Urban Appalachian Professional Storytellers' Narratives

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UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI

Date:______

I, ______, hereby submit this work as part of the requirements for the degree of: in:

It is entitled:

This work and its defense approved by:

Chair: ______

Urban Appalachian Professional Storytellers’ Narratives: An Analysis of Their Life Experiences and Their Performance Content

A dissertation submitted to the

Division of Research and Advanced Studies of the University of Cincinnati

In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

Doctor of Education

In the Division of Teacher Education

of the College of Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services

2006

Christina D. Walton

B.S.Ed. Bowling Green State University 1973

M.A. University of Findlay 1995

Committee Chair: Janet L. Bohren Ph.D.

Abstract

This dynamic ethnographic study uses a mixed method investigation of 22 urban

Appalachian professional storytellers from Greater Cincinnati (Ohio and Kentucky) who, when encountered, are interviewed in-depth, observed and photographed in 50 performances at 18 events, and surveyed to discover: How do professional storytellers’ life experiences influence their professional storytelling performance content? The professional storyteller’s story carries the celebration of the performance topic, whether it is family, mountain life, identity, folklore, sacred beliefs, community practices, or health. When the topic is spoken to the audience in a festival atmosphere, it becomes a celebratory moment of that cultural experience. Celebration revolved around family, friends, neighbors, and community. Storytellers celebrated their sense of identity and the sense of belonging to a people. Storytellers move everyday kind of life experiences to a level of celebration just by its inclusion in a story during a performance at a festive event. Findings reveal that storytellers interpret the stories they tell and construct their own realities because a vantage point of a life story provides a platform with which to reflect on personal experiences through the lens of the story and to situate family histories for the audience through the performance. Storytellers perform their stories throughout their communities at various events, at festivals, in educational settings and libraries to raise awareness and to entertain. Their narratives serve as cultural tools for representing their past and sharing stories with future generations. Based on these storytellers’ perspectives, stories accomplish more than preservation of cultural values. Stories are dynamic and ever-changing with each telling.

Through the lens of the story, storytellers’ personal interpretations are transmitted to audiences. 2

Acknowledgements

This research would not have been possible without the 22 professional storytellers of

Greater Cincinnati, Ohio and Kentucky who gracefully opened their lives to me during their

reflective personal interviews. Their verbal artistry, inspiring performances and the depth of their

experience provided the substance of this study. I offer my appreciation and thank you to each of

these keepers of the stories: Lisa Breithaupt, Angela Buelsing, Rick Carson, Barb and Russ

Childers, Hannah Cooper, Sue Cox, Susie Crate, Omope Carter Daboiku, Don Drewry, Phyllis

Frederick, Stephen Hollen, Paul Ingram, Kevin Isaac, Martha McLeod, Sandy Messerly, Sister

Esther O’Hara, Fred Shaw/Neeake, Bet Stewart, Robert Terwillegar, Cheryl Vason, and Rita

Whittington. They submitted patiently to my questioning probes with recorder in hand; to all of

you I give my deepest gratitude and affection. Within the fabric of this text, I have woven your

insights and experiences with my interpretations and theoretical approaches.

I wish to thank the University of Cincinnati College of Education, Criminal Justice and

Human Services, Division of Teacher Education for their support for various aspects of the

research reported in this doctoral dissertation. I would like to extend special thanks to the following faculty members of my doctoral committee for their comments, suggestions, and encouragement: Dr. Janet L. Bohren, Doctoral Advisor; Dr. Ken Martin; Dr. Mary Anne Pitman; and Dr. Mary Benedetti. I would also like to thank and recognize the faculty members of the doctoral program committee which guided the original pilot study: Dr. Janet L. Bohren, Dr. Ken

Martin, Dr. Chet Laine, Dr. Mary Benedetti, and Dr. M. Lynn Smith. I wish to thank Dr. Richard

R. Kretschmer, Jr., Director of Graduate Programs in Teacher Education for providing

University Graduate Scholarships which made earning the doctorate possible. A special thank you is due my parents, Roger and Christina Glick; my daughter, Heather Walton Stanquist, and 4 other family members and friends who encouraged me and gave loving support with this educational adventure and publication. 5

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction ...... 14

Professional Storytellers ...... 16

Delimitations Addressed...... 16

Theoretical Framework...... 18

Narrative Theory...... 18

Celebration Theory ...... 20

Chapter 2 Literature Review...... 22

Significance...... 32

Chapter 3 - Methods...... 35

Research Design...... 35

Mixed Method Design ...... 35

Appalachian Region...... 38

Greater Cincinnati Region ...... 39

Initial Conception of Study...... 39

Population ...... 40

Sampling Method...... 43

Data Collection Instruments ...... 44

Procedures...... 54

Data Analysis Procedures ...... 55

Limitations ...... 57

Chapter 4 Findings Part I - Settings, Participants and Routines...... 60

Chapter 5 Findings Part II: Performance Content Themes...... 98 6

Performance Content Theme ...... 104

Family ...... 104

Mountain Life ...... 120

Identity ...... 134

Folklore...... 146

Living Means ...... 163

Sacred Beliefs ...... 174

Community Practices...... 181

Health and Medicine...... 192

Chapter 6 Findings Part III: Professional Storytelling...... 198

Becoming a Storyteller ...... 200

Making the Story Your Own...... 205

Story Selection...... 209

Storyteller’s Voice ...... 211

Props ...... 214

Storytelling Training...... 216

Marketing Storytelling...... 218

Artist-in-Residence and Workshops on Storytelling ...... 223

Audience Interaction and Story Influence ...... 226

Story Value ...... 232

Professional Interaction ...... 233

Chapter 7 Discussion ...... 240

Life History Experiences Influence Performance Content ...... 241 7

Festivals as Celebration ...... 242

Storytellers as First Interpreters...... 255

Platform for Reflection ...... 256

Celebratory Symbols...... 256

Storytelling as Relational Activity...... 259

Application to Practice...... 260

Implications for Future Research...... 260

Summary...... 263

References...... 265

Appendix A Face-to-Face Interview Questions...... 272

Appendix B Survey Questions...... 274

List of Tables

Table 1 Frequency Distribution of Number of Hours of Interviews and Performances with

Professional Storytellers...... 49

Table 2 Frequency Distribution of Data Collection Instruments for Documenting Professional

Storytellers’ Narratives...... 53

Table 3 Frequency Distribution for Professional Storytellers Performance Events Located within

the Social Context ...... 64

Table 4 Frequency Distribution for Performance Content Themes of Professional Storytellers101

List of Figures

Figure 1. Conceptual Framework of Performance Themes from Pilot Study of Professional

Storytellers’ Narratives ...... 31

Figure 2. Conceptual Framework of Mixed Method Design Used with the Urban Appalachian

Professional Storytellers’ Narratives ...... 37

Figure 3. Ohio’s Appalachian Country (Ohio Appalachian Country brochure, 2005) ...... 39

Figure 4. Layout of Harpin’n’Pickin Festival held in Martin Luther King Park on Main Street

Oxford, Ohio...... 66

Figure 5. Layout of performance area and traffic flow at Mini Appalachian Festival at St.

Michael’s Church in Lower Price Hill, Cincinnati ...... 71

Figure 6. Guide for the 36th Appalachian Festival Coney Island Park 2005...... 74

Figure 7. Layout of Chief’s Chair, Performance and Exhibit Areas at Shawnee Indian Culture

Festival in New Richmond, Ohio...... 83

Figure 8. Layout of dining room and performance area O’Bannon Terrace in Goshen ...... 92

Figure 9. Framework of Major Themes and Categories Reflected in Professional Storytellers’

Performances...... 100

Figure 10. Conceptual Framework Performance Theme: Family...... 104

Figure 11. Conceptual Framework Performance Content: Mountain Life...... 121

Figure 12. Stephen’s hand-drawn map of Double Creek in eastern Kentucky where his family

moved in the 1840s. Courtesy of S. Hollen, January 28, 2005...... 122

Figure 13. Diagram of Appalachian Festival at Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal133

Figure 14. Conceptual Framework Performance Theme: Identity...... 135

Figure 15. Conceptual Framework Performance Content Theme: Folklore ...... 146 10

Figure 16. Conceptual Framework Performance Theme: Living Means...... 163

Figure 17. Conceptual Framework Performance Theme: Sacred Beliefs ...... 175

Figure 18. Conceptual Framework Performance Theme: Community Practices...... 181

Figure 19. Conceptual Framework Performance Theme: Health Practices ...... 192

Figure 20. Reflection on Life Stories Provides the Platform to Tell Stories, Keep Memories and

Collective Values Shared...... 237

Figure 21. (Copy of Figure 4): Layout of Harpin’n’Pickin Festival held in Martin Luther King

Park on Main Street Oxford, Ohio...... 250

Figure 22. (Copy of Figure 5) Layout of performance area and traffic flow at Mini Appalachian

Festival at St. Michael’s Church in Lower Price Hill, Cincinnati ...... 251

Figure 23. (Copy of Figure 7) Layout of Chief’s Chair, Performance and Exhibit Areas at

Shawnee Indian Culture Festival in New Richmond, Ohio...... 252

List of Photographs

All photographs taken by Christina Walton with the exception of Photographs 8 and 9

Photograph 1. Harpin’n’Pickin Festival with Barb and Russ Childers performing...... 65

Photograph 2. Barb & Russ as Bear Foot ...... 67

Photograph 3. Don Bowing a Psalter ...... 68

Photograph 4. Susie in performance ...... 69

Photograph 5. Chris (left) and Omope socializing...... 72

Photograph 6. Omope storytelling to a younger audience at Coney Island ...... 75

Photograph 7. Martha in performance...... 75

Photograph 8. Martha expresses intensity writing a name in the web ...... 76

Photograph 9. Stephen as Dr. Ironbeard ...... 76

Photograph 10. “Accordion knees”...... 77

Photograph 11. Hannah Sue tells about her childhood in the mountains...... 78

Photograph 12. Grandma Buzz and Fluffy...... 78

Photograph 13. Sr. Esther making a point in her story ...... 79

Photograph 14. Paul, “The giant only saw three fingers.” ...... 80

Photograph 15. Rick tells a story ...... 80

Photograph 16. Rick as “Jack” removing his eye...... 81

Photograph 17. Dark Rain and Chris discussing her books ...... 82

Photograph 18. Neeake is Olammapise, Truth Teller ...... 84

Photograph 19. Neeake as Keeper of the Stories ...... 85

Photograph 20. Cheryl tells to children, Angela and Kevin observe ...... 86

Photograph 21. Lisa performs a dramatic moment in a story ...... 87 12

Photograph 22. Angela telling a story...... 88

Photograph 23. Kevin as “Jack, Giant Killer” ...... 88

Photograph 24. Cheryl ringing in a story ...... 89

Photograph 25. Barb in performance ...... 89

Photograph 26. Martha with photo of Stowe ...... 90

Photograph 27. Hannah in period dress ...... 91

Photograph 28. Robert finds inspiration in books...... 93

Photograph 29. After Sandy’s interview...... 94

Photograph 30. Sue and puppeteer-storyteller, Paul ...... 94

Photograph 31. Phyllis Frederick...... 95

Photograph 32. Bet Stewart with her musical instrument collection ...... 96

Photograph 33. Don softly hammers and tells history ...... 108

Photograph 34. Hannah wearing the shawl and crooning over Red ...... 113

Photograph 35. Omope demonstrates – cigarette lighter and tongue trick of Bruce ...... 118

Photograph 36. Stephen reading from Old Ragged Verse ...... 123

Photograph 37. Don bowing psaltery and telling a story ...... 129

Photograph 38. Russ telling about his banjo...... 130

Photograph 39. Dancing the limber jack while Russ fiddles ...... 130

Photograph 40. Playing Clawhammer style ...... 131

Photograph 41. Neeake “Olammapise,” Truth Teller, of the Shawandasse Nishnabe ...... 136

Photograph 42. Omope tells of family identity change for survival ...... 139

Photograph 43. Omope giving Jack the knife ...... 147

Photograph 44. “Jack” removing his eye ...... 148 13

Photograph 45. Neeake’s regalia...... 179

Photograph 46. Neeake – Bear and Man fought giving gift of the scar...... 179

Photograph 47. Don relates events in story and song ...... 182

Photograph 48. “Mommy’s quilt blocks” ...... 187

Photograph 49. Barb likes telling stories ...... 200

Photograph 50. Telling of Percival Poovey the purveyor of potent potables ...... 207

Photograph 51. Hannah crawls like the panther...... 212

Photograph 52. “You’re hurting the roof of the mouth”...... 213

Photograph 53. Rita sharing her magic goldfish puppet ...... 215

Photograph 54. Martha showing audience picture props of cradleboards ...... 215

Photograph 55. Reading from Old Ragged Verse...... 220

Photograph 56. Inheritance illustration on tape cover...... 221

Photograph 57. Martha’s Lakota slip design...... 222

Photograph 58. Pink lady slippers...... 227

Photograph 59. Fooling around...... 233

Photograph 60. Stephen strumming his stick dulcimer...... 233

Photograph 61. Storytellers and Me: Back row L-R: Rick Carson, Stephen Hollen and Second

row L-R: Sue Cox, Omope Daboiku, Christina Walton, and in front: Hannah Cooper ..... 234

Photograph 62. Curtain call the last performance: L-R: Hannah, Paul, Stephen, Rick, and Omope

...... 235

Chapter 1 Introduction

Professional storytellers most often perform their oral storytelling to audiences at

community cultural events, at festivals, in educational settings, libraries and fundraisers to create

an awareness of oral traditions and to entertain. Stories are all around and provide a means to make sense of and provide meaning to events in lives (Connelly & Clandinin, 1990). Social

values, beliefs, dilemmas, and human interactions are reflected in professional storytellers’

narrative oral stories. Narrative is a genre of discourse generated in oral or written language

accounts of connected events such as an oral story. To this extent, the storyteller, as narrator, acts

as a cultural mediator to their audience via their language, personal oral narrative, or text in a

manner that is reflective of their prior dialogic history. “Story” of personal narrative offers

“translucent windows” into culture and social meanings (Patton, 2002). This 13 month

ethnographic study uses a mixed method investigation of 22 urban Appalachian professional

storytellers in the Greater Cincinnati region of Ohio and northern Kentucky. These storytellers,

when encountered, are interviewed in-depth, observed in performances, and surveyed to answer

the central research question: How do urban professional Appalachian storytellers from the

Greater Cincinnati area express what life experience circumstances influence their professional

storytelling performance content. Stories told originate from their lives and shared experiences

and belong to them. It is the storyteller who desires to share their stories with an audience.

Sharing life history in a public performance for which they are paid is voluntary. Sharing aspects

of life history in an interview situation is voluntary. These storytellers choose to present their

stories to an audience as a form of entertainment at community events and festivals, raising the

story and storyteller to the level of entertainer and storytelling to a performing art. Life history

stories are viewed as real and credited to the storyteller and validated by the audience of one in 15 the interview environment or by the audience of many in a performance setting. By the very act of attendance and listening at performances, audiences provide support and validation to the storyteller. Life story analysis and performance content analysis takes the perspective of the teller and promotes the story event as it made sense for the storyteller. The story itself may be one of personal interest to the professional storyteller or to the audience.

Storytellers’ personal interviews, professional performance observations, and the personal surveys, when analyzed, revealed a code list that included 99 categories and 1822 pages of verbatim field notes from performances and interviews. This collected data established the findings of this study and a conceptual framework regarding the factors that affect professional storytellers’ narrative content. Chapter 4 Findings Part I explores the performance settings, the professional storytellers, and renderings of their routines. Chapter 5 Findings Part II explores performance content themes and underlying factors from life history. Performance content when analyzed revealed conceptual patterns and themes that were divided into eight major categories and subcategories. Performance content of their oral narratives is informed by life events involving (a) family (ancestry, heritage, stories); (b) mountain life (ways of life, isolation, values); (c) identity (survival, change, adaptation, land ownership, personal rights); (d) folklore of region (Appalachian and Native American); (e) means to earn a living (employment, self employment in home, farm, business, food, hunting and gathering, migration); (f) sacred beliefs

(Bible stories and belief systems); (g) community practices (cultural ecology, regional history) and (h) health practices (medical care, remedies and practices). Some stories reveal family anecdotes and secrets. Chapter 6 Findings Part III examines the professional storyteller from the perspective of how life history influenced them to become professional tellers and the business side of storytelling. 16

Professional Storytellers Professional storytellers in this study indicate that their reasons for telling stories are

more than preservation of oral storytelling traditions. Preservation of stories implies maintaining

and keeping alive or intact the oral traditions. Preservation also implies static and nonmoving.

Based on these storytellers’ perspectives of story, stories are not static but are dynamic and ever- changing with each telling, with each interpretation, and transmitted to new listeners and new generations with each telling. Professional storytellers perform their stories in a rich and diverse variety of social and environmental settings both inside and outdoors which in itself also enhances audience interaction and the level of formality of the performances. Every effort has been made to be sensitive to the storytellers in revealing personal stories from performances and interviews.

