper that could turn into "a bear that is going to chase you to bed."

Remembering the scary side to both parents' stories, Moss didn't tell these to her own children, now grown with children of their own. But sometime in her '50s, this Associate Dean of Students at Amherst College began to question who she was and would become, and she began to examine "this thing called storytelling."

She concluded that "storytellers are the ones that help you maintain the memory of your history, of your culture. They help you repair those traditions so that people can rethink the direction in which they are going."

Moss realized that "storytelling is not just a jump-up-and-do-a-cartoonish-thing. It's not just opening a book and memorizing a story. This is serious; this is a dedication. Yet it is fun. You can tell wonderfully humorous things while you help people remember."

In 1995, she was chosen as one of six tellers nationwide to represent her region at the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesboro, Tennessee; in 1998, she was awarded the "Esteemed Elders Award" by the National Association of Black Storytellers.

Moss chooses her stories based on a list of the things she values most: "family, loving relationships, having power in your life, freedom and anti-oppression and powerful, sassy, impudent women who are spirited and inspiring." Some are original stories, some she's heard and some are literary. She decides on a story to tell based on her audience.

"Little children need to hear stories that make them laugh and feel good about themselves," she stated, in a recent phone conversation. "Families need stories that will help them understand whoever they are that you struggle in relationships and you triumph. How do you address dysfunction? Stories help you rethink your values and get on with it."

And getting on with it is precisely what Teju Ologboni did, after he got fired from several teaching jobs in the early '70s (University of Milwaukee, Marquette University and the Milwaukee public school system).

"They called it `irreconcilable philosophical differences,' " he recalled, speaking from his home in Milwaukee. "Now it's called `multiculturalism' and I am a recognized consultant on `multiculural diversity.' But back in '74 it was not talked about."

In contrast to Moss, Ologboni has told stories since he was a child, absorbing the family tradition from his parents in Kansas and his grandparents in Arkansas. His mother told stories within the family; his father told them in public. Years later when he traveled to Africa, he found that same custom: women didn't tell stories except to children; men told them in public to adults.

As a child, Ologboni stayed in trouble in school "because I wouldn't keep quiet." But within his extended family, children were allowed to sit around the adult circle to hear stories "if we were polite and quiet -- that's probably the only time I was!"

He spun stories as a teacher, made introductory notes when he was performing as a musician and eventually realized (in the late '70s) that he would tackle storytelling as a profession. He has since traveled the breadth of the country to tell stories, as well as performing in Mexico, Canada and Africa.

Ologboni draws his stories from the historical and cultural heritage of African Americans, from rural Arkansas to West and Central Africa. Many of his stories feature animals and are designed to teach their listeners.

"We believe that when God created everything, it was with the same amount of love," Ologboni explained. "So we consider animals to be our brothers and sisters. Certain animals represent the characteristics of humans, such as the slow turtle or the sassy rabbit."

Ologboni plays drums and other African instruments, such as the shekere (a large gourd covered with a net of small cowrie shells), to accompany his stories, as well as dance. He feels strongly that his stories link him to a tradition that runs from Milwaukee down the Mississippi and directly to West Africa, whereas many of the East Coast black storytellers draw on other parts of the world where people of African descent have kept their stories alive -- Len Cabral's connection to the Cape Verdean Islands and Derek Burrows to the Bahamas, for example.

And then there's Brother Blue, whom many Rhode Island tellers claim as their inspiration for getting into storytelling. A Cambridge, Massachusetts, institution, Brother Blue has been a colorful street performer, street poet and a dancing, singing storyteller for at least 30 years. He calls his style "soul-theater," and he improvises like jazz musicians "soul to soul." His colleagues call him "the father of black storytelling."

So join the Rhode Island Black Storytellers and their special guests for an intergenerational group of storytellers. And don't forget that the stories themselves appeal to all generations, from tots to teens, from students to senior citizens. Have fun at Funda! n The Funda Festival will take place at the Providence Public Library, 225 Washington Street, on Saturday, January 23 at 2 p.m., and at the RISDAuditorium, South Main Street, Providence, at 8 p.m., and on Sunday, January 24 at 3 p.m. at the Martin Luither King Center in Newport. Admission is free; a free will donation will benefit DARE (Direct Action for Rights and Equality). Call 273-4013.