magazine of the philadelphia folklore project

Volume 18:1 winter 2005 ISSN 1075-0029

● Imagining Louise Madison ● Self-knowledge ● Waking up the people

● Telling stories Works in progress is the magazine of the Philadelphia Folklore Project,an 18- inside year-old public interest folklife organization.We work with people and communities in the Philadelphia area to build critical folk cultural knowledge, sustain the complex folk and traditional arts of our region,and challenge 3 From the editor practices that diminish these local grass- roots arts and humanities. To learn more,please visit us: 4 Imagining Louise Madison www.folkloreproject.org or call By Germaine Ingram 215.468.7871 philadelphia folklore 8 Self Knowledge project staff By Kathryn L. Morgan Editor/PFP Director: Debora Kodish Associate Director: Toni Shapiro-Phim, Designer: IFE designs + Associates Printing: Garrison Printers [ Printed on recycled paper] philadelphia folklore project board Germaine Ingram Mogauwane Mahloele Ife Nii-Owoo Ellen Somekawa Deborah Wei Dorothy Wilkie Mary Yee Juan Xu we gratefully acknowledge support from: ● The National Endowment for the Arts, which believes that a great nation deserves great arts ● The William Penn Foundation ● The Pew Charitable Trusts ● Pennsylvania Council on the Arts ● Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission ● Independence Foundation ● The Malka and Jacob Goldfarb Foundation ● The Humanities-in-the Arts Initiative, administered by The Pennsylvania Humanities Council, and funded principally Waking up the people by the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts 12 ● Dance Advance, a grant program funded By Linda Goss by The Pew Charitable Trusts and administered by Drexel University 16 I’ve been telling stories ● Philadelphia Exhibitions Initiative, a grant all my life program funded by The Pew Charitable By Thelma Shelton Robinson Trusts and administered by the University of the Arts ● The Philadelphia Cultural Fund Membership form ● The Philadelphia Foundation 24 ● Stockton Rush Bartol Foundation Front cover: ● The Henrietta Tower Wurts Foundation Edith “Baby ● and wonderful individual Philadelphia Edwards” Hunt Folklore Project members and Germaine Ingram, 1993. thank you to all Photo: Jane Levine from the editor

As the first black woman the University of there is too large a gap in the hired in many workplaces, Pennsylvania, she has record, when stories are the lawyer and writer Patricia inspired many people, includ- unknowable, Ingram (and Williams has often had cause ing storyteller Linda Goss, Morgan) refuse to be daunt- to challenge bias. She who grew up with a heritage ed, turning to imagination, observes that her actions of family tales in Alcoa, fiction, and art-making, have earned her a reputation Tennessee. In the 1970s, grounded in what they do as someone with remarkable Ms. Goss was in the van- know, but naming too the insight and as a radical trou- guard of what would become tragedies of what is lost. blemaker. But she sees her a storytelling movement, and This spring, PFP will bring perspectives as far from her account in these pages all of these people to various unique: people who find her of her years at Howard stages, and we hope you’ll surprising are simply hearing, University give a glimpse of be there. Ingram’s essay for the first time, some of what it felt like to balance marks the long-delayed the everyday insights and her attachments both to a release of our documentary, common experiences of legacy of Southern rural oral Plenty of Good Women whole classes of people just tradition and to the emerging Dancers, about some of like her, but generally exclud- Black Arts and Black Power these amazing local African ed from—and unable to movements. American women hoofers. speak and be heard in—the Who has the right to call Plenty will be broadcast on contexts of universities and herself a storyteller, a poet, a March 28th on WHYY, after a law firms.1 dancer? Thelma Shelton 10-year effort by PFP (itself a Speaking common experi- Robinson describes how story). Germaine is perform- ences out loud and in unusu- other people were consid- ing her own work on May al contexts can be a danger- ered the poets when she 22nd, as part of PFP’s artists in ous, lonely, and revolutionary was young, and how she residence program. Morgan, undertaking—especially eventually came to claim the Goss and Robinson speak as when such storytelling right to define herself. It part of a PFP program on represents the perspectives takes courage to name your- self-knowledge and story- of people who are disenfran- self in terms that feel right, telling on February 19th, chised and when it chal- that allow dignity, agency, organized as part of Art lenges everyday practice. In and justice. But telling stories Sanctuary’s Celebration of this issue of Works in is about more than self-defin- Black Writing and in honor of Progress, four African ition. All the women in this ODUNDE’s 30th anniversary. American women describe magazine see stories and And Goss leads a 3-session ways that stories can shake storytelling as a responsibili- round-table storytelling pro- things up, challenge the ty. As Kathryn Morgan says gram in the new home that status quo, and keep possi- about her own storytelling PFP is currently rehabbing. (A bilities alive. They also con- mother: we pass on things great chance to share your sider some of the obstacles that ought to be known. We own stories.) There is much facing anyone following an pass on essential stories, more to tell than we can fit oral tradition. stories that are necessary. in these pages, and we invite It is 40 years since Stories about African you to check out the calen- Kathryn L. Morgan first wrote American tapper Louise dar of PFP programs on page publicly about her family’s Madison are just such essen- 23, to visit our website, or stories, handed-down tales tial stories for Germaine call us for more information: of resistance and opposition Ingram. Madison had a www.folkloreproject.org, to racism that had sustained reputation as a great dancer, 215.468.7871. We look for- generations. Insisting on the a solo act, a woman who ward to seeing you. … importance of African was anyone’s equal. These American middle class stories serve as an inspira- — Debora Kodish traditions, family folklore, and tion, and a point of beginning women’s storytelling, Dr. for Ingram’s own dancing, 1 Patricia Williams, The Rooster’s Morgan challenged a wide and for her exploration of the Egg. Cambridge: Harvard range of scholarly and popu- hidden and all-but-forgotten University Press, 1995, p. 93. lar conventions. The first histories of earlier African African American woman to American women tap get a Ph.D in Folklore from dancers. And notably, when 3 < point of view >

Left: Hortense Allen Jordan in front of the line, for the Marva Louis show, which she produced and brought to the Paramount Theater, c. 1955-56. Photo courtesy Ms. Jordan. Edith “Baby Edwards” Hunt, c. 1928. Photo courtesy Ms. Hunt.

Facing page: Cholly Atkins and Philadelphia tap dancer Dotty Saulters. Photo courtesy Ernie Smith collection. Jeni LeGon and Bill Robinson in “Hooray for Love.” Photo courtesy Ms. LeGon. “Salt and Pepper” (Edwina Evelyn and Jewel Welch). Photo courtesy Theatre Collection, Free Library of Philadelphia. 4 Imagining Louise Madison: remembering African American women dancers

by Germaine Ingram

Some might judge it a of 1993-94 when our lives discipline, excitement and rather unprepossessing seemed to revolve around the comradeship of producing a celebration—a modest spread mercurial course of “Stepping show like the ones back in the of bagels, cream cheese and in Time,”PFP’s uncommonly day.On that brisk Saturday coffee in the Folklore Project’s democratic and elastic stage morning in November 2004, cramped but welcoming office production that played to survivors of the show came on a crisp weekend morning three SRO houses at the Arts together to celebrate the in November 2004. No festive Bank at Broad and South in public release—after a decade attire— just well-worn February 1994. of wrangling with studios for Saturday-run-the-errands duds, “Stepping”was a revue the rights to screen some caps covering unprimped hair. reminiscent of the stage shows archival footage— of “Plenty of People coming and going in of the 1930s, 40s and 50s Good Women Dancers,”a PFP twos and threes, sharing hugs where African American documentary that recounts the and news of relocations, performers—dancers, singers, journey that “Stepping”took retirements, travels and other comics, variety acts and from spontaneous conception Spersonal tidbits. Friends instrumentalists—regaled in Isabelle Fambro’s basement audiences of all ages. Our peering into old photographs one Sunday afternoon to “Stepping”production was a exhibited on the walls, feathered and sequined platform for a dozen or so stitching an impromptu splendor on an Avenue of the senior Philadelphians, most of patchwork of memories of Arts stage. Laced through the them in their 60s and 70s Libby,Dee, Baby,Fambro, story of the stage production (supported by about an equal Hank, Mike, Dave, and is a tribute to four African number of younger folks, Tommy—all of whom have ranging from teenagers to American women hoofers transitioned since those heady baby boomers), to relive the whose contribution to months in the fall and winter [Continued on next page ➝] 5 imagining louise madison/continued from p. 5