Delimitations Addressed This study is important because there are six delimitations to previous research in the

literature review which this study addresses. First, although the studies were all audiotaped in the

social context of the interview environment and the “context interacted with the reconstructive

activities” (Barclay, 1996), none of these studies, except, Sobol (1999) and Walton (2004) had an

audience, someone besides the interviewers, for the emotional/affective structural unit of the

audience interaction. Second, though Labov and Waletzky collected data in the Lower East Side

of New York City through recorded face to face interviews with only the interviewer and

narrator and in interaction with his primary group, the “questions they asked were not considered

part of the storytelling process,” thereby, “ignoring the researcher’s impact on data gathering”

(Goodwin, 1997, p. 107; Labov, 1967/1997). Labov and Waletzky did not relate the social and

cultural interplay of activity occurring while the interviews were occurring (Bernstein, 1997). 17

With this study audience interactions were observed and audio recorded in public performances

throughout the Greater Cincinnati community. Then in 1997, Labov wrote, “The most important

data that I have gathered on narrative is not drawn from the observation of speech production or

controlled experiments, but from the reactions of audience to the narratives as I have retold them

(p. 396). Third, existing research on narrative construction of personal histories is primarily

made up of oral narratives of adults and children who told their stories in spontaneous response

to an interview question (Labov and Waletzky, 1967/1997; Bamberg and Reilly, 1996; Eder,

1994), whereas, with this study, the professional storytellers were all adults. Fourth, studies by

Labov and Waletzky (1967/1997) and by Barclay (1996), both purposefully did not include any professional storytellers. They rejected “the products of expert storytellers that had been retold many times” and only studied “the original productions of a representative sample of the

population” (Labov and Waletzky, 1967/1997, p. 3; Bernstein, 1997, p. 45). Sobol (1999)

however did include professional storytellers in his 1991-1992 study of “storytellers and

storytelling supporters of the United State and Canada who had made significant contributions to

the storytelling revival on the national and local levels.” He was interested in “how they became

storytellers and the role of The National Storytelling Association (NSA) then known as The

Association for the Preservation and Perpetuation of Storytelling (NAPPS),” but he was not

investigating life history and performance content (Sobol, 1999, p. xiii). The Walton (2004) pilot

study and expanded study specifically used professional storytellers in life history interviews, in performance, and in surveys. Fifth, in each of the literature review studies, the populations were from diverse backgrounds and cultures, whereas, in this study, the population, though from various ethnic, economic and professional perspective, was specifically from Greater Cincinnati area and six, some studies were all men (Labov, 1967/1997) or all women (Nelson, 1990). In this 18

study, professional storytellers are males and females, and all adults. Based on research, it is

believed the gap in the literature and research of others, is they have not studied the life experiences of professional storytellers and the influence of life history on their performance content.

Theoretical Framework “Narratology” (Bal, 2002) or narrative analysis theory extends the idea of text to include

in depth interview transcripts, life history narratives, and historical memoirs, all of which are

included in the data collection of this study. Personal narratives, family stories and life history

experiences document this study. Patton (2002, p. 115) cites Graham (1993) “Personal

narratives, family stories, suicide notes, graffiti, literary nonfiction, and life histories reveal

cultural and social patterns through the lens of the individual experiences.” In qualitative inquiry,

the “narrative turn” (Bochner, 2001) honors “people’s stories as data that can stand of their own

as pure description of experience worthy as narrative documentary of experience (Patton, 2002,

p. 115-116). By telling stories, the storytellers remember their past, invent their present, become

visionaries of their future, and create community.

Narrative Theory Narrative theory was cited 63% of the time by authors of studies in the literature review.

For clarification purposes, the linguistic narrative approach used in the literature review is

explicated first. Most major narrative research studies since Labov and Waletzky’s study cite

their narrative theory of linguistic structural analysis. Of the 16 narrative studies used in the

literature review, 10 studies or 63% (Aksu-Koc, 1996; Bamberg, 1997; Bamberg and Reilly,

1996; Barclay, 1996; 1994; Goodwin, 1997; Labov and Waletzky, 1967/1997); Nelson, 1990;

Voithofer, 2004; Walton, 2004) cite some relevant portion of Labov and Waletzky’s narrative 19

theory. They cite either one or a combination of the six stages of linguistic narrative analysis: (a) abstract stage, (b) orientation stage, (c) complication of actions, (d) evaluation stage, (e) resolution stage, and (f) coda stage (Labov and Waletzky, 1967/1997). When their study was published, of the 600 narrative interviews, 14 narrative examples of spontaneous narratives with the stimulus question and quotation excerpts “relevant to the functional analysis of narrative”

(1967/1997, p. 12) were provided with the question asked that elicited the response (Labov and

Waletzky, 1967/1997). They delimited their study by creating the following parameters: (a) stories and original productions were elicited primarily from children and adults in an interview format with a stimulus question posed; (b) “Products of expert storytellers… that have been retold many times” were purposefully rejected in preference to “oral versions of personal experiences” from a population representative sample (Labov and Waletzky, 1967/1997, p. 3;

Linde, 1997, p. 282); (c) they reported no other talk or other conduct in the course of storytelling, and (d) they reported no interactions between storytellers and others (Bernstein, 1997; Labov and

Waletzky, 1967/1997). This study addresses Labov and Waletzky’s four parameters by establishing five parameters to specifically delimit the study to professional storytellers and by:

(a) conducting in-depth interviews, with both men and women of diverse ethnicities and ages, guided by stimulus questions regarding the professional storytellers’ life experiences, (b) observing the professionals in performances at 18 different events (c) observing the professionals in interactions with audience members during performances, (d) gaining the storytellers perceptions of those interactions and if they influence the performance; and (e) using a survey for demographic responses. This study does not address Labov and Waletzky’s linguistic micro- analysis nor is it intended to be a linguistic study. Instead, this study focuses on the life history of the professional storytellers, their stories told in performances at festivals and community events 20

with the air of celebration by the professional storytellers. These performances and the life

history stories yield the performance content themes that are linked to the life experiences.

This study focuses on the lives and lived experiences expressed by the professional

storytellers. They tell their lives, or express particular experiences to which only they have

access: “stories told belong to them and are shared with an audience in a particular situation”

(Bamberg, 1997, p. 89). In the storytellers’ repertoire of lived experiences lays the sources of

their stories. It is presumed that the professional storytellers wants to share their stories and has a

personal purpose for sharing their stories. Sharing of stories presupposes there is a listener, an

audience, of one or more.

Celebration Theory The life history portrayed in the storytellers’ performance content themes represents peak

experience events. These personal experiences constructed from life experience raises the

experience to a new level involving celebration. Victor Turner (1982), in celebration theory

refers to the “‘peak experience’” in social life as marking an occasion or an event with

ceremony, ritual or festivity. Turner continues, that cultures share life experiences and

celebrations that are “generally connected with expectable culturally shared events, such as life

experiences (birth, puberty, marriage), work (planting and harvesting of crops, quilting), seasons

of the year, religious beliefs… upward shifts in social status (…feasts and valuables), and shared community celebrations (Turner, p. 12, 1982). The performance event is the means to deliver the

story. The professional storyteller’s story carries the celebration of the performance topic,

whether it is family, mountain life, identity, folklore, sacred beliefs, community practices, or

health. When the topic is spoken to the audience in a festival atmosphere, it becomes a

celebratory moment of that cultural experience. These stories shared in performance carry 21

meaning for the storyteller. Storytellers reconstruct segments of their lives from the context of

their memory, reflection, and encapsulate the audience in that moment of shared experience. This

story construction carries with it the sense of building, of creating an interpretation of life

experiences. Turner (p. 7, 1982) posits that these stories when constructed for performance at a

celebratory event take on meaning. In the course of the story construction, the story becomes the cultural object and is “imbued with layers of symbolic meaning.” In this sense the storyteller builds a story full of personal and cultural meaning and creates a shared moment by moment link

with the audience.

An evaluative process occurs for the storyteller, the storyteller is privileged to evaluate

personal experiences (Bamberg, 1997). This evaluation process permits the teller to evaluate

what is verbally shared with the listener and what is withheld until a future point in time or never

expressed. Storytellers present to the listener micro-images of themselves, a self construction of

their interpretation of who they are, or who they want to portray. Presenting stories in this light

creates an understanding and the storytellers’ spin on the event or the culture from which the experience arose. The social matrix of the particular experience is understood and makes sense thereby giving meaning to the story and to the experience. By explaining events or experiences in their own words professional storytellers construct a link or identification with the community.

Stories and the storytellers bridge their past with the present for their listeners in a celebratory process. Stories become the ceremonial objects constructed and used in these various community events. 22

Chapter 2 Literature Review

This comprehensive literature review encompasses research from the late 1960s to 2004.

Ten of the 16 studies refer to the Labov and Waletzky “classic” narrative study, “Narrative

Analysis: Oral Versions of Personal Experience” (Labov and Waletzky, 1967, reprinted in an

edited edition, Bamberg, 1997) which had “an enormous influence on the then emerging field of

narrative theory” (Bamberg, 1997; Hopper, 1997). Various studies (Aksu-Koc, 1996; Bamberg

and Reilly, 1996; Barclay, 1996; Brewer, 1996; Eder, 1994; Goodwin, 1997; Labov and

Waletzky, 1967/1997; Nelson, 1990; Sobol, 1999; Voithofer, 2004) over the past thirty-seven

years examined storytelling issues with children and adults, but none focused exclusively on

professional storytellers’ performance content. Sobol (1999) did include professional storytellers

in his 1991-1992 study of “storytellers and storytelling supporters of the United States and

Canada who had made significant contributions to the storytelling revival on the national and

local levels,” but he was interested in “how they became storytellers and the role of The National

Storytelling Association (NSA) then known as The Association for the Preservation and

Perpetuation of Storytelling (NAPPS)” He, however, was not investigating life history and

performance content (Sobol, 1999, p. xiii). These studies, with the exception of Sobol, pay homage to Labov and Waletzky in their literature reviews. However each focuses on several factors with constructivist narrative analysis theory: (a) Oral story construction (Aksu-Koc,

1996; Sobol, 1999); (b) self construction in oral narratives (Bamberg, 1997; Barclay, 1996;

Brewer, 1988; Nelson, 1990; Eder, 1994); (c) personal memory in story or narrative construction

(Conway, 1990; Wagenaar, 1994); (d) self presentation (Eder, 1994); and (e) personal identification and community affiliation (Sobol, 1999). Eder (1994) and similar studies noted that children’s personal narratives serve a similar function to adults’ narratives and that is self 23

construction (Bamberg, 1997; Eder, 1990; Miller, 1994). Story content, what is said, and story

performance, how it is said, integrate forming an emotional/affective structural unit for the audience (Sobol, 1999) and the narrator’s autobiographical memory serve as a means of mediating these feelings (Bamberg and Reilly, 1996; Barclay, 1996; Nelson, 1990; Eder, 1994).

These studies reveal that personal storytelling serves four functions: self construction, self regulation, self presentation and community identity. Each narrative reconstruction demonstrates that narratives are intellectual, sociocultural and historical techniques constructed over time to tell a story or retell a story (Labov and Waletzky, 1967/1997; Aksu-Koc, 1996; Barclay, 1996;

Bamberg and Reilly, 1996; Goodwin, 1997; Linde, 1997; Nelson, 1990; Sobol, 1999). Narrative discourse, generated in oral or written language, functions with episodic structures, occurs over

time in a temporal perspective, and contains coherence (Aksu-Koc, 1996; Barclay, 1996; Labov

& Waletzky, 1967; Linde, 1997). Several studies investigate narrative construction by examining

the factors of reconstruction of meaningful stories, for example, the question of how Turkish

adult’s narrators with different sociocultural conditions structure their narrative film retellings

serve both the process and product of self construction and self presentation, both influenced by

gender differences and cross-cultural difference (Aksu-Koc, 1996). Barclay questions how

Holocaust survivors relate war trauma stories; stories are impacted by emotional constraints, self construction and self presentation (Barclay, 1996). Nelson questions how African American women code-switch in their oral life narratives in a manner to challenge linguistic hegemony and preserve self presentation (Nelson, 1990).

In a Turkish study, Aksu-Koc (1996), interviewed 24 adults aged 18-25 after they had

viewed a film to create a narrative. Aksu-Koc posited that narrative as a discourse genre in oral

or written language focus on different approaches and “structures function in the differentiation 24

of temporal perspective into foreground and background” (Aksu-Koc, 1996, p. 310; Labov,

1972). For example, Aksu-Koc (1996) used a 14-minute film piece edited from the Turkish

movie Fahriye Abla to focus on some culturally stereotyped events to elicit the narratives.

Subjects were shown the film on video in a room at the Bogazici University in Istanbul and then

asked to narrate the film as though they were telling it to someone who had not seen it before. In

the model, the story was composed of a setting and one or more episodes with an initiating event,

internal response, action, consequence and reaction, very similar to the Labov model with six

stages of narrative structure. Like Labov, the clause was taken as the basic unit and coded to

capture the extent to which the narrative text followed or diverged from the temporal sequence of

events in the film. Bamberg and Reilly (1996, p. 330; Bamberg, 1997) used a two-phase study

with children’s narratives of personal experience, coded adult and children narratives for

emotional content. Bamberg and Reilly focused on how young narrators, children ages 3-10 and

adults connect story content with the emotional sequence of events and refer to Labov and

Waletzky’s narrative definition as “one method to recapitulate past experience” by matching to

the sequence of events which actually occurred (Labov and Waletzky, 1967, p. 20).

Barclay (Rubin, 1999) conducted narrative interviews with six adult Holocaust survivors,

one of whom was 83, regarding their experiences during the Holocaust and selected those who

were nonprofessionals in an attempt to illustrate the incoherence of narrative structures that

lacked temporal organization and evaluation because they had not been told prior to the interview. Temporal organization and evaluation are two important stages in Labov’s narrative structures. Barclay used 3 1-1/2 hour interviews with each Holocaust survivor who had been instructed to tell their personal history in any way they chose, but to include detail. No questions were asked by the interviewer. Personal history was defined as autobiographical memories from 25 their life. Some survivors used letters they had saved to assist in their narratives (Rubin, 1999).

Barclay in evaluating the woman survivor’s narratives and letters found them to be narratively dense and presented generalized evaluative statements such as “shocked,” “martyrs,” “horror,” and “morbidly.” One woman survivor made two attributions for surviving the Holocaust,

“miracle,” and “destined to live.” She wrote in English, not in her native Polish language; the letter was written in 1980, 35 years after her “liberation.” Barclay used narrative analysis of each example: total number of words, proportions of relevant narrative terms/ total number of words per paragraph, causal-condition terms, evaluative terms, comparative proportion of temporal terms, and location terms.

Nelson referred to Labov’s study in which she compared black and white speech styles

(Labov and Waletzky, 1967/1997) in her study in which she interviewed 30 African American women to determine patterns and significance of code-switching and other patterns of contextualization cues in their oral life narratives (Nelson, 1990, p. 142).

Voithofer (2004) referred to Labov’s 1972 six stages of narrative development and related the stages to cultural and media theory in his study of Classroom Connect Online Quest experience in which 100,000 K-12 students worldwide communicate via computers and Internet with an anthropological team using culturally situated story narratives consisting of characters, plots, settings, timelines, crises and resolutions.

Three literature review studies Eder (1994), Linton (Conway, 1990; Rubin, 1999) and

Wagenaar, 1986) did not refer to Labov and Waletzky, but were adult studies involving single subject studies in which the researcher conducted quantitative longitudinal self-studies of memory and narrative. Autobiographical memory was referred to in some studies as

“recollective memory” (Rubin, 1999). Eder found that children tell stories for a purpose; to make 26

a particular impression on listeners and the stories represent self-presentation. She continued that

“stories do not create self”, that to be worth being presented in a story, “self has to already exist”

(Eder, 1994). Linton (Conway, 1990; Rubin, 1999) used a 6 year participant self-observation study of activity-dominance in memory. Wagenaar’s 6 year participant self-observation study

(Conway, 1990; Rubin, 1999) used autobiographical memory. Wagenaar investigated his own memory by selecting major events at the end of each day from September 21, 1979 to September

20, 1983 and recorded 400 events yearly for a total of 1,605 events in six years (Conway, 1990;

Rubin, 1999). Wagenaar used four types of cues: who, what, where, and when either singly or in

combinations and found he recalled pleasant events more than unpleasant ones and called this the

“pleasantness effect” (Wagenaar, 1994). He used a Lykert-like scale to rate events from very

unpleasant, unpleasant, neutral, pleasant, to very pleasant and scored the percent correct with the

number of events. The remaining narrative studies involved children’s narrations, but with adult

narrative assistance: for example the Nicolopoulou (Bamberg, 1997; Nicolopoulou, 1997), year-

long study of children involved the retelling of a picture book story to an adult. The Miller study

started with a study of early language socialization and children narrating a personal experience

to an adult (Miller, 1994).

Each narrative reconstruction demonstrates that narratives are intellectual, sociocultural

and historical techniques constructed over time to tell a story or retell a story (Aksu-Koc, 1996;

Bamberg & Reilly, 1996; Barclay, 1996; Goodwin, 1997; Labov & Waletzky, 1967; Nelson,

1990; Sobol, 1999). Narrative discourse is generated in oral or written language and functions

with episodic structures, occurs over time in a temporal perspective, and contains coherence

(Aksu-Koc, 1996; Barclay, 1996; Labov & Waletzky, 1967). Improvised selves are constructed based on meaningful memories embedded in the interpersonal, sociocultural and historical 27

context of the narrator’s experience, as well as, the events which are merged into the

construction of the story, even as eyewitnesses to events (Bamberg & Reilly, 1996; Nelson,

1990; Eder, 1994). Embedded contexts and memory constructions of narratives may have led

Labov and Waletzky to their definition of narrative “as one method to recapitulate past

experience” by linking past experience to “events which actually occur” (Labov and Waletzky,

1967, p. 20). The studies on narrative construction yielded a variety of interesting findings.

Narrative story is considered a verbal technique for “recapitulating experience” that matches the

temporal sequence of the experience and is determined by a stimulus in the social context (Labov

and Waletzky, 1997). This was supported by Barclay who found the “context interacts with

reconstructive activities and the objectification of autobiographical memories” of the Holocaust

survivors in recounting, explaining, evaluating, and understanding their personal narrative

experiences (Barclay, 1996). Barclay argued that “emotions, attitudes, and beliefs are cultural

(cognitive) constructions or artifacts that serve certain purposes” (p. 103) and vary with “cultures

while reconstructive activities of telling family stories or personal histories justify feelings and

adapt the past to meet a current goal. However when combined with the contextual variables,

memories, perceptions and feelings provide a referential base for the objectified facts of

autobiographical recollections” (Barclay, 1996, p. 103). Barclay also found that traumatic

experiences, even eyewitness accounts, often lacked the temporal sequencing and organization

making narratives difficult to understand, though not diminishing the experience (Barclay, 1996).

