A Storytelling Event

This evening, as I had reported on this blog, I went to Brooklyn Center to make a presentation on African and African Diaspora storytelling. I had a the opportunity to express my desire to help illuminate the African and African Diaspora contribution to world culture.

In addition to mentioning and commenting on several African and Jamaican proverbs, I told several folktales; a Gurensi one, which I had told before, a Haitian one, and one from Zora Neale Hurston's Mules and Men. I did this to demonstrate how our ancestors thought about the world and the human condition.

The tales in Mules and Men that account for why Black people and Black women in particular work so hard harking back to the days of slavery, are particularly significant. They project with a touch of humour the resilience of the human spirit in the face of adversity.

I told my audience that I want to make such presentations in the future, not only on storytelling, but also on cultural differences, along the lines of my book, Africans and Americans: Embracing Cultural Differences. I said that my experience as a cultural consultant has taught me that there is a great need for on-going conversations about cultural differences in the world.