Hortense Allen Jordan confers with musicians during rehearsal for “Stepping in Time.” January 1994. Photo: Thomas B. Morton

Philadelphia’s artistic and cultural York City,where as a youngster she her talents in choreography and legacy has been mostly overlooked. picked up tap steps and routines stagecraft, eventually assuming key The women who are featured in from relatives and neighbors. In creative roles in the companies of the documentary are as different 1940, eager for work, she auditioned band leaders and producers such as from one another as chocolates in a and was hired for the famous Apollo Leonard Reed (creator of the “Shim Whitman’s Sampler box. Edith “Baby Theater chorus line.As one of the Sham Shimmy,”a/k/a “The Tap Edwards”Hunt was a child star in “tall girls”on the line, she learned Dancers’ National Anthem”), Louis Philadelphia’s African American three new routines for each show, Jordan, and Larry Steele. She community from the time she was which typically changed weekly, confronted barriers with dogged four years old, enthralling and performed several shows per resourcefulness, as when she Depression-era audiences with her day.One of the highlights of her resolved to design and fabricate singing, tap dancing and acrobatics. career was being paired in costumes for dancers in her chorus (She was especially known for her performance on Broadway with Bill lines rather than settle for the old Chinese splits). She matured into a Bojangles Robinson.After marriage tattered goods that costume rental popular professional entertainer, settled her in Philadelphia, Miss houses offered black production half of the boy-girl song and dance Libby became a respected and companies.After settling down in team of Spic and Span. At the time beloved jazz and tap dance teacher Philadelphia, Hortense continued to Tof “Stepping,”Baby—well into her for children and adults throughout produce shows at the Robin Hood 70s and recovering from a heart the city. Dell, Club Harlem in Atlantic City, attack—brought the house down Even as a schoolgirl in her native and other local nightspots. (Jordan with a bold and vibrant city of St. Louis, Missouri, Hortense is the only one of Plenty’s four performance, in marked contrast to Allen Jordan forecasted the prolific subjects who survives.) her quiet and demure private dancer, choreographer, and Philadelphia native Dolores persona. producer she would become. She McHarris married into hoofing. She 6 Libby Spencer hailed from New mined every opportunity to hone trained intensively with her husband, tap dancer and all-around McHarris for her longevity and the story that Plenty tells. showman Dave McHarris, to prepare versatility.The video portrayal is It was around 1980 when I first to share his life of entertainment enhanced by archival footage of heard of Louise Madison from my and international travel. Later, she other women hoofers who defied mentor and dance partner, LaVaughn became a capable drummer, often the convention of tap as a men’s Robinson (now 78), who related his joining her husband in a show- club, among them the sensational memorable introduction to her.As stopping double-drum set routine. Lois Miller of the Philadelphia-based LaVaughn tells it, he was about 17 McHarris and Dolores toured their tap trio The Miller Brothers and Lois, years old when he and some troupe for many years before a class act that merged catchy buddies were buskin’ (dancing on settling into semi-retirement in the rhythms, sophisticated movements the street for money) around Philadelphia area. and costuming, and exciting Philadelphia’s South Street.They Each of Plenty’s subjects gives us acrobatics. One woman who would were approached by a local tap a distinct window into the roles that certainly have been represented in dancer known as “Cy”(of an act African American women have Plenty,had there been material to called Popcorn, Peanuts and Cracker played in shaping and promoting draw from, was Louise Madison, a Jacks), who invited them to ride to jazz tap dance, a dance form that is dancer little-known to today’s tap New Jersey to see an exceptional central to Philadelphia’s cultural fans, and, as far as we know, hoofer, without disclosing that the legacy and America’s contribution to undocumented on film or video. She dancer was a woman.The boys the world reservoir of dance was nonetheless remembered and jumped into Cy’s run-down auto and traditions: Baby Edwards for her greatly admired by the veteran made the short trip to the Cotton singular performance prowess; members of Stepping’s cast. But Club, a nightspot located in the Libby Spencer for her historical and even without the aid of her words historic African American political clarity; Hortense Allen or performance exemplars, Louise, community of Lawnside, New Jordan for her multiple talents and as remembered and imagined, entrepreneurial spirit; and Dee provided a palpable backdrop for [Continued on p. 18➝] 7 < Self by Kathryn L. Morgan Knowledge

Self-knowledge is who raised spears against information nec- warriors essary in the them; filling the air with the moans and development of groans of the dying, chaining together the one’s self. Na’im Akbar writes that black bodies of men, women and children, self-knowledge their wails and screams mingling with the results in four clanking of chains; turning Blackness against general out- comes: self- Blackness in a maddened struggle for