Narrative content and structure are influenced by culture and gender. Sociocultural

formation of the narrator influences the narrative structure as observed by Aksu-Koc’s Turkish

narratives (1996) in which a film was interpreted at different degrees of relevance of low and

high education and low and high levels of income by the subjects of different sociocultural 28

backgrounds (Aksu-Koc, 1996). Further, men and women differed in what they found relevant in

the Turkish film to retell. They each displayed a difference in terms of the voice adopted while

retelling. Men told the narrative from a point outside the narrative events in an evaluative and

knowing manner while women told the narrative using the author’s and narrator’s voice (Aksu-

Koc, 1996; Nelson, 1990). Gender influences narratives when they focus on comparing black

and white speech styles and code switching (Labov, 1997). In the Nelson study (1990) she

pursued women’s voices through life history narrative discourse and found that African

American women code switched from Standard English, their perceived power code, in order to

use their Black dialect with rich affective qualities, and spiritual meanings to describe lived

experience (Nelson, 1990). This body of literature on narrative construction yields common

conclusions: (a) each narrative reconstruction demonstrates that narratives are intellectual,

sociocultural and historical techniques constructed over time to tell a story or retell a story

(Labov and Waletzky, 1967/1997; Aksu-Koc, 1996; Barclay, 1996; Bamberg and Reilly, 1996;

Nelson, 1990; and Goodwin, 1997); (b) story content (what is said) and story performance (how

it is said) integrate forming an emotional/affective structural unit for the audience and autobiographical memory as a means of mediating these feelings (Bamberg and Reilly, 1996;

Barclay, 1996; Nelson, 1990); and (c) narrative discourse is generated in oral or written language

and functions with episodic structures, occurs over time in a temporal perspective, and contains coherence (Aksu-Koc, 1996; Barclay, 1996; Labov & Waletzky, 1967). Research into what influences and informs the professional storyteller’s oral narratives has been limited; in all of the research excluding my own (Walton, 2004), I found one study conducted from 1991 to 1992

(Sobol, 1999) which specifically involved professional storytellers and storyteller supporters as participants. Sobol (1999) conducted approximately 80 interviews in the United States and 29

Canada as an exploratory historical study of the storytelling revival, National Storytelling

Festival and Conference, the National Association for the Preservation and Perpetuation of

Storytelling and the International Storytelling Center in Jonesborough, Tennessee, in the

southern Appalachian region. His study did not exclusively focus on the Appalachian

professional storytellers because he investigated those storytelling personalities who were part of the storytelling revival scene and he did not conduct an examination of the content of their professional narratives and performances.

In the pilot study (Walton, 2004) to this current study, urban professional Appalachian

storytellers’ performances and their face to face interviews were analytically coded to establish a

conceptual framework regarding the life history factors that affect professional storytellers’

narrative content. The eight professional storytellers in the pilot study indicate that storytellers

“interpret the stories they tell and construct their own realities. The life story vantage point

provides a platform to reflect on personal experiences through the lens of the story and to situate

family histories” (Walton, 2004, p. 92). Storytellers narrate and perform their stories throughout

their communities in diverse and varied social contexts. Their narratives serve as “cultural tools

to represent or construct their past” (Walton, 2004, p. 92). Stories focus on personal experiences

in relation to others because the stories are based on what the teller remembers of life experience

and is willing to share. Storytellers in addition to preserving the oral traditions and the

Appalachian stories, preserve their cultural identity including Appalachian identity, family

historical identity and self identity as the main factors for being professional storytellers. The

content of their oral narratives are informed by the major important variables of home, family,

religion, health care, professions or work, mountain way of life and identity (Walton, 2004).

Figure 1 provides a conceptual framework of professional storytellers’ narratives gained from the 30

pilot study, conducted from April through June 2004, with 8 professional storytellers.

Appalachian Identity, Mountain Life, Religion, and Race and Ethnicity became the main themes

in the pilot study. Appalachian identity focused on family, childhood and values. Each story was

introduced in some manner to orient the audience to the Appalachian way of life, for example,

Omope quizzed the audience on Appalachian language such as, “What is a bumpershoot? (baby-

stroller)…What are galoshes? (Boots for wet weather),” as a condition to telling the story (O.

Daboiku, personal communication, April 16, 2004). Most storytellers told enough personal

family history to establish a family identity that traced back through multiple generations. Don told about his great-grandfather who fought in the 17th Virginia Volunteers and another great-

grandfather five generations back who fought in the American Revolution (D. Drewry, personal

communication, April 17, 2004). They told of raising children to have their Appalachian values.

They establish family connection to the mountain way of life in Appalachia and construct their

own realities from the vantage point of family members and family gatherings creating a strong sense of Appalachian values.

Figure 1. Conceptual Framework of Performance Themes from Pilot Study of Professional Storytellers’ Narratives

Cultural Identity

Appalachian Mountain Religion Race Identity Life Ethnicity

Family Home Work Bible Self- Stories identity

Childhood Health care Hunting Politics Gathering Civil

Values Women

Technology

Stories referred to family members working in the mines for coal or forests harvesting lumber

and the dangers involved. Some storytellers told personal stories from their family history about

working in the home or out in the huge family garden plots. Hannah explained how stories were

told as families planted, hoed, carried water, harvested, broke beans and prepared produce for

canning and preserving (H. Cooper, personal communication, May 7, 2004). More stories were

told of the men and boys going hunting to provide meat for the family in the form of deer,

ground hog, squirrel, possum, and a variety of birds and fowl. Stories were told as a way to pass

time as work was accomplished and sometimes just as a way to relax with family. Religion,

mentioned often, was a way of life of many families. One storyteller spoke of her home, “if it

wasn’t a Bible story or a family story, then it wasn’t told in my mama’s home” (O. Daboiku,

personal communication, April 16, 2004). 32

The current study continued from the pilot study (April through June 2004) for 11 more

months (July 2004 through May 2005) and grew to a population of 22 professional storytellers

over the 13 total months (April 2004 through May 2005) of the study. The study incorporates the

interviews and performances from the pilot study and confirms and expands this research with

professional storytellers’ performance of their stories in a diverse variety of social and

environmental settings both inside and outdoors throughout the Greater Cincinnati region of

Ohio. This expanded professional storyteller study continues with parameters: (a) retain the

original 8 storytellers interviewed and observed in performance and continue with new

interviews and performances, (b) conduct in-depth audio-taped interviews with 14 professional

storytellers new to the study in addition to the original 8; (c) continue with both men and women

of diverse ethnicities and ages, (d) observe and audio-tape professional storytellers in

performances throughout Greater Cincinnati, (e) observe professional storytellers in interactions

with audience members during performances and (f) use a survey to gain written perceptions

concerning the content of their narratives and demographics. In 1997, Labov wrote, “The most

important data that I have gathered on narrative is not drawn from the observation of speech

production or controlled experiments, but from the reactions of audience to the narratives as I

have retold them (p. 396). This study of professional urban Appalachian storytellers’ narratives examines both life history and the performance content to determine the social, cultural, and historical factors that affect the story content.

Significance This study fills the existing gaps in narrative knowledge by providing a mixed method

study of both female and male urban professional storytellers from the Greater Cincinnati area.

They tell Appalachian stories, work to preserve the Appalachian traditions, promote story as an 33

art form, keep family history, and affirm their own identity. First, this study adds to and expands

the existing body of scholarly work in professional storytellers’ narratives by investigating

whether or not hypothesized factors such as life history and audience affect storytellers. Second,

it also helps to explain and validate prior studies of storytellers’ narratives. Third, this study

examines professional storytellers’ life histories and analyzes how the life histories influence the performance content. Fourth, this study examines the professional storytellers’ actions when telling their oral narratives and the interactions with the audience. Fifth, it determines through

examination of audio and video tape recordings and photographs of performances the extent to

which audience interaction with professional storytellers contributes to the narrative content and

finally, it was discovered that the various social environments where storytelling occurs does

influence the narrative content. This new knowledge: (a) connects professional storytellers to narrative theory, (b) focuses professional storyteller interactions in social contexts to narratives and life history, (c) raises awareness of the importance of professional storytelling to cultural

preservation and asserts that storytelling is dynamic and fluid and (d) values storytelling as a

means of educating current and future generations of adults and children, whether from within

regions of the United States or from other cultures worldwide. As McAdams (1997) wrote in The

Stories We Live By: Personal Myths and the Making of Self,

“Identity is a life story. A life story is a personal myth that an individual begins working

on in late adolescence and young adulthood in order to provide his or her life with a unity

or purpose and in order to articulate a meaningful niche in the psychosocial world” (p. 5).

Of the 16 literature review studies, 13 were comparative studies of change and 3 were

single-subject designs with 5 being quantitative and 10 being qualitative and 1 mixed method

design. The comparative studies directly sought to compare narratives of the children or 34 narratives of the adults. Of the 16 studies conducted on storytelling and oral narratives 12 studies involved adults and the remaining 4 used children as participants. Narratives are a standard qualitative design used in the social sciences with the following minimal conditions for use: (a) the narrator must be “willing to tell stories or tell life, career or personal histories” and (b) “an interpretive framework based on the concepts and meanings used by the storyteller”

(LeCompte& Schensul, 1999, p. 83).

Chapter 3 - Methods

Research Design LeCompte and Schensul (1999) include narrative as a research design because it is used so extensively in education, in anthropology, in ethnic and gender studies. Narrative inquiry allows key informants, in this case, professional storytellers, to develop a picture of their beliefs and storytelling practices. This study uses narrative inquiry with in-depth open-ended interviews, performance observations, an open-ended and demographic survey and field notes to investigate narratives. Narratives focus on knowledge, beliefs, and practices in an effort to study how people practice their profession, storytelling. Narratives highlight experiences of those who have been oppressed or marginalized where they live and gives voice to the storytellers’ life experience

(LeCompte and Schensul, 1999).

Mixed Method Design Using a mixed method design allows integration of qualitative and quantitative data collection to expand the depth and understanding between the two methods at several stages in the process of this storyteller’s narrative research: the data collection, the data analysis, and the interpretation. For the purposes of this professional storyteller study, a sequential exploratory design works best by first allowing the qualitative data from interviews, performances and observations to be collected. Secondly, integration of the qualitative and quantitative data occurs by mixing the data collected on the mixed survey with qualitative open ended and quantitative demographic questions. Finally, in this model, priority is given to the qualitative data due to the nature of the narratives and performances. The qualitative data collection and analysis occurs 36

then the quantitative data collection analysis occurs, and finally interpretation of the entire

analysis at the end of the study (Creswell, 2003).

Although time consuming to collect both types of data, this design is straightforward to

implement because the steps ascend in clear and separate stages. Figure 2 illustrates the

conceptual framework of mixed method design to accommodate the study of storytellers’

narratives (Creswell, 2003). I adapted and modified Creswell’s model (2003) using rectangular

boxes. In thinking this model through and how it was to be used with the in depth professional

storyteller interviews and performances occurring first and then the surveys being completed and

compiled, I adapted it to fit my conception with qualitative ovals and quantitative rectangles with a culminating capstone shape for integration and interpretation of findings.

Figure 2. Conceptual Framework of Mixed Method Design Used with the Urban Appalachian Professional Storytellers’ Narratives

Mixed method findings synthesized and Data integrated to QUALITATIVE DATA Analysis display form a of from framework qualitative findings Determining Coding data qualitative categories themes and Qualitative from Create a matrix patterns narrative qualitative from text data Analysis of quantitative interviews, collected quantitative data findings observations & Determining quantitative themes performance Coding and patterns categories from quantitative data Quantitative data collected from Surveys

QUANTITATIVE DATA

Figure 2 is adapted from Creswell’s (2003) mixed method model for sequential exploratory

design (p. 213).

First, in Figure 2 the ovals represent the ascending order of the qualitative data

collected from narratives, observation and performances. Second, coding categories are

determined from transcribed data. Third, qualitative themes and patterns are sifted from the data. Fourth, qualitative data is analyzed. Fifth, data displays are created to think through and visualize the data and finally, the integration of qualitative data to begin interpretation. In the second part of the model, first the horizontal rectangular boxes represent the ascending order 38

of the quantitative data collected from the quantitative surveys. Second, coding categories are

determined from transcribed quantitative data. Third, the quantitative themes and patterns are selected. Fourth, the quantitative data analyzed. Fifth, creation of data displays to think through and visualize the quantitative data and finally, the capstone of the study, the preparation of quantitative data for integration with the qualitative data. At this stage findings are synthesized and integrated to form a framework for interpretation of the data collected.

By utilizing both qualitative and quantitative data, mixed method design facilitates the

study of in-depth narratives, performances issues and produces a wealth of rich deep information

to increase understanding of the narratives. This model results in well-validated and substantial

findings. Validity is enhanced by triangulating data sources, member-checking, and collecting

detailed description of data that converges in the interpretation of findings (Creswell, 2003). In

using a mixed method design, generalizability was not reduced. Repeated patterns of responses

and descriptions across cases lead to an understanding of causal or correlation of relationships.

Setting, Population, and Sampling Method

Appalachian Region The Appalachian Regional Commission (2005) designates Appalachia as a 406 county

area comprised of:

“200,000 square mile region that follows the spine of the Appalachian Mountains from

southern New York to northern Mississippi. It includes all of West Virginia and parts of

12 other states: Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, New York, North

Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia” (ARC, 2005). 39

Greater Cincinnati Region For purposes of this study, I am concerned with the Greater Cincinnati region of Ohio and the

professional storytellers who have a connection to the Appalachian region. According to the

Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce (2005) Greater Cincinnati is comprised of 13

counties; the corners of three states, Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana; and based on the 2000 census

is home to 1,979,202 people. The Greater Cincinnati area includes Hamilton and Clermont

Counties in southwestern Ohio and Kenton, Campbell, and Boone Counties in northern

Kentucky and a corner of Indiana. Clermont County, considered part of Metropolitan Cincinnati, is part of Ohio’s western edge of the Appalachian Region. The city of Norwood, a 3.1 square mile community enclave, is located 5 miles north of downtown Cincinnati.

Figure 3. Ohio’s Appalachian Country (Ohio Appalachian Country brochure, 2005) An Appalachian, as defined for this study, is one of the

following: (a) born in Appalachian designated county, including

those born in Cincinnati or Norwood (b) one or both parents

born in Appalachia, (c) one or more grandparents born in

Appalachia (Appalachian Region Commission, 2005

definition), (d) married and spouse is Appalachian and (e) in-

migration and consider themselves to be Appalachian at heart and tell Appalachian related stories.

Initial Conception of Study This study’s initial conception started as a seed of thought while attending the Ohio,

Indiana, and Kentucky (OKI) Library Consortium at Northern Kentucky University at Highland

Heights, Kentucky in November 2002. It was at this conference, with the theme of “Mining the 40

Mountains for Appalachian Children’s Literature,” that I met professional children’s authors,

Gloria Huston, Ruth White, George Ella Lyon and Ann Olsen and professional storytellers,

Omope Carter Daboiku and Russ and Barb Childers performing as Bear Foot. These children’s authors first told an excerpt from their life history and then read an excerpt from one of their books. The storytellers introduced a story or song with an excerpt from their life or history of the music prior to telling. It was in conversations with Omope and Barb at the conference and later at the Appalachian Christmas on the River gathering held in the Cincinnati East End in December

2002 that I started focusing plans for this study on professional storytellers. In March 2004, I visited the International Storytelling Center in Jonesborough, Tennessee and learned of the national and international scope and prestige of storytelling. On this excursion, I met Dr. Joseph

Sobol, Coordinator of the Storytelling Program at East Tennessee State University located in

Johnson City about 15 minutes from Jonesborough. His office was lined with bookshelves full of audio and video tapes of storytellers and their performances. With this new sense of storytelling’s place in community and culture I preceded with the study, the IRB was approved in

April 2004, and the pilot study, “Urban Appalachian Professional Storytellers’ Narratives: What

influences and informs the Content?” was under way. The study grew from the first interviews with Omope and Barb in April 2004 to the 22 storytellers in the study by the end of May 2005.

Population The population of the study is 22 professional storytellers, 14 (64%) are females and 8

(36%) are males; 18/22 or 82 % have Appalachian heritage (2 were born in Cincinnati/Norwood)

and 4 (18%) moved into the Cincinnati area over 20 years ago. A genealogy of each storyteller

would be needed to display the mixed ancestry of the storytellers. Fourteen females and 7 males

identified themselves on the survey as white, but in telling their stories, it was learned that a 41

great grandmother was Cherokee, a great grandfather was Cherokee, a maternal grandmother

was Creek, or a father was Shawnee, a mother was Scots, or some ancestors had darker skin, but were not African American, but of mixed ancestry. Two storytellers, one female, Omope self- identified herself as Native American (O. Daboiku, personal communication, May 9, 2005) and one male, Fred /Neeake, identified himself as Native American, Shawandasse Nishnabe, a

Shawnee Indian (F. Shaw/Neeake, personal communication, January 30, 2005). At the 36th

Appalachian Festival, I spoke to Omope about identity because initially I identified her as

Affrilachian because of a newspaper article identifying her as Affrilachian or African American.

Then, I heard Omope speak of her family in the early 1920s “becoming colored” to own land in

Ohio and to have voting rights because as Indian in Ohio they could not, though as Indian in

Georgia they could own land (O. Daboiku, personal communication, May 7, 2004). Omope provided me her definition of Affrilachian, “a term that defines mixed folk whose kin is brown

and have Native American, European (Scots, Irish, Welsh, English) and African ancestry; just as

Melungeon are of mixed ancestry (European, North African/ Mediterranean/Turkish)” (O.

Daboiku, personal communication, May 7, 2005). So to conclude this ethnicity and race issue

and to offer a word of sensitivity, stories told don’t necessarily identify ancestry. Due to this

mixed ancestry and in respect for the storytellers, I decided not to try to place storytellers into a

data display or table where they were identified, white, African American, Native American,

Hispanic, or other. The storytellers themselves and their stories were the reason for the study, not

to try to pigeonhole them to make a data display.

Four professional storytellers (18%) engage in storytelling full time (R. Childers, O.

