Tales from Africa: Storyteller comes to Duke and Durham to share tales and wisdom

By Sylvia Pfeiffenberger

Charlotte Blake Alston may not have her own classroom anymore, but she is still a teacher.

The former educator became a professional storyteller of African and African-American folklore 16 years ago. Now, she gives her lessons in the form of folk tales to children and adults in places such as Carnegie Hall, the Brooklyn Children’s Museum and the Smithsonian Institution. She’s coming to Durham this month for several performances at Duke, local schools and the Family Life and Community Center at Lyon Park.

The Philadelphia-based performer says folklore stories are often cautionary tales about community values, but they also serve as bridges for cultural understanding. Like the griots (oral poets) of West Africa, Alston uses what she calls “the power of the voice” to pass down oral history from Africa and the Americas.

“Regardless of the ethnic origin of a story, the human aspect reaches out,” Alston says. “All stories tell of human foibles, human weakness, that very deep-seated feeling that all humans have, their aspirations for their lives.”

 “When I was little the seeds were probably planted,” says Alston of her calling, remembering how her father had her memorize poems by Paul Laurence Dunbar to recite. “People would marvel at my memory,” she says.

She performed in front of adults on the “church banquet and tea circuit,” as it was known, which she says gave her early confidence and stage presence.

“Skills were honed in the church,” Alston says. “It was the arena for the talent that was abundant in the black community. While we were being maligned outside, there was richness inside the community.”

As a kindergarten teacher in a Quaker school, Alston rediscovered her verve for performing in front of an audience. “I got on stage and I dramatized the folk tale they were getting ready to do as a skit. The audience reaction surprised me,” she says.

That was how she stumbled onto the educational potential of a good yarn. “I immediately saw it as a tool I could use, as a way children can understand and acknowledge a cultural perspective that was different from their own.”

In addition to a Nov. 4 Duke Performances show, Alston also will appear at two public schools, Morehead Montessori and George Watts Montessori, and at a free, public event at 2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 4, at the Family Life and Community Center at Lyon Park. The schools and the center are partners in the Duke-Durham Neighborhood Partnership.

For more information, contact: Sylvia Pfeiffenberger | (919) 681-8065 | sylvia.pfeiffenberger@notes.duke.edu