NABS on the Road: Omope Carter-Daboiku - Dayton, OH

Documenting 2024 Black Appalachian Storyteller Fellows

A Ten-Week Series by Ilene Evans

Editor: Karen Abdul-Malik – Travel Day 7

Day 6 – Our final destination was 219 Summit Street( AKA Paul Laurence Dunbar Street) , Dayton, Ohio – the Paul Laurence Dunbar House – for an interview with Mistress Black Appalachian Storytelling Fellow: Omope Carter-Daboiku. We met at the historic home of one of our great and well-known poets from the turn of the 19^th Century.

Omope having a laugh at her “been on this journey so long…” at the Dunbar House in Dayton, OH.

Omope greeted the Park Rangers stationed there, as old friends and reminisced about her time as a docent there. The National Park was a place where Omope was further grounded in her story as well as her people’s story. This job fed her soul as well as her family in hard times as a single mother. Her stories are as personal and pristine as the house we were visiting. The well-kept yard with lilies of the valley and the grape arbor ready for this year’s bounty; the side yard a quiet place for parties and family gatherings still. Dunbar lived and died in that house and the sense of spirit and ancestors is strong.

Omope reflected that deep spirit in her responses about her journey into storytelling through family, loss and betrayal. The Dunbar house exudes resilience and love and that was reflected in Omope’s own  journey to find home and healing. The Dunbar House has all the modern conveniences of the day, built on Summit Street. There are no photos allowed in the house itself, but there are connected buildings where the tours extend the telling of Dunbar’s family, mother, wife and poetry and Omope painted vivid pictures with her words as we toured about the place. There was the heated running water in the upstairs bathroom, the telephone, a gas stove, luxurious conveniences for the times. Dunbar had a sense of accomplishment, having reached the height of his career. His mother could afford such a fine place to live as a reward for her life of toil and labor in her final years. She shared that house with the family. That house gift demonstrated a dream come true for the Dunbar family. Omope found storytelling to be the same kind of gift to her and her family as was the Dunbar House to his family. Omope shares that storytelling rescued her and her family.  

She is an example of can do, will do, must do and you will too! She can tell you how to cook, can, weed, clean house, with no end of just simple common sense. Her ability to apply her rigorous scholarship, her storytelling skills, and her love for reading, and sharing truth with people rolled into real day to day work as a docent for the Dunbar House. She takes storytelling into many other avenues like schools, nursing homes, radio story, dramatic readings, creative writing, workshops and more. A lifelong love of learning and building up her community. Gardening and food ways have given Omope another way to incorporate stories into everyday life and history lessons. Whether traditional tales or mother-wit, Omope has honed her heritage and academic life into a tapestry of love. 

On the Air with Omope. One of her storytelling projects including the youth.

Currently, she is working on gathering her family history into a narrative to share. Not everyone behaved well, and those stories need special handling. The award has given her time to reflect on the complex relationships in her family and better understand the choices that her people made, the crossroads they saw, the points of no return, and the salty tears they shed.  

As a Black Appalachian Storyteller myself, it is very gratifying to see these values represented among these new awardees.  The recurring themes of family, of nature, of heritage and pride, of legacy, of resilience is heartening. We know that storytelling is the means to find those handholds when life seems most chaotic.  Storytelling as legacy, storytelling as resilience, storytelling as sharing common sense learned from nature plant and animal are strong pathways for our legacy for the next generations. We share a part of Appalachian culture with a double layer of African roots including the love of elders, the cherishing of children, the passing line of knowledge so we have a better life. Thank you one and all for the gifts you bring our community.