Daboiku, R. Carson, & B. Stewart, personal communications, 2005) and the remaining 18 (82%)

engage in storytelling or “story-tell” part time as a source of livelihood (personal 42

communications, 2004/2005). They perform their storytelling routines in performances at events

and receive pay. Tellers often learned storytelling from family groupings in their homes as

children listening to elders tell stories while doing some type of handwork such as quilting or

mending or oiling a harness, or breaking beans (O. Daboiku, S. Hollen, & H. Cooper, personal

communications, 2004). Others learned or improved their natural skill as storytellers from theatre, drama, communication classes in high school or college (S. Hollen, L. Breithaupt, K.

Issacs, M. McLeod, S. Messerly, & B. Stewart, personal communications, 2005) or from tribal elders (F. Shaw/Neeake, personal communication, January 30, 2005). Tellers told about local, state and national workshops offered by storytelling guilds, state or national organizations (S.

Cox, S. Messerly, R. Terwillegar, R. Carson, & S. Hollen, personal communications, 2005).

Storytellers spoke of other storytellers such as Rita (Grandma Buzz), Omope, and Sue, whom perform locally and nationally and from whom they had taken workshops. Fred as Neeake is

recognized internationally as a storyteller (F. Shaw, personal communication, January 30, 2005).

Storytellers learn and improve their craft from observation of other storytellers at events and

performances and from friendly informal critique offered by fellow storytellers. For example, at

the 36th Appalachian Festival I observed one veteran teller advising another newer teller “to pace

delivery” and “to build details of the characters”, so the audience could create a mental image of

the characters. They conform to standards of the profession by exhibiting professional behavior such as being punctual for events, gaining permission from an author to tell a story originating from a book, giving credit for a story adapted from another source or teller, and performing in an ethical and professional manner. All the professional storytellers exhibit great skill and are considered expert performing artists. As experts, Russ, Omope, and Stephen instruct in artist-in- residence programs through the Ohio and Kentucky Arts and Humanities Programs. Russ and 43

Omope apprentice other tellers (R. Childers & O. Daboiku, personal communications, 2005).

They all perform at festivals, community organizations events, and social gatherings. Bet does a one-person theatrical routine on a stage sometimes having backdrops, musicians, dancers, costumes, and make-up (B. Stewart, personal communication, 2005). In the performances observed each of the tellers had a routine in mind and adapted based on the audience, such things as age or mostly children. Russ and Barb perform individually and together as a duet, Bear Foot and with a band, Rabbit Hash String Band, named after Rabbit Hash, Kentucky. Many use musical instruments: banjo, fiddle, guitar, hammered dulcimer, mountain dulcimer, stick dulcimer, bowed psalter, Jew’s harp, tambourine, and piano to name a few (S. Crate, D. Drewry,

R. & B. Childers, & P. Ingram, personal communications, 2004/2005). A variety of puppets such as a black panther, a white fluffy puppy, a hummingbird, a witch doll, a long-necked gourd, and a mouth with large red lips served as props by Hannah Sue, Rita (Grandma Buzz) Sue, and Paul

(H. Cooper, R. Whittington, S. Cox, & P. Ingram, personal communications, 2004/05). All use other professional equipment such as microphones and related sound system devices. These professional tellers greet each other with smiles, hellos, hugs and hand-shakes when meeting and after a few performances they greeted me with hellos and hugs too and almost from the very beginning of the study, they shared rich life experiences with me.

Sampling Method This study uses a snowball method or chain sampling of adult professional storytellers, both male and female, to locate “information-rich key informants” (Patton, 2002). Since most of these professional storytellers know of each other, I found using referral from one to another gave me easy access and entry when initially contacting each of them in person, by phone or by email. It was amazing the depth of the interviews and the honesty with which the professional 44 storytellers open themselves to my questions and respond with frankness and sincerity. The main advantage of this purposeful sampling method is that it allows for an in-depth study by asking those professionals who know their own storytelling community who else to speak with to accumulate new information and other events in the area of Greater Cincinnati to attend. At some events I attended and met storytellers for the first time so I introduced myself, described the study and gave the names of tellers who had referred me to the event. Storytellers share their stories with the public and often life history events connect the story, the event and the teller to the audience for a shared moment.

Data Collection Instruments As principal investigator, I conducted interviews and attended performances at times convenient to both the storyteller and me in a quiet place determined at the time of scheduling and at other times after a performance with the chaos of audience and festival activities around.

When time permitted interviews were scheduled for 1-1/2 hours, but many became longer as storytellers told life history personal experiences and told me stories they had in their repertoire for performances. Of the 45 interviews 26 (58%) were conducted at the storyteller’s home or work place. There were 19 (42%) interviews which occurred with bands blasting in the background, other performers on stage nearby, or in a festival setting with a cacophony of discordant festival noises in the background. Some interviews were conducted on the move, for example, one of Omope’s interviews and one of Hannah’s interviews were informal and occurred while walking around at a festival and talking while looking at festival wares, but I still had my notebook and recorder readily available. After one of Sandy’s performances we were joined by another professional storyteller, Hannah, and the three of us in the moment, went to dinner which lasted for 3 hours. Much of the time while eating we were discussing storytelling, 45 telling stories, and my recorder was humming away in the background. If conversation turned too personal a teller might request I turn the recorder off for a moment, a gesture of respect I granted. Over time and at events, some of the same professional storytellers had multiple performances, and then we had more opportunities to have informal interviews which yielded rich data and more in depth personal information. Interviews extended across time, race, gender, and geographic regions within the Greater Cincinnati area. This research combines in-depth open-ended interviews, direct and naturalistic observation and an open-ended, multiple-choice, demographic survey which was given to a teller after the initial interview.

In depth oral interviews provide deeper information and knowledge concerning personal matters, lived experience, values, decisions, ideology, perspectives of cultural knowledge and provide a way to check theories or to verify triangulation (Johnson, 2001). These deep structure interviews offer an opportunity for in depth analysis and interpretation, both the teller’s and mine. Topical oral history interviews provide culturally rich and important data and “document a way of life that is fading out or a skill that is becoming rare” (Rubin & Rubin, 1995). I utilized my own interview questions designed with semi-structured open-ended questions (Appendix A) focusing on the qualitative nature of story content and professional experience related issues.

Although each interview used my set of prepared questions to ensure that the same basic lines of inquiry were followed with each professional storyteller interviewed (Patton, 2002), probing questions were asked based on responses and provided opportunities for clarification (Frankel and Wallen, 2003). Questions were framed, phrased carefully, and in a culturally appropriate manner to collect valid and reliable mixed method data, both qualitative and quantitative. Some questions asked were: What was your first exposure to storytelling? Can you talk about your decision to become a storyteller? Where do you get your ideas for your stories? How do you 46 select the content of your stories? Whose voice is expressed when you tell a story? Would you be willing to tell me a story? Is there a relationship between your story content and audience?

Interview digressions follow the professional storytellers’ areas of interests or knowledge and produce culture relevant information. Some storytellers organize their responses to questions into long stories, creating a flow from life experience to a story complete with sound effects. In- depth interviews commonly conclude with the interviewer summarizing some of the main points understood and to clarify information (Johnson, 2001). Storytellers, Stephen, Kevin, Lisa, and

Hannah drew maps to illustrate home areas in the mountains and where various family members live (S. Hollen, K. Issacs, L. Breithaupt, & H. Cooper, personal communications, 2005). The rapport established seemed to be there from the beginning as storytellers often told me very personal stories of events in their lives that often fueled an on-the-spot story. This story was often then told at a future event. Emotional incidences with which they were dealing were often shared with me in the interview and then later this incident may appear in a story. This was the case when I first met and spoke with Stephen at a performance then learned from him later he had left immediately after his performance to go to his father whom had died shortly afterward.

Stephen told me this at our second meeting and interview eight months later. It was at this second meeting that Stephen showed me his newest book of poetry, Old Ragged Verse (Hollen,

2004) and read the dedication, “For my Dad and Oh My Darlin’.” The woman of “Oh My

Darlin’ is Stephen’s wife. Much to my surprise, he inscribed his book, “To Chris, My Daddy says Happiness is like Moonshine; Make your own and you’ll never run out! Stephen Hollen

January 2005” and then gave it to me (S. Hollen, personal communication, January 30, 2005).

Another similar incident occurred with Hannah whom I had met at a performance in May 2004; we exchanged phone numbers but I did not know then that she was personally caring for a 47

terminally ill husband. At a Shawnee Indian Culture Festival, another performer told me that

Hannah’s husband had died in late December 2004. I wrote Hannah a note of condolences and

explained that I had tried numerous times to contact her but to no avail. A few weeks later on a

Sunday afternoon, Hannah phoned me and we talked for several hours, then she invited me to her

home for an in person interview. When I arrived there was a pitcher of raspberry ice tea and a

skillet of buttermilk corn pone on the table along with a folder of photos and other memorabilia

(H. Cooper, personal communication, February 7, 2005). Similar stories revealed desires and

dreams such as not raising children in urban Cincinnati (O. Daboiku, personal communication,

April 16, 2004; February 18, 2005); property purchases back in family home areas of the

mountains (H. Cooper, S. Hollen, R. Terwillegar, R. Childers, & L. Breithaupt, personal

communications, 2005); desires to return to college (H. Cooper, personal communication,

February 7, 2005); shared desires to return to ministry in a phone interview and then his

excitement in entering a theological program shared at our first in person interview when he gave

me his book (S. Hollen, personal communication, January 28, 2005); thoughts for a new

historical enactment focusing on the polio vaccine development and research conducted in

Cincinnati by a storyteller’s friend (M. McLeod, personal communication, January 24, 2005) and

the “up close and personal” stories go on and the hours and hours are quantitatively displayed in

Table 1.

Table 1, a frequency distribution, demonstrates a significant number of hours of contact with the professional storytellers. The 45 in depth interviews yield 73 hours of recorded data and the 53 performances yield 65 hours of data collected over a period of 13 months equaling 137 total personal contact hours and 1822 pages of verbatim field notes from performances and interviews. 48

Observation allows qualitative detail of activities and provides an accurate depiction of sequencing of events, describe settings, participants, behaviors, conversations, and interactions as they happen and serve as another medium to data collection (LeCompte & Schensul, 1999). 49

Table 1 Frequency Distribution of Number of Hours of Interviews and Performances with

Professional Storytellers

Professional Interview Performance Total Storytellers Hours Hours Hours Barb 4 4 8 Russ 4 6 10 Susie 1 1 2 Don 2 2 4 Omope 8 10 18 Stephen 6 6 12 Martha 4 7 11 Rita (G Buzz) 3 2 5 Hannah Sue 11 7 18 Lisa 4 2 6 Angela 3 4 7 Kevin 2 2 4 Cheryl 1 1 2 Sandy 6 2 8 Fred (Neeake) 1 1 2 Sue 1 1 2 Bet 2 0 2 Phyllis 1 0 1 Robert 4 1 5 Sister Esther 2 1 3 Rick 2 1 3 Paul 1 2 3 Totals (N) 73 65 137

Observation and field notes happened as a matter of routine. The storytellers grew used to me taking notes as we spoke as backup to the recorder that was often running; if conversations 50

turned to a personal nature, they simply requested I turn the recorder off. Spatial line drawings

and sketches were drawn of event layouts with corresponding memory notes and detailed textual

descriptions jotted in for a frame of reference. My sketches became invaluable in composing the

line drawings for the figure illustrations that accompany most of the events in this study. These

sketches convey a sense of a moment in history at interviews and performances, depicting

culture, modes of dress, the politics of stage placement, and the social positions of the storytellers in relation to other performers, musicians, food tents, and traffic flows.

A survey provides the quantitative data for the mixed method design and includes open-

ended, partially open-ended and restricted items (Bordens & Abbott, 1999). Survey open-ended

questions (Appendix B) allow participants to provide a response in their own words, partially

open-ended questions allow “other” as a category, restricted questions offer ordered alternatives

in a logical order, and demographic questions assess the characteristics of the storyteller

participants such as, age, gender, occupation, education and income (LeCompte & Schensul,

1999). Of the 22 professional storytellers, 15 or 68 % returned their completed survey and that

data furnished information for the data displays and quantitative findings. Questions serve as

predictor variables during the analysis of the data to determine whether they correlate with or

predict questions in the survey. Using different data collection sources provides triangulation of

the qualitative and quantitative data and enhances validity.

Postmodern trends in interviewing and technical issues employed in the 21st century offer

an immense variety of technical multimedia innovations that contribute to improved research. In

this study, telephone and email were used to make contact with storytellers. An Olympus voice

activated microcassette tape recorder recorded data at performances and interviews. 51

Photography was a major part of the data collection process as I captured storytellers in performance, in impromptu moments, sociocultural contexts of the events and performances, and wide angle audience shots. I shot photos, 346 of them, to capture storytelling moments and social and geographical environments of the performances, with the exception of some professional publicity photos given to me by Martha McLeod. A Kodak 35 mm Cameo pocket camera was used in the pilot study. For the extended study, a Kodak Easy Share DX7630 digital camera offers higher performance features which yielded clear professional quality photographs. Photos document the many facial expressions, hand gestures, and body language of the professional storytellers in both the interview format and their performances. Photos capture storytelling moments, storytellers socializing, social and geographical environments of the performances, costumes, face-paint, distance shots of audiences, and unidentifiable angle shots of attentiveness of audience members. Photos added depth to the study and aided in retrieval of descriptive details. Photographs and digital photographs were saved to a CD for archival purposes. Duplicate photos at the completion of the study will be given to each storyteller as a gesture of appreciation for their time and participation.

Digital video recording provides visual images of the storytelling act and allows more in- depth mixed method analysis and serves as an archival medium. One interview and one performance were video recorded using a digital video recorder with a tripod. During the study it was found that a small camera was less intrusive for the storyteller and the audience. Martha provided me a copy of a video, “The Storyteller,” produced when she had a radio program,

Stories for All, in Cincinnati on WAIF in 2002 through 2004. Martha also gave me a copy of one of her historical performances, Harriet Beecher Stowe and a coaching workshop. 52

Realia or artifacts serve to document details and provide important physical evidence of data, both qualitatively and quantitatively (LeCompte & Schensul, 1999). Realia collected were items such as event advertisements, event programs, flyers, publicity brochures, newspaper articles, business cards, community organizations sponsoring a festival or event, storytelling guild newsletters, recipes, jokes or any other items that may prove to be useful in capturing the essence of the professional storyteller and their performances.

Table 2 illustrates in a data display the frequency distribution of the following data collection instruments: interviews, performances, audio recordings, video recording, survey, realia, photos, published works of storytellers, email, and storyteller’s music CD or cassettes.

The many web page postings were not counted because some storytellers had hundreds of poems, lesson plans, event lists, schedules, and photo displays. 53

Table 2 Frequency Distribution of Data Collection Instruments for Documenting Professional

Storytellers’ Narratives

Published Interview Web Teller Realia Works Professional (including Page Music Total Performance Audio Video Survey Ads Photos (not Storytellers those on or CD (N) Brochures including phone) Email Audio web pages) Barb 3 2 4 2 1 1 4 1 1 19

Russ 2 3 5 1 2 12 1 8 CDs 34

Susie 1 2 1 1 2 5 2 1 1 16

Don 1 2 2 - 1 7 1 14

Omope 6 8 10 2 - 6 40 1 73

Martha 3 5 7 1 1 9 28 1 1 56

Stephen 2 5 7 - 12 45 1 1 1 74

Hannah Sue 5 5 9 1 3 29 1 1 54

Rita /G Buzz 2 2 4 1 23 32

Lisa 2 2 2 - 1 2 9

Angela 2 3 3 1 - 4 13

Kevin 1 2 2 1 5 1 12

Cheryl 1 1 1 - 4 7

Sandy 3 2 5 1 2 4 1 18

Fred-Neeake 2 1 2 1 13 1 1 21

Sue 2 2 1 - 4 1 10

Bet 2 - 1 1 2 2 1 9

Robert 1 1 2 1 12 4 21

Phyllis 1 - 1 2 4

Rick 1 2 1 1 1 19 25

Paul 1 2 2 1 34 40

Sister Esther 1 1 2 1 1 11 17

Event Context 18 45 63

Totals (N) 45 53 74 5 15 73 346 5 13 12 641

Several potential limitations exist and need to be considered, such as, interviewer bias

and authentic responses while using in depth interviews. Interviewer effects may bias the 54 responses of participants, for example, I may have unconsciously smiled at certain answers or nodded in agreement or disagreement. When the storyteller is telling a story, laughter sometimes just happens, as many audience members could attest. There is also the issue of gaining authentic honest responses to questions, for some reason, storytellers may not have told me what they really thought, been unable to express true feelings, or responded with what they thought I wanted to hear. However, as the study progressed and I met them repeatedly at performances and in interviews, I do not believe this was the case. I often heard some of the same personal stories that had been told to me later used to introduce a performance story. The storytellers seem to view this study as a positive attempt to focus on the professional aspects of storytelling as a performance art, to promote them as storytellers, to make others aware of their diverse cultural backgrounds, as an opportunity to dispel “Appalachian” stereotypes and as a tool to market and make others aware of the Greater Cincinnati professional storytellers and their events. A final limitation is that the questions may not measure what I intended for them to measure (Frankel &

Wallen, 2003) simply because of the interpretations the storytellers may have stemming from personal experiences that have been told through many generations. Finally in my coding, I interpreted the stories and attempted to code them into the major themes. Some stories could cross fit into several themes as will be demonstrated in chapter 5 on performance themes.

Procedures In this formal study, each professional storyteller signed consent forms to take part in the study and then signed an additional consent form allowing me to audio-tape, or video-tape, and to shoot photographs during interviews and performances. These consent forms permit me to use these forms of data collection in presentations, publications and to use their name, rather than a pseudonym. This study, though not intended, has become a means of promoting the storytelling 55

profession in this region and an avenue to raise awareness of the value of storytelling.

Throughout this study, I first introduce each professional storyteller with their full name, but then

in subsequent entries, I refer to each of them by their first name, see Figure 4 for a diagram of the

storytellers. Due to the social nature of the performances and interviews, they called me Chris

and I called them by their first name after the initial formalities of introduction.