point of view acceptance, self- self-survival, leaving emptied souls frantically help,S self-discovery and self-preservation, and that “the > searching for their lifeless black bodies, foundation for most of human productive activity is found in these four processes which are direct out- swinging wild whips in passionate fits of hate, comes of self-knowledge.1 leaving hearts of black men, women and I am convinced that my family stories, my fiction, children barren of movement, piled high in and some of my poetry are important sources for insights into self-knowledge. To illustrate this point, in mounds beside pathways strewn with vomit the essay that follows, I use examples which I have writ- and decaying flesh, leaving bodies stretched ten. I provide a brief background for each example, tell a story through narrative or poetry, and demonstrate out in the darkness of night grinning up at how each example relates to self-knowledge. I speak the moon.“3 only for myself. When my brothers and I were growing up in One of the almost ageless beliefs among Africans Philadelphia in the 1930s and 1940s we were constantly and their descendants throughout the diaspora is the told stories about slavery.2 My mother told us tales belief in life after death. The souls and spirits of the about how my great-grandmother Caddy was born free ancestors could not only whisper in the wind, they can and kidnapped and sold into slavery when she was sing. If you listen with your heart, you can hear them. eight years old. She also told us stories about children Maggie believed this. She taught us to believe it. in Africa, awakened in the middle of the night, dragged And we were taught that some of our African ancestors screaming, kicking, blind with terror, who were thrown chose death by drowning rather than enslavement in into slave ships and brought to the strange land. the strange land. My mother Maggie acted out these stories; she I vaguely remember a childish whisper one night cried; she hugged us; she put us to bed. She always that always haunted me. “Mommy, what does it feel like reminded us of how lucky we were to have a wonderful to drown?” This question was never answered by mother like her, a nice bed to sleep in, and the knowl- Maggie. And, as far as I know, despite the intensity of edge that nobody could come to drag us out of bed in the academic arguments about how many Africans per- the middle of the night to send us to a strange land. ished at sea, no academic has been able to answer it Maggie always gave us something to make us thankful either, And so I attempted to answer it in “Song of and we were taught to value freedom and to never for- Nino, the Young Bride” whose spirit sings: get what slavery was like. I remember those stories, about the night raids, the murders and the rapes. And I saw the ship of death. long afterwards, I wrote about a fictional village in Africa called Camino: I remember my decision to die. I jumped and felt the rush “Camino, a coastal city, was attacked in the of unknown waters middle of the night…The raiders crawled commanding my breath, out of the sea like a body of locusts, obscuring running like blazing fuel the moon and stars, swarming over the land, through my mouth, my nostrils, destroying green things, killing black 8 my brain. A limitless terror washed through me. tion. For life is empty devoid of emotion. But in I struggled. I strangled. war, emotion must be backed up with intellect, I saw the myriad waters vibrate power, discipline. like a rainbow of flashing claws Tears, curses, passivity and escapism never joining in the suffocating wetness won battles, fed the hungry, clothed the naked, penetrating, possessing, devouring housed the homeless, weakened the enemy, beast flinging me with or…cut through chains.”5 a roar within, without. The life patterns, beliefs and customs traditionally 4 valued by the storytellers in my family include: I was gone. Remember the horrors of slavery. Never forget it. My work with my family stories, slave narratives, Cherish freedom. Listen to the wind for the whisper of ex-slave narratives, oral and written history, literature the ancestor’s song. Listen with your heart and you will about black folk, and first hand experience with the ter- hear it. Weep not, we are at war. A war started long ago. ror and violence of the racial status quo in the United What does all this say? Fantasy can be used to States helped me to shape the following fictional con- reflect the outcomes of self-knowledge. However, it can versation with my ancestor, Caroline Gordon of be used to revitalize history, not to replace it. It can be Lynchburg, Virginia, affectionately called Caddy. If she used as one instrument in the mass of weaponry need- could speak to me about her life what would she say? ed in the struggle for black liberation from racism and How would she describe her contemporaries, those injustice in the United States. It functions to free the trapped in the terror of the slave labor system? What image of black folk behind the famous from their burial does this have to do with self-knowledge? I called the in a sea of undifferentiation. It functions to stir up the piece “The Sage”: “mass” and capture the kaleidoscopic sense of complex- ity and diversity reflected in African American experi- “Weep not for me because I am dead ences in the United States. It makes no pretense of con- and you knew me not. Remember only that I formity nor omnipotence. It values difference and does not deem it a hindrance to ultimate unity. It creates lived long enough to discover that I was not rather than documents and is based firmly upon the one but many. If you attach yourself only to conviction that as much can be learned about self- my suffering, I become nothing but the residue knowledge from fiction as from fact. of oppression. Remember, I lived long enough to discover that I was part of a hurricane, part Dr. Kathryn L. Morgan is Sara Laurence Lightfoot Emerita Professor of History and Senior Research Scholar at of the twirl of lust, passion, joy, sorrow, cruel- Swarthmore College. Formerly on the board of the ty, kindness, hate, love, laughter, birth and Philadelphia Folklore Project, she is part of this year’s Local Knowledge project (p. 17). For more information about Dr. death that make up human existence. I knew Morgan, visit the PFP website (www.folkloreproject.org.) wind, rain, water, fire and clouds. I discovered Notes the beauty and ruthlessness in nature. Weep not for me because I am dead... 1 The Community of Self. Jersey City, New Jersey: Mind Production, 1985. p. 31 Remember, I lived long enough to discover my own internal contradictions. I discovered my 2 Some of these stories are recounted in Kathryn L. Morgan, Children of Strangers: The Stories of a Black Family. own strengths, weaknesses, lies, truths, false- Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1980 ness, and sincerity. I experienced the constan- 3 cy of internal change within me. So I was both Adapted from Kathryn Morgan, “More Excerpts from the Midnight Sun,” Journal of Ethnic Studies 5:1 (1977), pp. 86, hero and coward, conqueror and conquered, 88. king and subject, owner and slave. Negative 4 Adapted from Kathryn Morgan,“More excerpts from the and positive like everything else, everywhere. Midnight Sun,” Journal of Ethnic Studies 5:1 (1977), p. 89. So you see, if you put my suffering above all 5 Ibid “On black images and blackness,” Black World else, you stress only one part of me, only one (December 1973), pp. 84-85. part of the whole. If you glorify my beauty, then you deny my ugliness. If you thus simplify my existence, you desecrate my complexity. Weep not, for you have neither time nor energy…to waste. Remember you are at war. A war started long ago. But do not abandon emo- 9 by Linda Goss profile * artist

10 Photos this page: Linda Goss and her mother, Alcoa, Tennessee, c. 1990s. Linda and her cousin Carolyn Crab- tree, c. 1960s. Photos courtesy Linda Goss. Facing page: Linda Goss, 2004. Photo: Debora Kodish Waking up the people ell, I guess I’ve always would call collect, you know, to ries, he’ll start laughing. And he been fascinated with my mom. He would call with a may start out on a very high W listening to stories. different name. He would say, note. He may end just sobbing And I used to just listen to my “It’s James calling.” And he and crying, telling you about my aunts and uncles and you would trick her. Because if she grandmother, telling you about know, my grandfather, and—I knew it was Buster, she wouldn’t some of the sad things that have have an uncle who is living accept the call. So he would say, happened in the town too. now, Uncle Buster. And he is “It’s Tyler on the phone.” Or “It’s So from him, I guess, I such a character. He is funny! Lyle on the phone.” And he has developed just the whole idea of And he is always telling stories. all of these names. His name is just how powerful a story can And he is really, like an oral his- James Lyle Tyler Martin. And he’s be. How it can just lift you up torian. And it hasn’t been until known as Buster. So whenever and at the same time, it can kind recently that we even think of he would call, it was always a of purge you. It can kind of heal him as an historian, but that’s story, just behind him. And at you. And even to this day, I kind what he is. That’s what he is. the same time, as funny as he is, of lean on Uncle Buster when I He’s in his 80s and people will there’s also a sadness about him. see him. I kind of lean on him come to him and they’ll just And it wasn’t until as I got older for a little strength to just keep call out a name. They may say, that I discovered what that me going, and making me real- “The Dean family” and he takes sadness was. ize that you do have to pull out you all the way back. Really, Because, it’s almost like some of those stories that can like the griots, back in Africa. people let Uncle Buster be kind of heal you, and some of You know. So whenever he himself. And come to find out, those stories that are painful. sees me now, he just hugs me he was in World War Two. I think But it’s important to get them and we’ll get to talking about he was stationed in Alaska or out. It’s important to express different things. And he really somewhere. And my grandmoth- yourself. And I guess I’m think- kind of inspires me. er passed away. And for some ing about him even more right When I was younger, I was reason, when he got the word now, because we are in a war sit- influenced by my grandfather. about it, by the time he got back uation. And that’s how my story- You know, by granddaddy to Tennessee, everything was telling is. Depending on what’s Murphy, and my parents. And over. Her funeral and everything. going on in the world, depend- Uncle Buster, I would hear about And he never—well, to this day, ing on what’s going on in my him. He was always the one who he has never gotten over it. So life, what’s going on in my fami- would call on the phone and he even when he starts telling sto- [Continued on p. 14➝] 11 Telling stories

profile my whole life *

Thelma Shelton Robinson primarily focuses her tales on her own life experiences, and shares stories that she heard coming up in Philadelphia in the 1940s-1950s in a richly oral tradition. Her father was a vivid

