Our Storytelling Trek Blog #9

NABS Talking: On The Road with Ilene and Queen

Documenting the Black Appalachian Storyteller Fellows Road Trip

By: Ilene Evans

Editor: Karen "Queen Nur" Abdul-Malik Funders: MidAtlantic Arts and South Arts

We cannot thank Mid Atlantic Arts and South Arts enough for this fourth year of funding such an impactful project that includes our insightful documentation tour.

Our trip back home gave us time to gather our thoughts and share some of adventures with Mama Linda Goss and Sister Caroliese Frink-Reed. We gave Mamma Linda a call to let her know that the trip went very well. We shared our excitement about the tellers we visited and were excited that NABS Blog Talkin' Blog allows us to share glimpses with you.   We had such a feast from our troubadours to inspire and guide more storytellers and artists (Advocacy, activism, music, story, paintings, and visual art, sculptures, and gardens upon gardens.) The greatest take-away is how much love goes into the research and telling of the stories that the BlackApplachian Storytelling fellows shared, whether historical, personal, or traditional. x

DeWayne Asheville, NC - Building the story of the peace gardens has extended his vision and the neighbors belief in reclaiming a sense of pride and sovereignty in this very old historically black neighborhood. The vision keeps growing –“the neighborhood is the headwaters.”

Jazmine, Chattanooga, TN – The ELLA library was a small start and solid beginning that keeps growing to serve the neighborhood’s needs and now it has expanded to a bookstore to support the story of learning and touching other cultures with beauty while maintaining our own.

Naomi -Martinsville, VA – The reflection of a little known holler and its people. Actively using storytelling to defend the journey of one family that reflects many other families. Telling the story will protect the integrity of the community and defend it from unjust laws, pollution, encroachment.

Hasan - Berea, KY – That one generation builds on the wisdom. Practices and knowledge of the previous generation and they shall work in harmony, given the opportunity.

Dr. Tee - Athens, OH – Protecting the legacies of story in architecture, civil properties, businesses are not just facts, but made of people, their lives, loves, struggles and sense of excellence, decency, and integrity. There are moral lessons to apply to today from yesterdays’ skillful entrepreneurs.

Doris/Lady D – Beckley, WV - The music carries the stories as much as our kitchen tables or our front porch.

All in all, we saw storytelling used for advocacy of neighborhoods, of forgotten hollers, of life and labor, or sustainable agriculture, of sustainable communities, for connecting us to our ancestors, and the rich cultural tapestry that made the hard struggles bearable.

Once we are back home, reading transcripts and listening to the recordings help me see the commonalities of our Black storytellers. It helps me to clarify a sense of a connected culture and cultural markers even when our communities are separated by great distances. The feel of family is strong and sometimes stronger when we are very far apart.