This study was based primarily on open-ended, semi-structured interviews, observation

of performances, observation field notes, photography and surveys to determine what influences

the storytellers’ narratives and informs the content of their oral narratives. Some of these

storytellers I met at events and if they agree, an interview is conducted prior to a performance or

afterward, or scheduled as is convenient for the storyteller. At the conclusion of all interviews,

participants are asked to complete a written survey about professional storytelling practices and demographic issues and given a self addressed stamped envelop to return the survey to me.

Second interviews and subsequent meetings are an avenue to continuation of the in-depth

interview, and provide for probing clarification or new questions. They refer me to any other

professional storytellers they know who may qualify for the study. I gain permission to use their

name as a referral. At the last event attended, I asked if there were any professional storytellers

that they could think of who was not included in the study. As a whole, they believe I have everyone who is a professional storyteller in Greater Cincinnati.

Data Analysis Procedures Using a mixed method design allows integration of qualitative and quantitative data

collected in the process of this storyteller’s narrative research: the data collection, the data

analysis, and the interpretation. Qualitative analysis of the ethnographic data involves reading of

field notes, analytically coding to identifying themes and patterns, hypothesizing, systematically 56

extracting major topics (Bordens & Abbott, 1999). A review of transcribed audiotaped

interviews clarifies coding categories, and allows thought to making margins notes and observer comments (Patton, 2002). According to Baum (1991),

Transcribing is a work of art, a little akin to translating from one language to another, but

with less latitude allowable. The spoken word has many dimensions with which to

convey fact and feeling: pitch, loudness, strength, speed, pronunciation, sounds that are

not words (p. 26).

In putting the storytellers’ words from interview and performance down on paper, I had my tape recorded words, field notes and hundreds of photographs, but capturing the depth of the

conversations, the emotion spoken in a voice was very difficult and complicated work. Each

narrative response was coded with the primary patterns and may use one or more of the coding

categories and themes. This involved analyzing the core content of the interviews and

observations to determine what is significant. Transcripts were thoroughly reviewed to refine or

recode as appropriate (Schensul, Schensul & LeCompte, 1999). Trends, themes and patterns in

the coded data were aided by color coding to give a visual of developing patterns. Paragraphs, as

a group of related unified sentences were coded based on the topic sentences and supporting

details of the narration. As in the Nelson (1990) study, interpretations were clarified with the

storyteller participant. Audio-taped and transcript portions that need clarification or verified were

marked and the storyteller-participant contacted. As this process develops an index code list of

99 major and subheadings develop from the field notes and interviews. I used both deductive and

inductive analysis. Cross case analysis allows comparisons between storyteller’s cases and also

within each storyteller’s case as in constant comparison (Patton, 2002). Cross-case analysis and

displays allow more sophisticated descriptions and more powerful explanations to enhance the 57 generalizability and provides evidence to the relevance or applicability of the findings to other similar settings (Miles & Huberman, 1994). The variables derived from the quantitative survey considered the individual cases of each participant storyteller. The variable oriented approach is conceptual and theory centered (Miles & Huberman, 1994).

Limitations Analysis of qualitative data can be easily, even if unintentionally, affected by researcher bias. So, for those reasons, every effort was made to examine my personal ideas and assumptions to keep them from infiltrating the data or influencing the participant. In this study the questions asked led to more stories on the storytellers’ part so indirectly my questions impact data gathering. Even though Labov and Waletzky collected data through recorded face to face interviews with only the interviewer and narrator, the “questions they asked were not considered part of the storytelling process”, thereby, “ignoring the researcher’s impact on data gathering”

(Goodwin, 1997; Labov, 1967/1997). In the same vain preconceived ideas may improperly impact data interpretation, therefore, I search for negative or data discrepancies. Credibility was essential to the reporting of a storyteller’s narrative. Because storyteller voice is important in the interview process, care is taken to reflect the participant’s position, perspective, and operating viewpoint. Narrators couch life events within their own personal thoughts and memories; “I think” is subjective; remembering is unobservable and therefore unverifiable. According to

Chafe and Nichols, “A thought presented as remembered is presented as true… remember is a factual mental verb” (Ochs & Capps, 1997, p.83). I accepted these professional storytellers’ remembered life experiences as they were presented to me, as true events. The truth exception is in the performances where folklore stories were performed. Folklore may be based in part on life 58

events, legends, local traditions but take on a fictional or mythical quality that we accept to not

be true.

Labov and Waletzky insisted on narrative’s situation in social interaction, but they did not relate the social and cultural interplay of activity occurring while the interviews were occurring (Bernstein, 1997). To avoid this limitation, every effort to collect and document social situations and interactions was taken by using a variety of data collection instruments and these social situations and interactions provide the back story to many performance stories. In addition,

Labov and Waletzky rejected the actual social interview context and gender identity in the environmental context but examined the “function of personal interest determined by a stimulus in the social contexts” (Tolliver, 1997; Mishler, 1997; Labov, 1967/1997). In an effort to avoid this, the social interview context and gendered identity in the environmental context is examined as part of the study. The interview and performance locations and environment are described and line drawings offer a graphic visual of events. This study fills the existing gaps in narrative knowledge by providing a mixed method study of both female and male professional storytellers from the Greater Cincinnati area. Observations, interviews and performances of the professional storytellers when telling their oral narratives were audio and video taped. These recordings, field

notes, and photographs of performances provided data to determine the extent of audience

interaction with professional storytellers and contribute to the narrative content. It was

discovered that the various social environments where storytelling occurs does influence the

narrative content. Even though, the social context is subjective, events cannot be contradicted.

Since there are no direct benefits to individual participants, efforts are taken to gain authentic

information to enhance direct examples and quotes, and support findings and conclusions. In

Chapter 4, I introduce exemplar social and environmental settings where events and 59 performances occur. The participant professional storytellers are introduced with portions of their routines explained in association with their performance background. 60

Chapter 4 Findings Part I - Settings, Participants and Routines

This chapter of findings focuses on the settings, participants and routines. It introduces

the contexts in which the storytelling performances occur throughout Greater Cincinnati,

introduces the 22 urban professional storytellers and provides insight into some of their routines.

Professional storytellers narrate and perform their stories both indoors and outsides at diverse

community organizations, social gatherings, and educational settings. These settings vary from contemporary metal and glass structures to open-air tents. Of the 18 events where storytellers performed, 14 occurred indoors in the various categories of place: in a contemporary arts center, a church community room, assisted living centers, a historic home turned community center, a

Union Station train terminal maintained as a community museum center, a county park meeting room, and in libraries. Four events took place outdoors – two in a community park, and two in a large Cincinnati community theme park, Coney Island, Cincinnati. All of the 18 events attended have an entertainment and educational aspect to their storytelling purpose. Of the 18 events attended: 6 (33%) were festivals; 10 (56%) were to preserve the folk art of storytelling, create awareness of Appalachian cultural traditions for the audience and promote libraries at 5 library sponsored events, 2 assisted living centers, 1 community arts center, 1 storyteller guild meeting, and 1 garden club meeting; and 2 (11%) were fund raisers.

Festivals in the study are an annual organized celebration of cultural performances,

exhibitions, and entertainment to create awareness of Appalachian culture and Shawnee Indian

culture. Festivals ranged from 1 to 4 days in length. The Harpin N’ Pickin Festival, The Mini

Appalachian Festival (a neighborhood festival), the 36th Appalachian Festival at Coney Island

Park, and the Shawnee Indian Culture Festival are explored in this chapter in more depth and

serve as representative of the festivals in the study. These festivals were selected as representative 61

of festivals because they occurred annually, professional storytellers were given one hour each to perform, other cultural performers were on the venue throughout the festivals, living history demonstrations and exhibitions were plentiful to display the artisans work, and food booths represented the cultures. By selecting these particular festivals, I was able to showcase the performances of 14 of the 22 tellers (64%), Omope, Barb and Russ, Susie, Don, Martha, Stephen,

Hannah, Rita, Rick, Paul, Sister Esther, Sue and Fred/Neeake. Each of the remaining eight storytellers (36%), Lisa, Cheryl, Kevin, Angela, Sandy, Robert, Bet and Phyllis will be introduced at the 5 library sponsored events, 2 assisted living centers’ events, 1 community arts center event,

1 storyteller guild meeting event, and 1 garden club meeting event; and 2 fund raiser events.

The Clermont County Public Library (CCPL) Dreamweavers Storytelling Troupe and

The Cincinnati Public Library (CPL) Story Hour promote stories as a way to entice children and

their families to the library, to read, and to appreciate oral traditions. The CCPL Dreamweavers

are librarians who as part of their work responsibilities perform throughout Clermont County and

the Cincinnati region marketing the library services by performing at various events and festivals.

Three of their performances were observed in Hyde Park at a Center for Older Adults, and at the

CCPL Branch in Goshen, and the Branch in Owensville. Two of their performances in combination spotlight the 4 storytellers, Lisa, Angela, Kevin and Cheryl, who were observed in storytelling mode with an audience of seniors and then an audience of children from a day camp.

Other performances featured combinations of the troupe storytellers from the libraries. The

Cincinnati Public Library Children’s Department was the site of Story Hour. During two of my visits to the library to interview Barb, I was also given the opportunity to see her tell young children stories using selected books that lend themselves well to an oral story, however, I have chosen to present Barb’s performance as one of the festival performers. Guild meetings offer an 62

opportunity for the storytellers to associate, present new material in a sheltered environment and maintain standards such as themes for performances. Four of the tellers, Sue, Sandy, Robert, and

Paul, performed at the meeting. Robert and Paul also were featured at the 36th Appalachian

festival with full programs. As president of the Cincinnati Storytellers’ guild, Sue is also responsible for organizing, scheduling, and announcing the professional storytellers at the annual

Coney Island Appalachian Festival storytelling tent, Sittin’ on the Back Porch.

The two free fundraisers, part of The 19th Fine Arts Fund Sampler Weekend sponsored by

P&G, were part of a community wide tradition and festive effort to promote a variety of art forms,

artisans, performers, and storytellers. This sampler fundraiser offered over 180 distinct events,

fine arts exhibits and performing arts at 55 venues across the Greater Cincinnati region.

Storytelling was one of the art forms and offered entertainment while creating cultural awareness

of the oral traditions. Two of the storytellers selected, Martha and Sandy, performed at different

venues with overlapping times and 35 miles apart so I was able to attend all of one of Martha’s

downtown performances and most of a second performance before traveling to see Sandy’s

performance in Milford.

Two storytellers, Bet and Phyllis, were not observed in performance, though they each

told me a story as part of their interviews. Bet performs at large theatrical productions usually for business or corporate events to which I was not able to attend. Although Phyllis, due to job responsibilities, has retired from professional storytelling, several of the storytellers referred me to

her because she was a well-known storyteller and story trainer in the community.

Table 3 A Frequency Distribution of Professional Storytellers’ Performance Events

Located within the Context, provides a listing of each event, the tellers who performed at the

event, community location within the Greater Cincinnati venue, and whither the event was an 63

indoor or outdoor environment. Presented also is whither an interview was conducted on site and how many performances were observed at each event. Of the 45 total interviews conducted, 19 or 42% were conducted with a performer at the event or immediately after the event. There were

53 performances audio taped at 18 events as part of the study. Professional storytellers are introduced at each of the events where we met. 64

Table 3 Frequency Distribution for Professional Storytellers Performance Events Located within

the Social Context

Interview Event & Teller Location Indoors Outdoors Performance Total (N) on site

Harpin’ N’ Pickin’ Festival

Susie Crate & Don Drewry, Barb and Russ Oxford, OH Yes 1 5 6 Childers Mini Appalachian Neighborhood Festival St. Michael’s Church, Lower Omope Carter Daboiku, Russ Childers Price Hill, Cincinnati, OH Yes 1 2 3 35th Annual Appalachian Festival Coney Island Park Martha McLeod, Hannah Sue Cooper, Grandma Cincinnati, OH Yes 1 5 6 Buzz, Omope Carter Daboiku, Stephen Hollen “Down Home Downtown” Rosenthal Contemporary Arts Omope Carter Daboiku & Barb & Russ Childers Center, Cincinnati, OH Yes 1 2 3 & Rabbit Hash String Band Clermont County Public Library - Dreamweaver Hyde Park Center for Older Library Troupe Adults, Hyde Park, Cincinnati Yes 3 3 Lisa Breithaupt, Angela Buelsing, Kevin Isaacs Clermont County Public Library - Dreamweaver Clermont County Public Library - Library Troupe Goshen, Goshen, OH Yes 3 3 6 Angela Buelsing, Kevin Isaacs, Cheryl Vason Clermont County Public Library - Dreamweaver Clermont County Public Library - Library Troupe Owensville, Owensville, OH Yes 3 3 6 Angela Buelsing, Kevin Isaacs, Cheryl Vason Clermont County Public Library - Dreamweaver Amelia Village Summer Concert, Library Troupe Groh Park, Amelia, OH Yes 0 (1) 0 (Couldn’t locate troupe) Cincinnati Public Library Story Hour Cincinnati Public Library

Barb Childers Cincinnati, OH Yes 1 1 2 Bridgeway Point Drake Center Campus

Martha McLeod Cincinnati, OH Yes 1 1 Fine Arts Fund Sampler Weekend Enjoy the Arts Office

Martha McLeod Over-the-Rhine, Cincinnati, OH Yes 1 1 2 Fine Arts Fund Sampler Weekend Leming House in Community

Sandy Messerly Park, Milford, OH Yes 1 1 1 O’Bannon Terrace Assisted Living Center Goshen, OH Hannah Sue Cooper Yes 1 1 Shawnee Indian Culture Festival New Richmond, OH Fred Shaw (Neeake) Yes 1 1 2 Cincinnati Museum Center at Appalachian Culture Festival Union Terminal Yes 1 1 2 Russ Childers, Omope Daboiku Cincinnati, OH Greater Cincinnati Storytelling Guild Meeting Farbach Werner Park

Sue Cox, Robert Terwillegar, Sandy Messerly Cincinnati, OH Yes 3 3 Lily of the Valley Garden Club Meeting Observation Court, Milford, OH Yes 1 1 Hannah Sue Cooper 36th Annual Appalachian Festival Hannah Sue Cooper, Grandma Buzz, Omope Coney Island Park, Cincinnati, Carter Daboiku, Stephen Hollen, Martha OH Yes 5 18 23 McLeod, Sister Esther O’Hara, Rick Carson, Paul Ingram, Sue Cox

Totals 19 51 N = 70

I provide a brief description of each storyteller, where we first met and an explanation of some of the routines that come through in their performances. The professional storytellers: Barb

Childers, Russ Childers, Susie Crate, Don Drewry, Omope Carter Daboiku, Martha McLeod,

Stephen Hollen, Hannah Cooper (Hannah Sue), Rita Whittington (Grandma Buzz), Sister Esther

O’Hara, Rick Carson, Paul Ingram, Sandy Messerly, Fred Shaw (Neeake), Sue Cox, Robert

Terwillegar, Bet Stewart, Phyllis Frederick, and the Clermont County Library Dreamweaver

Storytelling Troupe of Lisa Breithaupt, Angela Buelsing, Cheryl Vason, and Kevin Isaacs.

As each event is introduced, a spatial layout or map based on my on site sketch converted using the WORD draw feature is provided to the context in which the storytellers performed.

The first of the four festival settings representative of the festival environment are: The

Harpin’n’Pickin Festival, The Mini Appalachian Festival, The 36th Appalachian Festival, and

The Shawnee Culture Festival. The

Harpin’n’Pickin Festival, held in Martin

Luther King Park on Main Street Oxford,

Ohio, was the first event attended of the study

in April 2004. This festival is representative of

the festival environment where the audience

Photograph 1. Harpin’n’Pickin Festival with Barb and Russ Childers performing members and attendees could feast and celebrate a day featuring a variety of bluegrass, gospel, old-time music and storytelling. Demonstrations included wood and gourd burning, quilting, spoon carving, and storytelling. Performances included: professional musicians and storytellers

Russ and Barb Childers, Don Drewry, and Susie Crate. Barb and Russ performed as Bear Foot playing banjo, fiddle, guitar, and a homemade dulcimer with a music style that predates 66

bluegrass by a century and told stories on the domed stage (see Photograph 1) with concrete

surface and steps. Russ introduced their music with stories of the time period when the music was written and stories of humor. Periodically an audience member stepped up to the stage and started clogging or shuffling in the spirit of the music (see Photograph 1). Bales of hay were strategically placed for audience members or they could provide their own folding chairs, or sit on the grass. At the opposite end of the park were positioned demonstration tents and the other professional storytellers who were single performers who also used musical instruments along with their storytelling. Figure 4 represents the layout of the park and activities. Sound systems

set up near the main stage blasted music and announcements throughout the block long park.

Storytellers’ performances, due to the sound systems, competed to be heard in their own area.

Figure 4. Layout of Harpin’n’Pickin Festival held in Martin Luther King Park on Main Street Oxford, Ohio

Main Street Oxford, Ohio

Sound Park systems Audience benches, Hay bales concrete Musicians sitting on grass, statuary Performing Hay using animals Stage bale folding and play Story chairs and area. Area hay bales Hay Sound bale systems Craft Area Food Tents Crafts Area Sound systems

Street 67

Barb and Russ Childers (see Photograph 2) are a husband and wife team who have been singing

and playing music together as “Bear Foot” since 1983 when they performed together in “Close

Harmonies,” an off Broadway production celebrating

Appalachian poetry, music, and dance. Individually, both are

professional storytellers who engage in a “time-honored

tradition, the oral passage of information” (B. & R. Childers,

personal communications, 2004/2005). Barb tells stories at the

Cincinnati Public Library as a children’s librarian and at

Photograph 2. Barb & Russ as Bear Foot community events. Barb started telling stories in 1982 through her duties at the library in the

children’s department. Her connection to stories started when she was a child. She grew up with words. Her parents would quote long passages of literature and tell family stories. Barb believes

she is carrying on that tradition because she “likes the sounds of words, the way they fit in my

mouth… I like to experiment with words, play with words” (B. Childers, personal

communication, May 4, 2004). Barb was the 2005 Appalachian Heritage Award Winner at the

36th Appalachian Festival at Coney Island, Cincinnati. During her interview I asked her to tell me

a story and learned “When to cross the river by listening to the frogs.” How to listen to the frogs

is revealed in findings part three, the performance content themes. One of the stories that I heard

from another storyteller and Barb was about her wedding day when she married Russ Childers

and invited all their musician and storytelling friends.