artist storyteller and her mother raised her on stories about her own childhood in Virginia. A weekend roomer, Mrs. Walton, told "stories… so scary you were afraid to go to bed." Her father's corner store, Veteran's Rest, was a hangout for Ms. Robinson as a child; she'd go in and out, listening to neigh- bors passing time and telling tales. She valued what she heard, appreciating the different narrative styles and per- spectives. She reflects, "When an elder passes, it's like a library burns down because there is so much information that is lost. And without other people who know that infor- mation—it just goes." Growing up near 12th and South Streets in Philadelphia, around the corner from the Standard Theater, Ms. Robinson watched street corner singing, dancing, and preaching, all of which left a lasting impression. She also loved the rhyming poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar and Langston Hughes, and she loved music—from the Wings Over Jordan Choir to Louis Jordan and his Tympany 5. But it wasn't until she retired from decades of secretarial work that she began to truly pursue her love of poetry and storytelling. Over the last decades, she has made her presence felt, performing in storytelling celebrations, schools, and other social, civil and education- al gatherings. She has received a PCA Fellowship in Folk and Traditional Arts and was awarded the Oshun award in 2003, from ODUNDE, Inc., naming her the "poet laureate of South Philadelphia." Here she reflects on how she became a poet and storyteller.

12 Family photos: Thelma’s by Thelma father, “Hop Dick” Shelton, and Thelma, courtesy of the artist. Facing page: Thelma Shelton Robinson Shelton Robinson 2004, photo : Debora Kodish. Painting, “Yo Mama” courtesy Ife Nii-Owoo.

find that truth is stranger They had people on the corner I crossed that street. Then I saw than fiction. If you tell some preaching, or tap-dancing, or what- this old friend of the family. His of these true stories, people not. That was commonplace. I’d name was Mr. Whitey. He was a don't believe it. I tell about watch things—because, you know, plumber. And he called me Mommy things that I remembered as a the different things you see- the Lump. He says to me, “Where you child,I and about things that were actions that people put on. What going, Mommy Lump?” I said, “I’m important, not just to me, but to you would see happening in the going to school. But I need a book everybody. Experience doesn't neighborhood, well, the truth is and a pencil and piece of apple matter if you haven't got stories. stranger than fiction. pie.” (Always worried about my I always loved stories. And I I put myself in school. Because stomach! ) So he laughed and he loved to listen to stories in the my brother and my sisters were took me to the corner store, Mr. neighborhood. My father was a older than I was. I was the Snyderman’s little store, and I got walking storybook. See, he was a youngest. One morning I woke up the book and I got the pencils. hustler. He did so many things. He and none of them were there. That Then we went next door. I think used to tell me back in Norfolk, he was odd. And when I asked my there was a Greek restaurant there would sell fish. And he used to mother where they were, she said, and I got a piece of French apple have a cart, and he’d say, “Miss “They went to school.” So at that pie with the ice cream on the top Annie. Get your pots and pans, time, people would put their chil- and the raisins in it. So I was all set! here I am the FISH man!” He dren out—they could go outside So he was laughing! It tickled him. always had something that would and play and not worry what was He just walked me on. He said, rhyme. He would make things up, going to happen too much. So I “Are you really going to school?” like: “To see how sweet your home can be, go away but keep the key.” He’d say things like that all the I always loved stories. And I loved to time. My father, he had charm. People loved to talk to him. And he listen to stories in the neighborhood. loved talking! He had so many sto- ries. After he came to Philadelphia, My father was a walking he sold vegetables. He sold papers. Then he had this little store on the corner of Twelfth and Rodman. And storybook. he named it the Veteran’s Rest. And he had mainly men coming in went out to play and nobody was I said, “Yes.” there. You know, that corner store out. And every house I went to on So we went around on where they shoot the bull. They our side of the street, everytime I Lombard Street and down to the played cards and they played rang the bell or knocked on the school entrance. And he stood at checkers. And they’d argue. And door, I would ask for the child and the gate and he says, “OK, I’ll see they’d talk about their war experi- the mother would tell me, “They’re you.” And I says, “OK.” And he just ences and everything. in school.” stood there and he was just laugh- We lived at 506 South Sartain Nobody was outside but me. ing, and this lady happened to Street, which was right across the And I said, “School? I want to go to come up and she had a little girl street from the Standard Theater school, too!” she was going to enroll, so I went on South Street. And that was the So I knew it was taboo to cross in with them. And when I got main thoroughfare. I mean—there the street. But I wanted to go to inside, there was a nun there. And were so many things you could see. school. So I looked, and I went and the lady was giving her the informa-

