Storytellers share heritages
By Anna Herkamp
Senior
Writer
This week Purdue students will get the chance to
experience what some people call one of the oldest forms of art, storytelling.
American Storyfeast, which features performances
by three nationally renowned storytellers, will take place at 7 p.m.
on Thursday in Fowler Hall.
The performers, Jon Spelman, Charlotte Blake Alston
and Gayle Ross are each from a separate background of American ethnicity
— English-German, African-American and Native American, respectively.
All three will take a different approach to telling
stories of American experience and American spirit, said Laura Clavio,
assistant director of convocations and lectures.
Storytelling, said Clavio, has seen a major revival
in the last 20 years. What is important for people to understand about
the craft, she said, is that it is not someone simply reading a book
and showing pictures, "it is an art in and of itself."
Doyne Carson, president of the Tippecanoe Storyteller’s
Guild, said performing stories or watching them as they are performed
is a chance to be creative.
"(In storytelling), not only are you entertained
but you also learn. Every story has a moral whether it is kindness,
honesty or ‘what goes around, comes around,’" she said.
Carson said the power of the audience’s imagination
is often so powerful that two years after watching a performance, audience
members have been known to tell her that they still remember even the
minor details of the show.
Spelman, the founder of American Storyfeast and
a Purdue graduate, has won two Emmys for his work in television and
has performed throughout the United States and Europe. He was raised
in southern Ohio listening to his father’s Ozark Mountain tales
and is a noted expert in many tales of the Brothers Grimm, according
to a press release.
While Spelman will share his heritage of growing-up
in southern Ohio, Alston, a former schoolteacher, will perform tales
of both African and African-American experiences as well as songs, educational
raps and poetry.
Ross, a Native American and descendant of John
Ross — who was the principal chief of the Cherokee nation during
the Trail of Tears, will take a completely different angle from Spelman
and Alston by sharing her Native American heritage and traditions in
her storytelling.
In addition to the Purdue convocations show, the
trio will also do a number of outreach activities throughout the community,
including one at the YWCA of Lafayette and several local schools.
Kristin Matz, communications specialist at the
YWCA, said the workshop, which will take place from 1 to 2 p.m. on Thursday,
will be a family event.
The workshop will focus on how parents and grandparents
can share their own stories effectively with their children.
"(Storytelling) is a valuable art that is
getting lost," Matz said. "Things like this workshop are bringing
it back."
· Tickets are still available for the StoryFeast.
Admission is $10 for the general public, $7 for Purdue students and
children K-12. Tickets can be purchased at Purdue box offices or charged
by phone at 495-3933 or (800) 914-SHOW.
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