Russ, who has been making music for more than 35 years, tells stories and plays a variety

of old timey music full time as an artist-in-residence through the Ohio Arts Council, the

Kentucky Arts Council, and at community events and gatherings. He teaches and shares 68

memories of his family’s eastern Kentucky farm life through stories and music. Through his

work, children learn the positive contributions of Appalachian culture and the trials and joys of

Appalachian living over the past two hundred years. As a Kentucky state champion banjo player

(claw-hammer style) for two consecutive years, Russ was given the Commonwealth of

Kentucky’s highest honor and commissioned a Kentucky Colonel in recognition of noteworthy

accomplishments and outstanding service to the community, state, or nation. Russ and Tommy

Taylor, a member of the band, formed the Rabbit Hash String Band years ago (R. Childers,

personal communication, March 2005).

The third storyteller and dulcimer player, Don Drewry, performs at the demonstration

Photograph 3. Don Bowing a Psalter and storytelling area at the Harpin’ N Pickin’

Festival. Don hammers a dulcimer, bows a psalter

(see Photograph 3), and displays a mountain

dulcimer. He tells stories about his family history, the

music he is playing, the dulcimer instruments, and a

Jack Tale. Don’s family migrated to northern

Kentucky when he was four years old and he currently lives in northern Kentucky. He speaks of

himself as a living historian; his stories portray history from the perspective of battle

observation, military commanders, family, and regional folklore. His battle observation story comes alive in Chapter 5 under community practices watching battles. Don, an ordained

Methodist minister retired and became a full time performer. Don worked at the Appalachian

Festival for several years, and started getting into the music. Storytelling actually became part of the act, “it kind of slipped in” (D. Drewry, personal communication, April 17, 2004). In a performance, Don tells that the hammered dulcimer dates to 1000 BC to ancient Persia, brought 69 into Europe by the crusaders, arrived in the United States with the Jamestown settlers in 1607, and then “migrated into the mountains with the people.” In the mountains the “dulcimer stayed alive when everybody else started playing newer instruments.” He believes “we need to keep some of the old instruments alive, but unfortunately, they are dying out” (D. Drewry, personal communication, April 17, 2004).

The fourth storyteller that day in Oxford was Susie Crate (see Photograph 4). Susie tells cultural stories, sings a medley of English Mother Goose rhymes put to song, and plays a

Photograph 4. Susie in performance variety of musical instruments including a guitar

and a Jews harp. Some of her songs, although

written by friends, feature people’s inheritance

from the earth. Susie is a cultural ecologist and

performs her own life history and folklore

research in the Sakha region of northern Siberia, the native home of her husband. Her life experience is evident in her performance. She speaks of the beauty of Lake Baikal, the oldest and deepest lake in the world, where she spent a summer as a photographer, interpreter and recorded various aspects of the environment. Human ecology and regional folklore weave through her stories. (S. Crate, personal communication, April 17, 2004).

Susie’s life history research in Siberia became evident as she introduces folk stories originating from Russia, but she also sings a medley, known Mother Goose Rhymes, but like fractured fairy tales, she arranged the events into a new format:

See, Simple Simon says, ‘I’m feeling kind of sad,’

Said Peter Piper’s daughter, “so am I.

I think we ought a do something that will make the kiddies glad….” 70

(S. Crate, personal communication, April 17, 2004).

The second festival took me from Oxford to a neighborhood near downtown Cincinnati

to a community church for a neighborhood festival.

Two weeks after the Harpin’ Pickin’ Festival, I attended The Mini Appalachian Festival.

This festival is included because it represents a smaller neighborhood festival of a couple of

hundred people compared to the larger community festivals with 10,000 to 40,000 + attendees.

St Michael’s Church played host to the neighborhood Mini Appalachian Festival in the Lower

Price Hill neighborhood of Cincinnati. Rabbit Hash String Band and Russ Childers entertain neighbors with music, square dancing, and stories. Omope Carter Daboiku tells children and parents about the healing properties of herbs and flowers. At this particular event, a man, Dave, had a display of various animal skins, feathers, horns and hooves. He had walking sticks, gourds, children’s tomahawks, arrowheads, and numerous knives. I was introduced to his wife and young daughter. Omope called all the children to come forward to hear a story, take part in a plant quiz, and to ask an adult to come with them. Dave’s daughter asked me to help her, so I left my video running to become an observer and participant helping the child identify plants. Omope tells other stories, including a Jack Tale, but traffic and noise in the small church community room made hearing her difficult. Figure 5 diagrams the layout of the performance area, traffic flow at the festival, and display tables for information on lead poisoning and childhood immunization.

Ladies demonstrating quilting assisted audience members in making quilt squares that would

eventually be sewn together to be raffled. A young women entertained children with face

painting. The event was advertised as featuring the Rabbit Hash String Band with Russ Childers

and storyteller, Omope Daboiku. 71

Omope Carter Daboiku, affiliated with the Ohio Arts Council as an Artist-in-Education, performs throughout Greater Cincinnati in libraries, museums, schools, and other cultural community organizations. She has produced and performed for PBS specials and in many original works and adaptations, such as, Jack Tales; Sojourner Truth, a suffragette; and Bessie

Coleman, a pioneer black woman aviatrix of the 1920s (O. Daboiku, personal communication,

April, 2004). Omope’s stories are based in part on her life; portraying childhood escapades, family identity, survival, Appalachian ways of health care, beliefs, and the value of stories.

Omope’s life laces with the characters she selects for enactments.

Figure 5. Layout of performance area and traffic flow at Mini Appalachian Festival at St. Michael’s Church in Lower Price Hill, Cincinnati

Food service Man with display Display Much of animals skins for LEAD Lines of Tables Tables activity: poison people for for people prevention eating eating walking to Folding chairs for audience Stage area, and from food lines, to speakers, and Entry where RR, children moving about Active walkway from entry to food lines from performers and outside storytellers between stood tables and Folding chairs for chairs while audience performers on Tables Tables Tables for for for To Rest stage. eating eating quilting rooms and face painting

At one event (see Photograph 5) Omope and Chris socialize prior to her performance when she introduces the audience to a Jack Tale:

Jack tales were often told in the dead of winter when there wasn’t nothing to do but

crochet, mend something or make something. That’s why there’s so many children born

Photograph 5. Chris (left) and Omope socializing in May, June and July. It’s because there’s wasn’t

enough stories being told in December and January”

(O. Daboiku, personal communication, April 16,

2004).

The third festival event of the six is representative of

a large scale festival. Although a year apart, I attended twice.

The first time it was near the beginning of the study in May

2004 and the second time, it was the last event in the study,

May 2005, Mother’s Day weekend. The 35th Appalachian Festival in May 2004 doubled the size

of the study in one weekend! Omope was there and I met other professional storytellers: Sue

Cox, Martha McLeod, Stephen Hollen, Hannah Sue Cooper, and Rita Whittington (Grandma

Buzz). In organizing the festival, Sue Cox works for months in advance with the sponsors to coordinate the storytellers’ performances in the storytelling tent, “Sittin’ on the Front Porch.”

Although Sue did not perform and tell stories, she served as the announcer between

performances and introduced each storyteller. Although other tellers were there and performed,

they did not officially come into the study until a year later. In May 2005 the 36th Appalachian

Festival concluded the study and the last three storytellers, Paul Ingram, Rick Carson, and Sister

Esther O’Hara joined the study bringing the total professional storytellers to 22. This festival, the 73

largest Appalachian event held outside of the Appalachian Mountain Region, spans thirteen

states, draws crowds of approximately 40,000 people annually to Coney Island, Cincinnati, and

is the last exit (Kellogg Avenue) from I-275 south before crossing the Ohio River into Kentucky.

This eastern edge of Cincinnati is in Clermont County which is the western most county of the

Ohio Appalachian counties. The theme of the 35th Annual Appalachian Festival: “Mountain

Harmonies Voices of Sweetness and Sorrow” spirited through the event as performers’ voices of

sweetness and sorrow recall a sad time in the Appalachian Mountains. The theme of 36th Annual

Appalachian Festival: Echoes of our Heritage echo through the event as performers tell stories and demonstrate their Appalachian cultural heritage. At both festivals artisans demonstrate their musical talents, storytelling, dancing, crafts and traditional art forms, many in danger of being forgotten. Most of the early music, based on songs of hard times, came from living in the remote regions of Appalachia. Songs depict the blessings and joys, as well as, the problems and grief of living in close proximity to family and neighbors. Story and song depicts the work, romance, courting, marriage, and childbirth that were part of the daily life as were the accidents, hunger, sickness, depression, and death. Storytellers entice audiences near the food tents, to come and listen at the “Sittin’ on the Back Porch” storytelling tent. The storytelling tent was in the same location for the 2005 festival.

Sue Cox, President of the Greater Cincinnati Storytelling Guild, works tirelessly chairing the storytelling committee for the Appalachian Festival at Coney Island scheduling all of the storytellers and maintaining the program. She announces each teller and maintains smooth transition between performances. Musicians perform on the river stage, the workshop stage and the moonlight stage from 10:00 a.m. until 10:00 p.m. People live in period costumes as

Appalachian forefathers/mothers did 150+ years ago in the 70 living history village camps. In the 74

village, many craftsmen and women demonstrate art forms: gourd artist, glass bead maker,

tanner, soap maker, candle maker, blacksmith, potter, apple butter maker, puppeteer, silversmith,

and stone cutter. Living history enactments include Native American dancers, dulcimer players,

and the professional storytellers. Demonstrations include beekeeping, white oak basket making,

woodworking, chair making, coopering buckets, log home building, braiding and felting rugs,

tatting and lace making, stain glass cutting, herbals, folk art, photography, quilting, weaving

wools, wood turning, candle dipping, and candy making.

In 2004 I attended May 9 only and observed 7 performances: those of Omope Daboiku,

Martha McLeod, Stephen Hollen, Hannah Cooper, and Rita Whittington (Grandma Buzz) who were new to the study with the exception of Omope. In 2005, I attended all 3 days, observed 18

performances and conducted 5 interviews. Those new to the study were Rick Carson, Sister

Esther O’Hara, and Paul Ingram. Those storytellers from 2004 and 2005 are introduced here.

Each year Friday is children’s day, so many stories and activities are geared to the younger

audience. However, there were also general population adults there.

Figure 6. Guide for the 36th Appalachian Festival Coney Island Park 2005

Ohio River

Exhibitors, Children’s Pickin’ Demonstrations games & porch & Playground Quilt outreach Living History Village Campers Food Tents Sittin’ on the Exhibitors Front Porch Storytelling Carousel Native Tent Gazebo American One of the Public Dance Moonlight entrances near Gardens parking 75

Omope told the audience composed of primarily children stories about her childhood and

Photograph 6. Omope storytelling to a younger audience at Coney Island escapades of her younger brother, Bruce. She

spoke to the children earnestly about caring for

younger siblings (see Photograph 6). One such

escapade occurred when she was supposed to be

babysitting him and he didn’t want her to be his

boss. He started playing with the cigarette lighter

in the car and just to show he did not have to listen, he stuck his tongue into the glowing coil of

the lighter. Children sat very attentively listening to stories until an adult motioned or called to

them to leave to attend some other activity (O. Daboiku, personal communication, May 6, 2005).

Since the Appalachian Festival is held Mother’s Day weekend, Omope told personal

stories from her family history about women in the workplace, either working for someone else

or working for themselves as laundresses, forerunners to the dry cleaners of today. Stories of

Photograph 7. Martha in performance

childhood escapades, and a Jack Tale featuring Jack’s mother were told in honor of Mother’s Day. The next teller uses great expression to draw her audience to the story.

Martha McLeod though new to the study in 2004 (see

Photograph 7) was not new to the storytelling world of Greater

Cincinnati. Martha is a social worker licensed to practice independently in Ohio and Kentucky and uses stories in her psychotherapy and counseling practice. Her Scots/Irish/German 76 ancestors settled in Minnesota, though Martha was born in Indiana. Though not Appalachian by birth, she migrated into the region, over 20 years ago and incorporates regional history and historical figures, and folklore into her performances. As a psychotherapist and humorist, Martha values stories whether they are from personal life history or drawn from history, legends, and traditio ns of an entire culture. In her work she does hypnosis and often uses a story for metaphor in healing. Martha tells a story about the first man and woman having a quarrel. When the woman runs away, she discovers a strawberry plant and tastes the sweet fruit that she decides to share with her man (M. McLeod, personal communication, May 9, 2004).

Photograph 8. Martha expresses intensity writing a name in the web In the 2005 performance at Coney Island, Martha tells a story

about a spider who could write children’s names in a web and that

meant death, but then they find out the spider is illiterate and cannot

spell the child’s name (see Photograph 8). The next and third

storyteller from the 36th Appalachian Festival at Coney Island is

Stephen Hollen who promotes himself as a mountain humorist.

Stephen performs (see Photograph 9) as Dr. Ironbeard and his

Traveling Medicine Show; his repertoire involves walking around at

Photograph 9. Stephen as Dr. Ironbeard the event, stopping someplace near people, and to start telling a traveling medicine show story. Soon he has a crowd of listeners. Stephen also performs in the storytelling tent. He holds up a bottle of 77

“potent potables” and offers the “blue light special” as the light shines through the blue bottle

(see Photograph 9). The medicine show is a reflection of the original traveling medicine shows,

but is funnier because Stephen, as a pharmaceutical representative manager, tells the audience

some of the industry inside jokes. Stephen traces his storytelling roots back to the Appalachian

Mountains where his family has lived since the 1750s. Though born in Dayton, he returned to the

Photograph 10. “Accordion knees” eastern Kentucky Mountains as a teenager and lived there nearly 20

years. Many poems and stories take place in a mountain community of

Stephen’s imagination called Beloved, Kentucky where the characters,

take much of their personality from family, friends, and acquaintances

(S. Hollen, personal communication, May 9, 2004). There are characters

like Cousin Phinneus Nutt, better known as Cousin P. Nutt and all the

other Nutts in the family. There is Lucinda Nutt “whose husband got

died in the great shootout of 1931…and Hazel Nutt married a Preacher,

Brother Woodrow Budder, so she became Sister Hazel Nutt Budder” (S. Hollen, personal

communication, May 6, 2005). There is Miss Hankie Pankie, owner of the antique linens shop

and Flora Jenkins who could play a knee accordion, so her legs went back and forth in a rather unladylike manner as Stephen demonstrates (see Photograph 10). Audience member’s laughter ranged from smiles to hysterical. Next is the newest storyteller to the storyteller fellowship,

Hannah Sue.

Hannah Cooper, another performer at the 35th Appalachian Festival became part of the study. Hannah describes herself, “I’m from a long line of storytelling mountain folks from the 78

Appalachian Mountain people” (see Photograph 11). Hannah’s mother was a storyteller from

Hazard, Kentucky and her grandmother Hannah is on the Cherokee Register in North

Photograph 11. Hannah Sue tells about her childhood in the mountains Carolina. Hannah says, “My roots run as deep as the coal mines of

Kentucky” where her grandfather worked all his life (H. Cooper, personal communication, May 9, 2004). Though she’s been telling stories most of her life, she became a professional teller in 2002 and uses the stage name of Hannah Sue. Hannah’s stories are of family, faith, mountain folklore; ghosts and humor (see

Photograph 11). At this event Hannah tells stories of her

childhood working with her family in the huge gardens on the

steep mountainside of eastern Kentucky and sneaking off to the swimming hole with the kids.

Hannah describes herself as, “I’d say I’m country. I’m a Christian and a true American…” (H.

Cooper, personal communication, May 9, 2004). Another storyteller at this event has told for nearly thirty years and taught others to story-tell.

Photograph 12. Grandma Buzz and Fluffy Rita Whittington, known on stage as Grandma Buzz, told

several stories using puppets as props. A traveling puppet companion

for storytelling is a little white puppy, Fluffy. Grandma Buzz cuddled

Fluffy as she spoke to the audience (see Photograph 12). Then in

another story, a Cherokee Indian story about a hummingbird, she used a

hummingbird puppet to tell a story of creation and the animals not 79 getting along. The blanket of night was over the earth and the animals had to cooperate with each other. The little hummingbird flew high into the night sky to peck holes in the night blanket so the star light could shine through. The subtle lesson woven through this story was that people and animals have to get alo ng to accomplish things and be successful. Lessons of this nature, interweave through most of Grandma Buzz’s stories. Rita has told stories most of her life, but discovered the power of stories when she worked at a Girl Scout camp and told a story to keep a child entertained. Rita has provided storytelling training to storytellers in the Cincinnati area.

The last three storytellers to the study present at the Appalachian Festival were Sister Esther

O’Hara, Paul Ingram and Rick Carson.

Sister Esther (see Photograph 13) was born in Covington, Kentucky and is a nun in the

Photograph 13. Sr. Esther making a point in her story Order of St. Benedictine. Sister Esther started telling stories in the early 1980s when she was in her mid 50s. She tells stories at the monastery for the Homily sermon and performs for community organizations and schools. When she worked as a teacher and librarian, the children preferred she tell a story rather than read a story; from this she became a professional storyteller. She is a ventriloquist and uses puppets: Witch Hazel tells children to do the wrong things and Puppet Joy tells them not to listen to Witch Hazel. Her other puppets are Bernice the Penguin, Daisy Mouse and Aunt

Nelly. The next teller was Paul Ingram, whom I first heard at a guild meeting.