[Continued on p. 16➝] 13 waking up the people /continued from p. 11

ly, kind of steers me into a way of when I was little, was Peter Rabbit. my teachers would put on the how my stories come across. But I didn’t realize until as I got papers, “This is so unorthodox. But So the things that I know of my older, once my mom got sick, that go ahead.” I wasn’t conforming to grandmothers are stories that have that was her favorite story. So she what was considered acceptable been passed on to me from my would tell me the story of Peter theater or standardized theater at father and my mother. And what I Rabbit all the time. So I just loved the time. I guess I was more into an noticed that happens within the hearing about him. My father and avant-garde thing, or trying to pull black family is that there are stories my grandfather would tell me out some of my Black roots and that we share to the public, there stories of Buh Rabbit, and I would things like that. are stories we share with the world, kind of mix the two together, you I was always relating things to but then there are very personal know. My mother, really, was very back home. At the time, that was stories—I think Zora Neale Hurston religious and she would tell me lots considered unorthodox, because I talked about that—that we just of Bible stories. And the way they was there to study Shakespeare keep inside, that we don’t share would tell me these stories—it and Ibsen. with anyone, that we don’t share would just frighten me. It would Again, being at Howard—you even share within our families. just scare me, you know. had all these people coming And once I started sharing with I didn’t start calling myself a through. You had LeRoi Jones (who people that I was a storyteller, that’s storyteller really until 1973. Before became Amiri Baraka) coming when the family members started that. I was in theater. Before that I through, and Ossie Davis, as well as coming to me, sharing with me some was a poet. I was a writer. I always Eldridge Cleaver and Muhammed of these stories, some of the stories I wanted to be writer. I think I Ali, you know. So this just put a had never heard before. announced I was going to be a spark in us. So I joined this group And it could have been because writer when I was about 8 or 9 called Theater Black. At first it was of my age, because I was a child. years old. Theater Noir, then it became But I was always listening out. I was My mother encouraged me no Theater Black, and then it became one of these kids always eavesdrop- matter what I wanted to do. If I said WATTSA, and WATTSA stood for We ping, always finding out about stuff. I was going to be a poet, my moth- Ain’t Takin’ This Shit Anymore! So it I would pretend like I was on the er and father said, “Right on.” I got very, very, crazy, you know! So couch asleep but I’d be really eaves- remember when I said I was going we were doing Malcolm X poems dropping. You know what I’m say- to be a track runner. “Right on.” No and I wrote this poem called ing. So that’s how I found out matter what I said. I even said, one “Black.” You know, “You call me about a lot of stuff. time, I wanted to be a humanitari- black, white man…” Later, Glenda But now, now that I’ve gotten an. I didn’t even know what that Dickerson put it in one of her pro- older and I’m supposedly the so- was—they said “Right on.” I wanted ductions. I don’t even know all the called storyteller, now people come to be an interpreter. I got hung up words to it. I just remember that at to me with other stories. … with the United Nations. . . and the time, it became popular. And I was always curious and I because I was from a little town, I what I started doing in my presen- could read at a very young age was influenced by television. I tations, I started taking songs. I according to my parents. Of would have all these crazy ideas. remember taking Nina Simone’s course everybody kind of exagger- Then the people in the town would songs, and Johnny Taylor’s songs, ates. Everybody’s a storyteller in give you ideas, too. They would say, and Langston Hughes’ poems and I my family! They claimed I was “Oh, the way you walk, Linda, I would dramatize them. And I would reading when I was two or three. think you should be a nurse.” Or, do them in a way—it was kind of But I became very ill. I had pneu- the way you talk, you should be a like a storytelling thing, you know, monia or chicken pox at the same lawyer.” Plus I played the piano and and this would just excite the time and then I forgot everything. I played the flute and even though I crowd.... I became so sick they thought I was terrible at it, people said I And I was always still thinking was going to die. And that’s a should go into music. So I had all about the folktales I had heard as a story in itself. But when I came these ideas and somehow this led kid, plus I was reading folktales, out of that my mother started to theater. If I had to do it all over and I think the 60s was a time reading to me again and telling again, it probably would have led to when a lot of collections were pub- me stories. And they tell me how I folklore, but at the time that wasn’t lished. You know, Harold would carry around a wagon. I mentioned to me. Courlander and all these things, would pull it. And inside were all And the thing was, I knew I and Howard had a tremendous these books, my favorite books. wanted to go to Howard University, library. Plus DC had these tremen- Now I have a vague recollection, and going to Howard I came across dous bookstores. So I was reading but that’s because they had told all kinds of people and movements. all these things, plus I was in the me that, over and over again. I was right there during the Black [Howard Student Center, called But I just loved stories. I loved Arts, Black Power, Black History the] Punch Out sharing my tales of listening to stories on the radio, too. Movements. And at the time, I start- home, and I think things kind of 14 My favorite story at the time, ed writing my own little things. And came to a head for my senior pro- ject. Because as a senior, you had to have this program and they wanted were adult. You know, because a do a recitation or whatever. And it to reflect all of the black arts. And story is an animal story, they tend to most people would do scenes from Stephen Henderson was the one think it is a story for children, but it plays. And again, me and my avante- who said, “You know, we need sto- is a story for everybody. So I was garde unorthodox self, I got up rytelling. We need a storyteller.” And telling these animal stories, but they there and did a whole thing of sto- that’s the first time that that idea were really for the adults. And I rytelling, telling stories, singing. clicked in my head. And my hus- would tell a story that almost kind But that kind of led me more band was teaching in the depart- of had a political thing to it. In other into the storytelling and into the ment at the time, and he thought of words, a person had to figure it out folktales. Because I had been in the me, because I was telling stories, I for themselves, but the whole Punch Out just sharing stories from was telling stories to him, I was power of a fable, of an animal story home, you know, about ‘splo and all telling stories to my kids. So he is that even though you’re talking that kind of stuff. And I though came home and he said, “Linda,” he on an animal, it’s taking on human everybody knew what ‘splo was. said, “They’re looking for a story- characteristics. Also, you have to Because ‘splo was like home-brew, teller.” And I said, “Well, here I am.” remember, this was a time during home-made liquor, you know. And I And that’s how I started, really. the Vietnam War. There was all think the reason it was called But that first program that I did. kinds of things going on during that ‘splo- because that was like short for I think I told a story about Buh time. So my stories tended to be explosion. And once you taste it— fables and animal stories but they well, just the smell would knock were stories again to kind of wake Photo: Linda Goss and rel- you. … So when I would talk about up people. To kind of excite the atives on a rare snowy day crowd, you know, to get people to in Tennessee, c. late 1950s- what was going on down in early 1960s. Photos cour- Tennessee at the Punch Out some react, to express themselves. And tesy of artist. of the people were shocked. during the 60s and 70s, you could Because some of the people who say pretty much anything you want- came to Howard at that time were ed to say. There was no censorship, considered like the light bright. like there is now. They came from the middle class. And you’d hear all kinds of Their parents were like judges and stuff, and I remember Leroi Jones lawyers and doctors and all of that. coming to Howard’s campus, on So some of the stuff I was sharing— campus. They would do programs some of them were embarrassed by on the steps, and he did this fabu- it. Some of them had never heard Rabbit and I think I even did an lous program. Nowadays we would of it. Aesop fable. I was just doing what- call it spoken arts, poetry, or that So a lot of these elements were ever I had been telling my kids. And type of thing. In those time, it didn’t kind of bursting out of me. And like I I remember I had all these cloths, really have a title. But to hear LeRoi said, they kind of reached a head with and after I had done everything, it Jones do his poem “Up against the me at Howard, with me still liking the- was like people were just staring at wall”…It was like nothing I had ever ater but kind of merging them togeth- me. It was like they had never seen heard before in my life! And he and er. And then I remember when my anything like that before, just star- his manner, his mannerisms had the husband, Clay, was a teacher there. ing. I didn’t know if they liked it or elements of what I would call story- And you had black poets, you had what they felt. But then they come telling. Because Leroi Jones would black dramatists, you had all this stuff, up to me and they hugged me, and do his poetry to get the word out. you know black, black, black, black, they said, “Wow this is just unbeliev- In other words, he did whatever he black, but there was nothing in terms able, this is something.” So from could to get the word out. He might of black storytelling, in terms of pre- there, I said, well, this is what I’m be hollering or screaming or stomp- serving the folktales. going to do now. This is it. I’ve ing and all that kind of stuff. And And Stephen Henderson, he had found my calling. Because that was that’s the kind of stuff I wanted to developed something called the the thing, trying to find your calling. do. So storytelling kind of gave me Institute for the Arts and Humanities. So this was it. that outlet, where I could mimic And he is really the one that started And being at Howard and being people. Because I loved the idea of bringing all the different Black Arts at those times, I thought of story- making faces, I loved the idea of together. Because, like I said, the telling as a political statement. And mimicking people…. Black Arts Movement really came that’s where I come out of it. Like I I didn’t know that that was con- out of the poetry and the plays. And said, I come out of the Black Arts sidered an African way of telling a it was really almost like a Black male and Black Power movement, and I story. I was just telling a story the movement, too. You had people wanted to make a political state- best way I knew how. My influ- such as Sonia Sanchez, who is one ment. So I would use storytelling. ences—I mean coming from my of the people who emerged, but it And I would say “ancient tales for mother, my father, my grandfather, was really dominated by the men, new times.” you know, my aunts and uncles, the you know. And they were going to And my audiences at the time [Continued on page 21➝] 15 telling stories /continued from p. 13

tion for her daughter. And I was stuck with me. At school there was it any mind. They don’t say anything standing there. And finally the sister another girl. Phyllis. Paul Laurence about it. And then children come said, “Well, how about this little Dunbar seemed to be her baby. And along and they’re shocked! They girl?” And the lady said, “I don’t she’d do that. So I would do other never heard that before. know her! She didn’t come with things. I loved rhyme. That’s how I After I retired, I went to this me!” And so the sister asked me would remember. One time I could poetry reading. And I was just sur- what was my name. I knew my flip them right off. That’s what I prised that the people liked what I name and I told her that my brother love— it’s just like songs! You hear wrote. Before that, I had a thing. I and my sisters went to that school, a song and you like it, you hear it would always write. But I would never and I told her their names. So she enough, you’ll learn the words. read it. I’d always give it to some- says, “All right. But you have to have I guess I started writing in high body else to read. And so this way, at a seat.” So I was elated! Because all school. But I really didn’t push it. the open mike, I started reading. of the kids were there, and the Because we had a girl. Chaka And when I found out I wasn’t teacher, she was singing, and I’ll Fattah’s mother, Frances Davenport, being laughed at, I went along with never forget: “A, B, C, D, E, F, G.…” she was in my class at Southern. it. I used to just go for the open And I learned my ABCs! But I wasn’t And Frances was the poet. So I reading, and then Bob Smalls, Poets old enough to be in school. And the never even considered myself as a and Prophets, he asked me to be a thing about it was, when we went to poet, right? Because you know how featured reader. And that’s how I recess, we came out of the school they say who’s going to be what? started. I had no intentions. I didn’t and went into the schoolyard, and I Well, they said Frances was definite- have even any plans as to what I was standing there getting ready to ly the poet. One teacher there said, wanted to do after I retired. But play something. And I looked at the there’re two girls in this room who something came— and something I gate and here came my mother. She have a tendency to poetry. And she never even dreamed about. I said, was running—she didn’t know what said, “Frances Davenport.” I knew “I’ve been telling stories all my had happened to me. But Mr. that. Then she said, “Thelma life—but not this way!” Whitey had gone and told her, said Shelton.” I said—“What?” I didn’t I think that after I went to that “Mommy Lump said she was going know it! I didn’t even pay it any mind. first reading, I said to myself, “I to go to school and I took her When I was working for the could do that,” so after that, every- there. “So when I saw here, I knew I city, this guy was retiring and they body had some kind of title, and I was headed home. And I started wanted someone to write a verse do write in rhyme, so I said, “I’m a crying. And the nun, Sister Helen and I happened to come into the poetic storyteller.” That’s how I Rita, I remember her—She told my office, and this little secretary—she come up with that. And then I hesi- mother. She says, “Oh, don’t take said, talking about me, “She could tated saying that. I said to myself, her.” She says. “Her brother or her write it.” I said “OK.” And it wasn’t I’m stepping too far. sisters can take her home at that difficult to write, because this I’ve had a couple of older lunchtime.” Because I was enjoying man was comical, and everybody women come to me and say, “Oh, I myself. And she let me stay. liked it. So then, every time some- wish I could do that.” If I can do it, And my sister Lucy brought me body retired, they’d get me to write you can do it, too! I don’t think any- home at lunchtime. And evidently, a verse. I gave away so many body’s life is boring. If you don’t after lunch I must have fell off to poems. Because I didn’t think it was write about yourself, you write sleep because when I woke up my anything special. about things that you see. And I do sister was coming in from school in And so then I started thinking find that people like to listen to the afternoon, and I wanted to go about the different stories that fasci- something that they can relate to. back. I told her, “Mom, can I go nated me: Corrine Sykes, Soldiers That’s what I try to do. What I back?” And when my sister came in, on the Trolley. So I just wrote ‘em write, it’s not any original story. It’s she was always loud. And first thing for myself. I wrote Soldiers on the a story that I actually saw or heard she hollered out, “Sister wants to Trolley because my son, we were about that stayed with me. Lasting know when Thelma’s coming back!” talking one day, and he was in impressions. That’s what it is, that’s And that was it! I cried and I cried Drexel and he thought he knew what I tell. The things that have and I begged and I begged. So final- everything. So he was telling me stuck with me. ly, she let me go the next day. So I something, and I said, “Oh yeah, started going to school! But they that was like soldiers on the trolley.” Ms. Robinson will rell stories as part of couldn’t promote me because I was- And he said “What soldiers on the the PFP “Self Knowledge” program on n’t six. And so they had me stay in trolley?” And the same thing for February 19th. See next page. first grade for an extra school term. Corinne Sykes. He was instrumental So that’s about it! That’s how I put in my doing it because he didn’t myself in school. know about it. And I thought, well, I memorized poems when I if he doesn’t know about it, there was young. Just for myself. I loved are a lot of people who have seen Paul Laurence Dunbar. His poetry historical things, but they don’t pay 16 PFP, ODUNDE & ART SANCTUARY PRESENT Folklore & Self-Knowledge: How stories tell us who we are. February 19, 2005 1 PM – 5 PM Church of the Advocate, 18th and Diamond Streets Admission: $5 or a good story about why you don’t have it! (Three special prizes) An afternoon of stories and recollections from pioneering African American scholars and storytellers:

● Dr. Kathryn Morgan ● Linda Goss ● Thelma Shelton Robinson

For everyone who’s ever listened to or loved a story, told a lie, or struggled to find a truth. Pioneers in their own right, these scholars and artists of the spoken word will share stories and talk about their own journeys in storytelling. Reading, telling, Q & A and discussion. Followed by a recep- tion. Introduction by Lois Fernandez. Part of the Celebration of Black Writing. In honor of ODUNDE's 30th anniversary and in memory of Gerald L. Davis. Don’t miss it!

For more information visit www.folkloreproject.org, or call 215.468.7871 imagining louise madison/continued from p. 7

Jersey. LaVaughn and friends took admired Madison’s dancing. tone, hair texture, and facial seats in a remote corner of the (LaVaughn relates that a pot of features—imposed by blacks as nightclub and guzzled cherry- beans and hog jowl was simmering well as white—and its impact on garnished glasses of ginger-ale that on the stove when they arrived, and who got what breaks, is a frequent Cy brought for them. Soon Louise Louise invited them to join her for theme in the testimonies of the hit the stage, dancing solo, decked dinner.) There were suspicions, or women featured in Plenty and out in white trousers, white tails, assumptions, that she was gay.She other women entertainers of that and low-heeled shoes (“just like a enjoyed a good card game, era. Or might she have been limited man would wear,”LaVaughn especially in the downtime spent in by her choice to perform solo? added).“She was doing so much dressing rooms between shows. While there were other women dancing, it was unbelievable.”Her Some of the Philadelphia tap who had solo acts, (the Stearns command of the stage and the veterans were convinced that she assert that if women dancers were quality of her rhythms captured was responsible for steering Baby good, they usually performed alone,