Paul Ingram (see Photograph 15) first started telling stories to his own children. He has been a professional storyteller for nine years and uses his stories in his work as a youth counselor 80

Photograph 14. Paul, “The giant only saw three fingers.” for teens in Cincinnati who experience abuse or neglect. Besides telling in the work environment,

he tells stories as a Santa Claus for the Cincinnati Rail Road and

for private organizations. Hawaiian shirts seem to be his

trademark and derived from a program he performed on

Hawaiian mythology at a school. His stories have many sound

effects and many character voices woven in to create character

and depth. At the Appalachian Festival during one of his

performances of a Jack Tale, he portrays Jack tricking the giant. Paul says the giant only saw

three fingers, but the humor is he holds up four fingers and a thumb. Paul told a personal history

story of a couple meeting, romance and eventual marriage; the story of Paul and his wife. Then

he put his story to song and sang while he played his piano. The last festival storyteller

description is Rick Carson who on his business card has written, “Professional liar and

Storyteller” (R. Carson, personal communication, May 17, 2005).

Rick is a full time storyteller (see Photograph 15) who started his profession years ago

Photograph 15. Rick tells a story when he was invited to tell stories for his wife at a Butler County

Library. In the beginning his employer gave him paid leave to go to the schools to tell stories, but as his business grew, he started

charging and eventually quit his daytime job. Rick is from

Arkansas near the Ozarks and mostly tells Southern folktales, Jack

Tales, African American and Cajun tales. His stories are

humorous and punctuated with exaggerated theatrical gestures and sound effects. At the festival 81

Photograph 16. Rick as “Jack” removing his eye. He told a Jack Tale about Jack killing many giants. In one visual scene (see Photograph 16),

Rick as Jack makes a production of removing his eye and then handing

the giant a grape. Of storytelling he says, “It is just people

communicating with people, one heart talking to another (R. Carson,

personal communication, May 17, 2005).

As in years past and at the 35th and 36th Annual Appalachian

Festival people were given the 2004 and 2005 Heritage Award respectively. Winners were honored for their association with the Appalachian Festival for a number of years and for contributing their artistic, musical, and volunteered talents to promote Appalachian ways of life.

The Heritage Award Certificate reads, “The Appalachian Development Association proudly presents this award, medallion, for outstanding dedication and support during many Appalachian

Festivals.” The 2005 Heritage Award Winner was storyteller and musician, Barb Childers. The

2004 Heritage Award winner was storyteller, Stephen Hollen. Other award winners are 2003

Martha McLeod, 2002 Sister Esther, and 2001 Omope Daboiku; these five professional storytellers are part of this study. Every one of the storytellers wore the red, white and blue ribbon with a gold medallion proudly. The fourth and last annual festival held in late January showcases Appalachian culture but from the Shawnee Nation, United Remnant Band perspective.

The last festival in this representative sample of the festivals attended was very similar as far as festival activities; there were people in period dress, local and native food, and authors and artisans with exhibits and items for sale, music and dancing, storytelling, and audience members. What made this festival unique from the other Appalachian festivals was that it 82

represented a different culture that lived in the Appalachian region for over 900 years, the

Shawandasse, known in the region as the Shawnee Indians.

The Shawnee Indian Culture Festival, in New Richmond, Ohio was the scene of Shawnee storytelling, Shawnee drummers, Indian games, sign language, Shawnee music and dance, and remarks and storytelling by Dark Rain Thom and Neeake (see Figure 7). While waiting for

Neeake to arrive at the culture festival, I paid my respects to Chief Hawk Pope of Middletown,

informe d him about the research and that I was meeting Neeake and gained his approval. Then

since I arrived early and was looking at the display tables of Shawnee artifacts, jewelry, and

books by an author who was present, I took advantage of this opportunity to learn about

Photograph 17. Dark Rain and Chris discussing her books Shawnee history (see Photograph 17) and spoke with

Dark Rain Thom, herself a renowned historical author

and the wife of historical fiction author, James

Alexander Thom. They created a magnificent portrait of

an astonishing woman–one who led her people in

war...in the book, Warrior Woman, the life story of

Nonhelema, Shawnee Woman Chief, known as the Women’s Peace Chief of the Shawnee Nation

in the 1770s just released in 2004. Dark Rain wrote Kohkumthenas’s Grandchildren: The

Shawnee. Dark Rain was not included in the storyteller study because she lives outside of the

Greater Cincinnati area in another state, but is included with consent in the context of the setting because she was a central figure in the social and cultural environment at the Shawnee Indian

Culture Festival. Around the school gymnasium where the festival was held were educational activities including tribal information, history and language, Boy Scout merit badge activities, 83 genealogy, artifacts, and touchables such as hides, furs and skins. Art and Craft activities included beadwork and finger weaving. Demonstration of skills taught primitive fire starting, outdoor cooking, and primitive weapons. Activities for children were 4-winds beaded necklaces, coloring pages, animal tracks, and loom beading. Food samples featured succotash, journey cakes, maple syrup, and sassafras tea. Hot dogs and soft drinks were also available.

Figure 7. Layout of Chief’s Chair, Performance and Exhibit Areas at Shawnee Indian Culture Festival in New Richmond, Ohio

Chief Pope sat here and Exhibits and tribal members went to him educational Bleachers displays for audience Dancers and musicians Neeake’s Native performed in this area storytelling Foods area and hot dogs Arrow Bead head work & display in jewelry Jewelry display books for sale Dark cases display Rain’s Exhibits Entry area book Pay for display admission

At this Shawnee Culture festival, I met Fred Shaw who by profession is an ordained elder

Photograph 18. Neeake is Olammapise, Truth Teller and Methodist senior pastor. At the time of the interview he

was senior pastor of the Trinity United Methodist Church in

Milford, Ohio and in the midst of moving to another church

in Oxford, Ohio. He is also Neeake, a Shawandasse

Nishnabe, a Shawnee Indian and an internationally

acclaimed storyteller. Neeake (see Photograph 18) speaks as

a traditional Olammapise, Truth Teller, of the Shawandasse

Nishnabe, Shawnee Nation United remnant Band. Since

1971 Neeake has shared the stories of his people and was

elected as the Principal Storyteller by the Tribal Council in

1986. These stories have been orally passed from one generation to the next for centuries.

According to Neeake, “The stories he holds as a sacred trust are of the balance of all life and the

gift that each life is to the other. They are, “bibadinsawawachitah,” the proper way to walk upon

the earth.” In his role as Shawnee Keeper of the Stories, Neeake’s stories include “history,

music, humor, cultural perspectives, words as art, and ecology” (Neeake, personal

communication, January 2005). On the back cover of his book, Laughter is Born, is written the

following, “Neeake invites you into a new world of delight in which surprises may become

wonderful gifts to the world. Even more surprising, every life is meant to be such a gift. ‘Ha

katopi,’ Listen, I will tell you a story.”

Neeake and I spoke about the symbolic meaning of his regalia (see Photograph 19). As he

explained, “Part of it has to do with the time period; from the waist up I’m wearing a 1780s 85 tuxedo and the waist down its 21st century” (Neeake, personal communication, January 30,

2005). Neeake explained when he is in full regalia; he wears wool leggings and has moccasins that are very traditional. Very often he wears a hat of this style called a gestauwe and that is just

Photograph 19. Neeake as Keeper of the Stories to give a little bit more of a presence on the stage. Neeake describes the gestauwe:

“It has a very broad porcupine quill band around it. All

the rest of it then is brain-tanned deer hide and then the

feathers are ostrich feathers. It was of a style that’s

really been in use for centuries, you know, but it was a

way of saying a man was of some importance. He

definitely was of the village” (F. Shaw/Neeake,

personal communication, May 17, 2005).

Neeake’s regalia and face paint are symbolic and part of his storytelling as he explains their meaning to be forthcoming in Chapter 5, Findings Part II, themes of performance content.

Neeake performs in schools, universities, wildlife conservation groups, churches, museums, international groups and many other places. He works with the Cincinnati Zoo and

Wildlife Discovery Days and speaks on public radio, Thane Maynard’s “Ninety Second

Naturalist” and is in Maynard’s book, Working with Wildlife, a select who’s who of wildlife experts. As Neeake, his name means “He-Talks-as-He-Flies” or the Canadian Goose (F.

Shaw/Neeake, personal communication, May 17, 2005). The settings turn from the four festivals just illustrated to the librarians who formed a storytelling troupe, a story hour, entertainment at assisted living centers and a garden club. 86

Ten of the 18 events (56%) are comprised of 5 library sponsored events, 2 assisted living

centers, 1 community arts center, 1 storyteller guild meeting, and 1 garden club. Therefore the

following events are selected to give a representative view: The Dreamweaver Storytelling tells stories to adults and children in different settings. Martha and Hannah perform for residents in assisted living centers depicting Cincinnati historical events and Appalachian stories. The guild

meeting is included to give an overview of a meeting and audience interaction and to introduce

Sue Cox, guild president and storyteller, Robert Terwillegar. The Garden Club is included

Photograph 20. Cheryl tells to children, Angela and Kevin observe because it took place in a residential neighborhood in

a member’s home to show how a storyteller will adapt

program content to accommodate an audience’s

interests.

The Clermont County Public Library (CCPL)

Dreamweaver Storytelling Troupe is comprised of six

librarians, four of whom, Lisa Breithaupt, Angela Buelsing, Kevin Issacs and Cheryl Vason,

participated in the study. They travel, depending on their library work schedules, to

performances throughout Clermont County at community events such as the performance for day

camp c hildren (see Photograph 20), senior centers (see Photograph 21), festivals in parks, and at

libraries or groups travel to the events to see them. I traveled to see them perform on three

occasions. These culturally situated performances not only connect storytellers to their

communities by preserving and creating awareness of beliefs and practices but also expose

children and adults to folk lore through oral traditions.

Lisa Breithaupt (see Photograph 22) joined the troupe 10 years ago and is now the leader. 87

The Dreamweavers became an artistic statement for storytelling. “The troupe has gone through

Photograph 21. Lisa performs a dramatic moment in a story several metamorphoses….” She explained that it used to be that everyone who was a youth services librarian was required to be on the troupe, but, of course, “storytelling is something you can’t force someone to do… I think that people began to realize that.

Now it’s a voluntary thing” (L. Breithaupt, personal communication, July 27, 2004). The first performance observed of

Lisa, Angela, and Kevin was at the Hyde Park Center for Older

Adults (see Photograph 21). A few weeks later, I traveled to CCPL in Owensville to see the troupe consisting of Angela, Kevin and Cheryl perform for a group of young children from a day camp (see Photograph 21) and then a third performance at CCPL in Goshen with Lisa, Angela,

Kevin, and Cheryl. In Lisa’s interview she offered that storytelling is not something that she has to do but it is something that she greatly enjoys doing. Lisa views storytelling as an important outreach, another aspect of the library reaching a lot of people. Lisa noted that she talks about the library and if the summer reading program is approaching she takes an opportunity to promote that, “Come to the library and read over the summer” (L. Breithaupt, personal communication,

July 27, 2004). Troupe members say most of their stories come from the books. Lisa, who was based at CCPL Goshen at the time of the study is seen, (Photograph 21) in performance at the

Hyde Park Center for Older Adults. She was born in Pike County Kentucky up in a hollow, but later raised in Detroit. She is the 7th generation to own the family land near Jenkins. She inherited her love of stories from her parents and grandparents who told stories when their children were young. Through five generations of grandparents some stories span time; one such 88

story told to me is about angels calling on the hill in the family cemetery. Lisa has a Masters in

Library Science and worked in theatre in college.

Angela (see Photograph 22) was a co-founder of Dreamweavers 11 years ago and

Photograph 22. Angela telling a story emphasizes the purpose of the troupe was to promote the summer

reading program. She is from Nelsonville, Ohio, part of the Ohio

Appalachian region but now works at CCPL in Goshen. Angela has a BA in French and education and has trained with master storyteller, Anita Haller. She says most of her stories come from books she has read, but she invents “backgrounds” for the

characters and makes up many stories with dragons and a feminist slant. Her “personal “family”

stories often contain a bit of truth that is stretched to make it more interesting, but I always stay

true to the idea (A. Buelsing, personal communication, June, 2005).

Kevin, another member of the Dreamweavers Troupe is from the Renfro Valley area of

Photograph 23. Kevin as “Jack, Giant Killer” Kentucky. He heard Bible stories from his great grandmother.

Kevin (see Photograph 23) tells folktales, especially Jack Tales.

He was trained in classical music as a singer at Eastern Kentucky

University and has Bachelors of Arts in Music and Voice. He puts

these talents to use in telling stories and inflecting his voice to

depict different characters in the story.

The last member of the Dreamweaver Troupe to take part in the study is Cheryl Vason.

The Troupe has her establish a grand opening with a mysterious wooden trunk ceremoniously 89

carried in and set on the floor. Cheryl opens the mysterious trunk, takes out the magical brass

Photograph 24. Cheryl ringing in a story bowl, taps on the bowl and rings in the story (see Photograph 24).

Then each storyteller performs their story. Audiences of all ages watch and listen with rapt attention! Cheryl’s husband is from

India, so many of her stories favor Indian folklore. But her favorite story is “The Pony Tail” and her long hair is the prop as she twists her hair into a ponytail that is in back, then on the right side, then on the left side, then on top of her head, then covering her face, all to tell about a little girl who wore pony tails that everyone copied. But in the end she tells everyone she is going to shave her head, the next day everyone has bald heads and she has her ponytail (C. Vason, personal communication, May,

2005).

The Cincinnati Public Library is the scene of daily and

Photograph 25. Barb in performance weekly Story Hours told by Barb Childers (see Photograph 25). Barb has worked at this library since 1970, but really started telling stories in 1982 while working in the children’s department. She discovered all the storytelling she liked to do informally, she enjoyed, “I didn’t even know I liked telling stories until I really started working with children, and found out that’s what I’m doing all the time” (B.

Childers, personal communication, April 2004). The location of the 90

storytelling changes from libraries to health care and assisted living facilities with the stories

serving as both entertainment and a means to impart regional history.

Martha McLeod is revisited again as she performs at Bridgeway Pointe, on the Drake

Photograph 26. Martha with photo of Stowe Center Campus in the community room with patients grouped in a

half circle around her. Martha told the story about Harriet Beecher

Stowe, her life in Cincinnati and of her work prior to writing Uncle

Tom’s Cabin (see Photograph 26). Martha explains that she does a

lot with the Creative Aging Circuit, and stated that in the senior population, “It’s going to be 90 percent women so, that’s appeal there too. Martha enthusiastically spoke about her stories and their place in modeling, “Women have been under done, so when I go into schools I have role models for girls.” This appeals to Martha me obviously “because everything I do, the stories; I’m always looking for a nice little undercurrent of social value, character development, messages and stuff” (M. McLeod, personal communication, January, 2005). Martha also tells and performs stories depicting women who have overcome difficult circumstances to reach their potential, and draws from prominent women of Cincinnati’s past such as Harriet Beecher Stowe, Harriet Tubman, Annie Oakley, and

Sojourner Truth. For an African American History month performance, she was looking for local interest connections “because it is more interesting for me and it’s marketable, so that’s how

Harriet Beecher Stowe got going” (M. McLeod, personal communication, January, 2005). “I can’t remember where I first got the inspiration for that, I don’t know.” She explains, “I got more and more into it, but I mean the book wouldn’t happen without Uncle Tom’s Cabin” and 91 gestured “right over here, in Cincinnati... there’s some connection. I was looking for cool women.” For Martha, her stories are used as a medium to teach and illuminate morality and the choices between right and wrong and the fundamental truth that “we’re more alike as humans than different.” She declares, “Storytelling is one of the last vestiges of imagination” (M.

McLeod, personal communication, January, 2005).

Hannah Cooper performed at the O’Bannon Terrace Assisted Living Center in Goshen

Photograph 27. Hannah in period dress (Clermont County), Ohio, the site of her first performance two years before. Hannah Sue’s performance dress (see Photograph 27) is made from an old feed sack and represents “the way women and girls dressed in the more remote mountain regions. They made use of everything; nothing went to waste, not even feed sacks” (H.

Cooper, personal communication, 2005).

Figure 8 illustrates the layout of the community dining room at the O’Bannon Terrace, where Hannah performed. I joined

Hannah prior to her performance, we ate dinner with the ladies and after dessert, Hannah told humorous stories and jokes in the beginning. Then her stories took on a more serious tone. She told about helping a battered women and her child that had been left along the I-75 interstate and who had wandered into the Waffle House near Cincinnati where

Hannah worked at the time. The stories continued as some of these women knew Hannah and one was related to her, so she told them of her husband’s long illness and death nearly 4 months earlier. This life experience led Hannah to write a poem late one night that she read to these ladies. The free verse poem titled “My People” describes Hannah’s mother taking food to 92 neighbors, sending cards, giving flowers and helping others whom she called “my people, but as a child Hannah had not understood her mother and her people until Travis died. Hannah’s family and friends took her food, sent cards, gave flowers, and offered any kind of help needed; now they have become Hannah’s people. Hannah explains:

“I’m always ready to learn something new and do things that would help people, like

when I tell my stories, especially like about my mommy, you know, my Wanda May

story. That’s such a good touching story and even people that are down and out it cheers

them up and it touches their heart” (H. Cooper, personal communication, February 7,

2005).

Hannah has a special ministry in which she tells her stories that speak to women and shares them in women’s correctional facilities. She also performs for Christian organizations, gardening and herbal groups, historical societies, schools, and community events.