LaVaughn’s attention and Laurence to abandon singing for as soloists),2 it seems that the This page: Hortense Allen embedded themselves in his tap dancing—a career move that convention of the time for both Jordan and Libby memory,such that, more than a half resulted in Laurence becoming a men and women hoofers was to Spencer in finale of century later, you can still hear the jazz tap icon. Marshall and Jean perform in teams of two, three, or “Stepping in Time,” excitement in his description of Stearns, in their classic volume Jazz four dancers—although outside of February 1994. Next page: Libby Spencer this first encounter: “She was doing Dance:The Story of American chorus lines, it was relatively rehearsing dancers for as much dancing as any tap lover Vernacular Dance,credit Louise uncommon for women to perform “Stepping.” Photos would ever want to see!”About a with “cut[ting] a five-tap Wing like a in an all-female ensemble. LaVaughn courtesy Jane Levine. decade later, in 1955,LaVaughn, by man.”1 It’s not clear when or why cites a business motive for the then a professional hoofer, she retired from performing. prevalence of duos, trios, etc., in encountered Louise when they Entertainers who were Louise’s that agents could demand bigger both were on a show at New York’s peers wondered and speculated fees, and realize larger Apollo Theater. Once again, he was why,given her stage presence and commissions, for a team than for a awed by her style and technique technical skill, she did not have a single tap dancer. Other and she was generous with her longer and more successful career. explanations include Isabelle encouragement to LaVaughn and (As LaVaughn put it,“why she never Fambro’s perspective that her and his dance partners. did make it like she should have”). her partner’s act, Billy and Eleanor Despite Louise’s popularity with Without a doubt, opportunities Byrd, was designed to capitalize on audiences and the respect she were limited for black performers the popularity of Marge and Gower commanded from her peers, little is in general, and especially for Champion, who were the known about her career or private women who dared to pursue such prototypical white elegant stage life.What glimpses there are tend to a male-dominated domain as tap couple. For Baby Edwards, working be fragmented and disconnected. dancing. But beyond these with a male partner gave her We know that she lived in North considerable hurdles, was she protection and a sense of security Philadelphia: LaVaughn once visited hampered, as Dave McHarris on the road. her along with master tap dancer pronounced, by her looks? The Was Louise’s use of male attire Jerry Taps Sealy,who greatly tyranny of attitudes toward skin onstage off-putting to agents and 18 presenters? Other female to speculate on what social factors forerunners and contemporaries of and personal choices might have Louise donned suits, ties and low- driven or hindered Louise’s dance heeled suits. Mildred Candi Thorpe career,we will have to content and Jewel Pepper Welch, of the ourselves with what little we know of Philadelphia-based team of Candi her.It has been many years since she and Pepper wore zoot suits and could speak to us in her own voice, Windsor-knotted ties.When and it is unlikely that her surviving interviewed in the early 1990s, contemporaries can illuminate the Candi noted that “people wanted to details of her life and talent more than see flesh but we never exposed our they have already.But even if a trove bodies.”Indeed, one of the most of data lay right around the corner,I successful and durable acts in think I would prefer the Louise in my

vaudeville, the Whitman Sisters imagination—the Louise conjured troupe, featured one of the sisters as from a few scraps of potent a male impersonator. But I wouldn’t storytelling,the Louise whose powers underestimate the ambivalence of self-invention and whose there might have been in Louise’s willingness to challenge custom and time toward women who dared to convention are unsullied by challenge convention by not only inconvenient facts.I prefer the Louise practicing a male art form, but also whose technical and stylistic muscle ●●● presenting themselves dressed is immune to comparisons with like men. grainy film footage and offhand, Long-time PFP board member A personal experience that possibly uninformed,critiques.I Germaine Ingram initiated the PFP offered me a glimpse of attitudes choose the Louise in my imagination, Tap Initiative which included that Louse Madison and her peers the one that was,in LaVaughn’s interviews with veteran Philadelphia might have encountered occurred words, unbelievable. hoofers, and which resulted in the in 1989 when LaVaughn and I were in production Stepping in Time, and the 1 New York City taping the PBS special, NY: Macmillan, 1968, p.195 documentary and exhibition Plenty Gregory Hines’Tap Dance in 2 ibid, p. 195 of Good Women Dancers. Germaine America.LaVaughn and I,both is currently a consultant on dressed in tuxedos,had just finished educational and child welfare policy our up-tempo,wing-filled rendition of and programs.To purchase the newly “How High the Moon.”The wife of tap released DVD Plenty of Good Women legend Bunny Briggs came backstage Dancers, see p. 20, or visit our and congratulated me on my dancing, website. Plenty will be broadcast in then added,“Dear,you need to get the Philadelphia area on March 28, yourself a little skirt. At first I thought 2005 at 10 PM on WHYY-TV 12. you were a young boy up there.” As intriguing as it is to theorize, 19 WomenPlenty Dancers:of Good african american women hoofers from philadelphia

This long-awaited documentary NOW AVAILABLE! features exceptional local African American women tap dancers whose careers spanned the 1920s-1950s. Restricted to few roles, often unnamed and uncredited, these women have a story to tell! Glamorous film clips, photographs, and dancers’ own vivid recollec- tions provide a dynamic portrait of veteran women hoofers promi- nent during the golden age of swing and rhythm tap.

Plenty was directed by Germaine Ingram, Debora Kodish, and Barry Dornfeld, and produced by Debora Kodish and Barry Dornfeld.

53 minutes. 2004. DVD. $24.95 individuals, $65 institutions. ISBN 0-9644937-6-4.

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Make checks out to Philadelphia Folklore Project, and mail to PFP, 1304 Wharton St., Phila., PA 19147. Questions? 215.468.7871 or [email protected]. THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT!

order with credit cards at www.folkloreproject.org waking up the people/continued from p. 15 town itself…and then hearing peo- didn’t know what I was talking about, oh well!” “Story! Story-telling time!” ple like a Amiri Baraka or a Jayne what I was going to do. “Well, oh well, well,” that came Cortez, a Sonia Sanchez and also And at the time I was very dis- from a little man called Squeal ‘em seeing and hearing Sun Ra and appointed. I was very, you know, Carr. Now to this day I do not know Ornette Coleman and Pharaoh discouraged, and I think that’s what his real name. Because a lot of peo- Saunders and Sonny Rollins—and kind of reminded me of the story ple in my town have nicknames. once you started seeing these peo- my grandfather used to tell about Everybody has a nickname. You ple, and hearing these people…and the frog who wanted to be a singer, know the Negro Leagues, the base- all this just kind of came together how you had to keep going and ball teams, would come though the for me so that I emerged. that was a story I was telling to my town and they would play in this And the whole thing with me kids anyway. And that kind of led big field that isn’t there anymore, with storytelling was to not only to me to telling that story in public. you know, and whenever there was be influenced by my culture but They started the Smithsonian a home run, you could hear “Well, also to develop my own thing. I’m Festival of American Folklife and oh well, well!” and it just took me the kind of person that I want to be Bernice Reagon was at Howard and out! It was like, “Who is that?! Who unique, no matter what I do.... [my husband] Clay and her would is saying that?!” Again, I was curi- So even with my storytelling, talk and she heard about what I was ous. I always had the questions. I’m always looking for ways, explor- doing and she said, “Well, maybe And my mother said, “That’s Squeal ing it, taking it out, take it in differ- Linda should be featured.” And I ‘em Carr,” you know. And my moth- ent directions, you know, because remember that I had to kind of like er would sing it around the house to me storytelling is so powerful come and audition for her. And I too. In other words, that became and I think it is so important and so was so afraid, so nervous. I could like something people would say crucial to really get the story out. hardly talk. I was stuttering, around the town, because you And I think of storytelling, really, as because I stutter anyway. I could think of Squeal ‘em Carr and that a force, and I think of it as a survival hardly move. My feet were so saying, you know. And one day, I tool, and I think that’s how we as a wooden. And I really did a horrible saw Squeal ‘em Carr, and he was so people survived, and I think that’s job. But it was something in me, tiny. He was a very short man. And how people— human beings as a something she saw. And she the whole idea of something that species— will continue to survive— encouraged me, and she said, “Well, powerful, that you could hear all if we get the story out. And I think you can come and you can tell your over that field, coming out of his what’s happening now is really a stories.” And I just remember she voice, you know. So apparently, suppression of the story, of the said, “I just hope you”—I remem- when Bernice said “You’ve got to word, getting out. ber she pointed to my feet—“I just call ‘em,” that is what came out I was so shocked when I heard hope you move your feet a of me. there were other storytellers, little more. “ And what happened next, I because I thought I was so unique! And then in ’75 they had me to bought some bells. These are bells I thought. “Oh boy, I’m the only tell stories. But one year, when I that I have been using ever since storyteller in the world!” I think the was there, they had me to come the 70s. I thought that since I am first storyteller I started hearing out of this shack, which was similar going to be at the Smithsonian, and about was either Brother Blue or to what was in my home town, and I’m using my voice—I got to do Mary Carter Smith. They had a they even had a garden. And I something else [to attract people] tremendous influence on me, espe- never will forget. And I think so I started ringing the bells. cially Brother Blue, because he was Bernice just said this. But they And so, once I kind of emerged so different, he was so unique and I didn’t have—they didn’t give me a as a storyteller, and when I told my was influenced by that. microphone. Either they couldn’t grandfather what I was doing, that’s Apparently, talking to Brother find a microphone or they forgot when he brought this old bugle, Blue and Mother Mary, they kind of that I would need one. So Bernice this old bugle he had. I’d never started doing their things around said, “Just use your voice. Just use seen it before. And he told me that ’73, too. Something happened, in your voice. Use your voice. They’ll was his job. On the plantation. He the 70s, that led to the storytelling come. They’ll come.” So that’s had worked in this big plantation in movement. Now what or why, I when I started doing this cry: “Well, Alabama. Now, you know, my grand- haven’t been able to figure out. oh well, well!” Before I had never father, he always got to tell a story. Why people were driven or drawn done that, to the public. But I want- And again, you didn’t know what to this, you know, because people ed people to come and hear the was true and what wasn’t. But he left their jobs, they started saying stories! And I had all this so-called claimed that the rooster would “this is what I am going to do,” type competition because, you know, crow first, early in the morning. The of thing. people from all over the world were rooster would crow. And when the And what was so funny, I was dis- there, sharing their art, their folk- rooster would crow, this would couraged, too. See, I don’t want you lore. And how was people going to wake up Shep, the dog. Then the to think that everything was all roses, come and look at little old me, you dog—now again, the way he would because it wasn’t. Sometimes people know?! And I just started going “Well, tell it, it would sound like the [Continued on page 23➝] 21 pfp video: Look forward and carry on the past: stories from philadelphia’s chinatown

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Walking on Solid Ground A new children’s book about Philadelphia’s Chinatown

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Please make checks payable to: Philadelphia Folklore Project Mail to: PFP, 1304 Wharton St., Philadelphia, PA 19147 22 waking up the people /continued from p. 21 2005pfp•calendar truth!—the dog would come and Festival and Conference and The like lick his hand. And that would National Association of Black wake him up, and then he would Storytellers, a founding member of get the bugle and then he would Keepers of the Culture, and of >grants workshops Patchwork: a Storytelling Guild. She is blow—mmmmm—and that would the author of numerous books, and a Jan 15, Mar 19, May 21: BUILD SKILLS. start waking up everybody. Now I contributor to many collections on Help for folk arts projects. 10-Noon. Call for details. believe it, because that’s what he African American storytelling. She will said. And so he says, “I had to wake be sharing stories as part of PFP’s up the people to get them to start February 19th program (see calendar >studio visits working.” He said, “And that’s what to right) and will be leading a 3-part Feb 8, 16, 19 & 26: BEHIND-THE-SCENES you’re doing. You’re waking up the series of storytelling round-tables at our VISITS WITH PHILLY ARTISTS: Kulu Mele, people.” So he gave me the bugle. new home. For more information And that was so odd. Because about these events, and about Ms. Goss, Herencia Arabe, Ollin Yolitzli in rehearsal. Call for details. visit www.folkloreproject.org. before that I did not know that’s what he did. >storytelling A lot of the times, you might do something, you don’t know Feb 19: FOLKLORE & SELF-KNOWLEDGE. why you’re doing it, you don’t know @ Art Sanctuary, 18th & Diamond, 1- 5 PM. $5 See p. 17. where it comes from. You don’t know if they can trace it back to Africa if you’re aware of it. You >workdays know, you just start doing it. So March 26, April 2 & 9: HELP US GET THE that’s something I just started NEW PFP BUILDING IN SHAPE! Paint, clean, & doing, you know! And at DC, at the Smithsonian make our garden grow with master heritage gardener thing, these crowds just kept going, Blanche Epps. 9 AM @ 735 S. 50th St. All welcome. would gather around. And one of the people who saw me, who heard my stories was Louise Robinson, >exhibitions She was one of the original mem- April 15: “IF THESE WALLS COULD TALK” bers of Sweet Honey in the Rock. EXHIBIT OPENING. After 18 years of being a tenant, So a lot of them came, they would the Folklore Project is going to own our own home, and see what I was doing. And one of the members [of Sweet Honey] now our new dining room is a work of folk art and social history. uses, tells the frog story I tell, and 5-8 PM @ 735 S. 50th St. also the Stuart sisters, Ardie Stuart Brown [came], and it kind of inspired her to develop what she May 13: “WE SHALL NOT BE MOVED:” developed. And so what I started THOMAS B. MORTON: 30 YEARS OF doing kind of led to a movement. ODUNDE photo exhibition opening. 5-8 PM ●●● @ 735 S. 50th St.

Linda Goss was born near the Smoky Mountains in an aluminum >salon performances factory town, Alcoa, Tennessee. She May 4, 11 & 18: LINDA GOSS: Storytelling Table! 7 grew up listening to the storytelling of PM. 735 S. 50th St. $10. May 8: ELAINE & SUSAN her grandfather Murphy and other family members who shared stories of WATTS: Klezmer. 2 PM. 735 S. 50th St. FREE. May 22: life under slavery as well as a heritage GERMAINE INGRAM: Tap Dance. 230 PM of folk tales, oral history and legend. Stories about ethical values, the civil @ Indre, 1418 S. Darien. $10. rights struggle in Tennessee, and stories from personal experience are among many hundreds of stories that she has >grand opening (of our new home) gathered over decades of serious study and performance. She is currently Sept. 13: SAVE THE DATE working to document play-party songs, as well. The "Official Storyteller" of Philadelphia, and a pioneer of the con- WANT TO LEARN MORE? For details, visit temporary storytelling movement, Ms. www.folkloreproject.org, or call us and we’ll send you a full Goss was co-founder of "In the tradi- tion…" the National Black Storytelling calendar: 215.468.7871. about the philadelphia folklore join now! project membership form Folklore means something different to everyone—as it should,since it is one of Name the chief means we have to represent our own realities in the face of powerful institutions. Here at the PFP,we’re committed to paying attention to the expe- riences & traditions of “ordinary”people.We’re an 18-year-old public interest Address folklife agency that documents,supports & presents local folk arts and culture. We offer exhibitions, concerts, workshops & assistance to artists and commu- nities.We conduct ongoing field research, organize around issues of concern, City State Zip maintain an archive, & issue publications and media. Our work comes out of our mission: we affirm the human right to meaningful cultural & artistic expression,& work to protect the rights of people to know & practice tradi- Phone tional community-based arts.We work to build critical folk cultural knowledge, respect the complex folk & traditional arts of our region, & challenge process- E-mail es & practices that diminish these local grassroots arts & humanities.We urge you to join—or to call us for more information. (215-468-7871) Please make checks payable to: ____$25 Basic. Magazines like this 1-2x/yr, special mailings and 25% dis- Philadelphia Folklore Project count on publications. ____$35 Family.(2 or more at the same address).As above. Mail to: ____$60 Contributing.As above.($35 tax-deductible) PFP 1304 Wharton St., ____$150 Supporting. As above. ($125 tax deductible) Philadelphia, PA 19147 ____$10 No frills. No discounts. Magazine & mailings. thanks to new and renewing members! ____Sweat equity.I want to join (and get mailings). Instead of $$, Please join us today! I can give time or in-kind services. Visit our website: www.folkloreproject.org ____$ Other

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