Figure 8. Layout of dining room and performance area O’Bannon Terrace in Goshen

Rows of tables Table Table Food table where everyone Dessert Residents seated on both sides of served Table tables Hannah Sue themselves performed her storytelling. Rows of tables Table

On the third Thursday of February 2005, I attended the Greater Cincinnati Storyteller

Guild Meeting held at Farbach Werner Nature Preserve, one of the Hamilton County Parks of

Cincinnati. The meeting was held in a lodge type log room with preserved owls and other various birds, squirrels, possums, fox and many educational displays. It is in this environment 93

that the storytellers gather to tell tales, scary tales, fairy tales, Indian lore, legends, and folk

stories. Folding chairs were set up for the audience that totaled nearly a dozen. At this meeting

were Sue Cox, President; Sandy Messerly, Vice President, Robert Terwillegar and Paul Ingram,

secretary and treasurer, respectively. Each officer told a story that lasted about 20 minutes and

had interaction with the audience. The guild’s purpose is to preserve the ancient folk art of

storytelling. Guild meetings and members follow a theme for the stories they tell at meetings

each month. When members perform out in the community they too attempt to follow the theme

in their performance. Since this meeting occurred in February the theme was love. Tellers are

presented in the order in which they told at the meeting. At the guild meeting Robert Terwillegar

told a classic Greek love story about Philmont and Bacchus from The Children’s Hours: Stories from the Classics (1907). Robert became a participant in the study at this meeting and later

Photograph 28. Robert finds inspiration in books invited me to his home for his interview and lunch with him and his

wife. Robert, a retired teacher of 37 years, is also the guild historian

and shared many folders of past guild events, newsletters,

clippings, and photographs (see Photograph 28). He was born in

Clinton County and his father, grandfather and great grandfather

were all blacksmiths. Robert gains story inspiration from his books,

his photography, his environmental work and his collections, one of

which is pioneer tools. He was a Boy Scout leader for many years and told stories while gathered

around camp fires. The next teller that evening told a Cherokee legend.

Sandy Messerly’s initial interview took place at a JosephBeth bookstore in Hyde Park

(see Photograph 29) and she invited me to attend the guild meeting. At the February guild 94 meeting since the theme was love Sandy told a Cherokee story about the first woman and man

Photograph 29. After Sandy’s interview quarrelling. She left and ran into the garden, the Great Spirit placed various flowers in her path in an effort to slow her, but it was not until the strawberry was in her path that she smelled the sweet fragrance, took a bite and was overwhelmed with the desire to share the fruit. She returned to her man and gave him some strawberries to show her love. The strawberry, shaped like a heart, tastes sweet representing the sweetness of love, and the red symbolizes love. Many of Sandy’s stories focus around the Celtic world with damsels, love sick dragons who talk, and knights in shiny armor.

The third teller, at the guild meeting, Paul Ingram told a story from a child’s storybook

Photograph 30. Sue and puppeteer- storyteller, Paul called, Thomas and the Shooting Star. He created many sound effects and included the audience so that everyone in the small group was laughing. That evening Sue, a retired Kindergarten teacher, produced her bag of puppets. Paul used one of her puppets that looked like a large red mouth and improvised conversation with children in the audience (see Photograph

30). The children became quite interactive with the storytellers as they were telling. One little girl walked right up to Paul and put her hands in the puppet’s mouth and repeatedly interrupted him. The last two events featured are fund raisers for Cincinnati community fine arts and performances. 95

Cincinnati’s 19th Annual Fine Arts Fund Sampler Weekend showcases local arts for two days annually in mid-February by providing events through Greater Cincinnati free and open to the public. For over 19 years, this artistic tradition has become a community tradition. For the

2004 event, the Fine Arts Fund Weekend offered over 180 distinct events at 55 venues across the

region, including Middletown, Ohio and Aurora, Indiana. First I attended the event in downtown

Cincinnati in Over the Rhine to observe Martha McLeod in two performances. This year, the

Enjoy the Arts office was the location hosting, Martha McLeod, who told stories drawn from

history, legends, and traditions of many cultures. These stories include a story about Abraham

Photograph 31. Phyllis Frederick Lincoln and a little girl who wrote him a letter about growing a

beard and a story about the Underground Railroad and Harriet

Beecher Stowe. Then I drove out to Milford to the Lemming House

to see Sandy Messerly tell her dragon tales and Celtic lore.

Phyllis Bach Frederick partnered with Gail Blair in telling

stories from 1986 through 1997 with a program of fairy tale and

rhyme. They held a workshop, revolving around the theme of how

to tell stories for teachers to keep children involved. Children liked

Appalachian stories with ghosts and witches and one particular story called “Peter Peter

Pumpkin.” When Phyllis (see Photograph 31) became Director of the Learning Center for the

University of Cincinnati’s Clermont campus she did not have the flexible schedule to continue

with professional storyteller performances (P. Frederick, personal communication, Feb 11,

2005).

The last professional storyteller of the study, Bet Stewart (see Photograph 32), is known throughout the region for her story telling theatrical performances. Bet describes herself as a 96

theater artist, musician, actor and storyteller. Stories involve mime and much movement. She

Photograph 32. Bet Stewart with her musical instrument collection favors Molly Whuppie, an Irish character, saying Molly

mentors Jack of the Jack tales. A favorite story, Jack and

the Mean Beans has 16 characters: Molly Whuppie,

Molly’s two sisters, queen and king, a dog, Jack, Jack’s

mother, giant, a cow, and an old man to name a few. Bet

performs all the parts. In her plays themes of self-reliance, cleverness, resourcefulness,

conquering things in real life, and self esteem emerge. Bet trained in theater and studies with

mimes all over the world. Originally from the Cleveland area Bet moved into the Cincinnati area

and became involved with the Urban Appalachian Council as an artist in residence and moved in to and respects the culture.

To summarize, these professional storytellers introduced in this chapter through

performance reconstruct for the audience segments of their lives from the context of their

memory but in the environmental context of the moment shared with the audience. In the

professional storyteller’s repertoire of lived experiences and folklore lays the sources of their

stories. This chapter focused on the settings, the professional storytellers as participants and

excerpts of life history that influenced the routines. The performances occurred indoors and

outdoors in diverse settings throughout Greater Cincinnati: at events to create cultural awareness

of Appalachian traditions, at festivals celebrating Appalachian and Shawnee cultures, and at

community-wide fine arts awareness fund raisers and it was from these many artists and

performers, that storytellers were featured. Professional storytellers are introduced at each

representative event in which they performed. The festival environment was representative of 97

performance environments with a celebratory atmosphere, traditional and cultural food and

rousing music performed in a variety of modes, dulcimer, fiddle, banjo, and guitar and artisan

demons trations of diverse mountain crafts and forms of art. Present at all the festivals and

cultural events in the study are the professional storytellers who captivated audiences in various

modes of chairs, on bales of hay, or in the grass with stories of time-honored traditions and life

history. Interpretive conceptual maps drawn from field notes, sketches, and photographs provide

overviews of activity and the location of the professional storytellers in relation to audience,

other performers, sound systems, demonstrations, exhibitors and food purveyors at the events.

Storytellers hold their stories in trust for future generations. Neeake spoke of stories he tells as a

sacred trust and represent the balance of al life. Some stories of fairy tales and dragons trace to

cultural folklore from Europe and other tales of bears and man reflect Shawnee cultural beliefs.

In the next chapter on performance content themes the professional storytellers again link

memory and family history, as well as, folklore, both regional and cultural to their stories.

Stories of these professional tellers revolve around memories of family and other relatives, both

real and imagined. Stories told by relatives while working or in moments of leisure capture the

moment. Mountain life stories often depict a bygone time of hardship, but the sense of family

and community are closely associated with mountain identity. Folklore of the region focuses on

Appalachian cultural traditions and Native American folklore. Means to earning a living, family migration, labor and mountain community practices became vivid. Sacred beliefs and traditions

created stories of creation, cooperation, and the balance of life. Community practices and means

of offering support often play into the health issues that were portrayed in stories from diseases

of decades ago to herbal remedies and to labor and delivery. 98

Chapter 5 Findings Part II: Performance Content Themes

Although it is believed that storytellers just tell personal stories or fairy tales, actually many professional storytellers portray pieces of their personal life histories in performances throughout their communities at various events. These events are diverse and varied social contexts such as festivals, social gatherings, entertainment in health care facilities, church programs and sermons, historical societies, gardening clubs, children’s programs, educational settings and community events. Through performance events the professional storytellers introduced in chapter four reconstruct for their audience segments of their lives from the context of their memory in the environmental context of the performance moments shared. At an event such as the 35th Appalachian Festival May 7, 8, and 9, 2004, Omope Daboiku performed for an hour on Friday, Saturday and Sunday and told many stories in each performance. Stephen Hollen performed for an hour on each of the three days. Martha McLeod and Hannah Cooper performed on two days for an hour each day. In the course of an hour a professional storyteller may tell two or three longer stories or 10 or 12 shorter stories, jokes, and play an instrument at the same time.

In the professional storyteller’s repertoire of lived experiences and cultural folklore lie the sources of their stories. Professional storytellers in this study indicate through their narrative performances and interviews that cultural preservation of oral traditions and cultural preservation of ways of life are the main factors informing their narrative content. In addition to the preservation they indicate that storytelling is an act of expression, a means to experiment with words, to “play with words” (B. Childers, personal communication, May 4, 2004). Telling is an avenue to memory and to make others aware of family history (D. Drewry, personal communication, April 17, 2004). Storytelling is a sacred trust keeping stories for future generations (Neeake, personal communication, January 30, 2005). Storytelling maintains an 99 undercurrent of social value and messages of regional history (M. McLeod, personal communication, January 24, 2005). Stories are dynamic living oral creations that are ever evolving to maintain and pass on traditions (S. Hollen & O. Daboiku, personal communications,

May 7, 2005).

Performance content themes emerged over the 13 months of the study and from an analysis of 53 performances. Observing the performances in person and listening to them on tape afterwards many times provided me a unique opportunity to discern and interpret themes emerging from the performance stories. Figure 9 Framework of Major Themes and Categories

Reflected in Professional Storytellers’ Performances provides evidence of the knowledge gained from the study. Performance content works towards the perpetuation of a cultural way of life with the following eight thematic variables of Family, Mountain Life, Identity, Folklore, Living

Means, Sacred Beliefs, Community Practices, and Health Practices. These major themes along with related subcategories represent the depth and diversity of performance content. Excerpts taken from performances illustrate these themes which do not have clear clean cut lines of demarcation because they integrate and merge with each other, for example, family stories cross into community practices involving families and family stories also integrates with mountain life and health as tellers describe family life in the mountains or of family members helping each other in delivering a baby on a dark mountain road. Another example of this cross integration of stories is in the theme of identity where there are stories of identity attached to a family ancestors and a person’s name, identity change for survival, and identity with the mountains as home. 100

Figure 9. Framework of Major Themes and Categories Reflected in Professional Storytellers’ Performances

Performance Content Themes

Family Mountain Identity Folklore Living Sacred Community Health Life Means Beliefs Practices Practices

Way of Identity Ancestry Regional Work Creation Historic Meds & Life Change Figures Folk

Remedy

History Survival Migration

Civil Right

In Table 4 Frequency Distribution for Performance Content Themes of Professional Storytellers,

the eight major themes are displayed with the frequencies identified in performances of each

storyteller. Themes identified in Figure 9 Framework of Major themes and Categories Reflected

in Professional Storytellers’ Performances represent those of Table 4 along with the percentage

of each theme. Every effort was made to code to the most representative theme from the

performance stories. One of the storytellers, Barb, stated that she may have a theme in mind

when telling the story, but maybe someone in the audience hears the story and connects in a

different way and draws a different theme from the same story based on their interpretation (B.

Childers, personal communication, 2005). Therefore performance content themes are interpretive

and subjective on the part of the audience. The frequencies are accurate and counting occurred 101

Table 4 Frequency Distribution for Performance Content Themes of Professional Storytellers

Storytellers Mountain Living Sacred Community Health Theme Performance Family Identity Folklore Life Means Beliefs Practices Totals Number Barb – 2 5 1 3 4 1 0 0 0 14

Russ – 3 7 6 4 4 3 0 3 1 28

Susie – 2 2 3 2 3 1 2 3 1 17

Don – 2 9 6 8 2 3 2 2 1 33

Omope – 8 38 16 29 6 10 10 4 9 122

Martha - 5 5 3 6 5 5 4 3 5 36

Stephen – 5 7 37 8 8 6 3 6 5 80

Hannah – 5 17 29 9 12 6 9 9 3 94

Rita – 2 2 2 2 5 2 4 3 0 20

Sr.Esther - 1 1 2 6 3 2 2 2 0 18

Rick – 2 3 1 5 2 1 0 0 0 12

Paul – 2 5 1 6 3 1 0 0 0 16

Lisa – 2 1 1 2 2 1 0 0 0 7

Angela – 3 1 0 1 4 1 0 0 0 7

Cheryl – 1 1 0 1 4 1 0 0 0 7

Kevin – 2 1 0 1 4 1 0 0 0 7

Sandy – 2 2 0 2 3 1 5 2 2 17

Fred – 1 4 3 8 3 4 8 2 3 35

Sue - 2 5 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 8

Robert – 1 0 2 1 1 1 0 1 0 6

Totals (N) 116 113 105 79 52 49 40 30 N=584

102 numerous times to verify. However, many stories were cross coded based on the story line developed by the storyteller. As this chapter develops stories will emerge in Family and reemerge in Identity and then again in Community Practices. The first theme of Family, the most represented theme with 116 occurrences (20%), includes family stories of ancestors such as grandparents, antics of siblings, and other relatives; generations of family members representing various ranks in southern military history; stories of family members fleeing vigilante or the military for survival, and stories remembered from childhood or stories told by elders and overheard. The next theme, Mountain Life was a very close second at 113 occurrences (19%) and represents primarily ways of life and family ties that connect people to the mountains; isolation, often mentioned in stories, also is given credit for preserving the Appalachian way of life.

Family closeness and kinship, taking in each other’s children during hard times is reflected in stories tied to the mountains. The third major theme with 105 incidences (18%) is Identity which includes stories of mixed ancestry crossing Appalachian, Shawnee, Cherokee, and Creek backgrounds; stories of family survival, fleeing in the night from a forewarned lynching, changing identity to have voting rights and land ownership rights, nondisclosure of identity and hiding identity to continue living free and not be removed to a reservation and stories of identity attached with the Appalachian mountains. The fourth major theme with 79 references (14%) revolved around Folklore representing the Appalachian region, Native American cultural beliefs,

European stories. The fifth theme of Means to Earning a Living with 52 entries (9%) focuses primarily on work, either for someone else or for oneself and included means of survival and subsistence living although the storytellers don’t call it subsistence. They refer to the men hunting food and families including children putting out huge gardens, gathering fruits and nuts, and collecting herbs and wild plants for seasonings and medicines. Migration both out- 103

migrations to locate work and get some “Yankee Dollars” as Stephen Hollen phrased it, or in-

migration and adopting the region as home, and in recent years return-migration to own

Appalachian land, the forever present piece of Appalachia n identity and conne ction to place.

Theme six with 49 occurrences (8%) represents Sacred Beliefs in traditional views of the

Creation, the Bible and relig ion, and in sacred beliefs of the Shawnee, the C herokee, th e Creek,

and Lakota. Them es seven and eight represent Community Practices with 4 0 occurren ces (7%)

and Health Practic es with 30 occurren ces (5% ) were often spoken of as connected through community support of each other and providing assistance to ones’ own family members as well

as neighbors. Community practices takes in community regional history with stories referring to

the Underground R ailroad, a bolitionis ts, and lo cal prominent historical figures, both men such as

John P. Parker and women s uch as Ha rriet Beecher Stowe and A nnie Oakl ey. Health p ractices

included taking in the children of other familie s during hard time s or in cases of medical emergency, women moving into a sibling’s home to help with chores and childcare during

pregnancy, labor and delivery in the mountains, and folk remedies using herbs and wild plants

for medicines. Storytellers t old of folk remedies as part of their f amilies’ m edical treatm ent when

ill. One story tells of polio and the storyteller a nd of her friendsh ip with a w oman who was

instrumental along with the doctors in discovering a vaccine. Th ese themes and variab les develop from the performances of the professional storytellers. Bet and Phyllis are not listed in

Table 4’s frequency distribution because they were not observed in performance because Bet’s

performances primarily occur for corporate or private organizations to which I did not gain entry.

Bet shared photos and told me some of the stories she performs. She shared her collection of musical instruments (see Photograph 32). In Phyllis’s case she was not observed in performance 104

because she has retired from active professional storytelling for now due to job responsibilities,

although we spoke in her interview and she told me a favorite story.

Performance Content Theme

Family

The first performance content theme, Family (see Figure 10), is the most represented theme with 116 occurrences from 19 storytellers. Storytellers give the cultural background reason for the story. Family stories trace back through multiple generations to a family home in the Appalachian region. Storytellers tell enough personal family history to establish a family identity with ancestors. Family stories include those passed orally from ancient ancestors, as well as grandparents, mothers, fathers, antics of siblings, and other relatives. Stories involving mother are told most often with 21 occurrences while father stories place at 13 incidences. Grandparents as the topic takes place 11 times -- 5 for grandfather and 6 times for grandmother. Personal childhood stories happen 12 times and those involving siblings 4 times. The stories of six professional storytellers Barb, Stephen, Don, Fred /Neeake, Hannah and Omope (personal communication, 2005) address the cultural preservation of family through the perspective of

Appalachia, ancestry, history, childhood stories, and family folklore.

Figure 10. Conceptual Framework Performance Theme: Family

Performance Content Theme

Family

Ancestry Childhood Stories

History 105

Storytellers examine their world, their family history and who influences them and what

those people mean in their life. Storytellers place themselves in stories along with relatives and the lived family experience. Some storytellers construct their own realities from the vantage

point of family members, family gatherings at special celebratory events such as weddings and

memorial and ritualized funerals. Remembered stories are often from childhood stories about

childhood play, work, and family visits.

Barb Childers provides the first example of her own childhood stories from grandparents

and parents. Her stories serve as a connection to ancestors and family history. This is an example

of stories involving her grandparents, her father and his brother. Barb grew up with words

because her parents and grandparents believed in language, read literature, recited poetry and

told stories. Her maternal grandfather and her father, a doctor, and would quote long passages

from literature, poetry, children’s literature, and adult literature. Barb tells about her grandfather

telling her stories as a child and that he liked to do nursery rhymes from memory and use those

rhymes as an introduction to something else. It would go something like this, “Grandpa, grandpa

tell me a story” and he’d say, “I’ll tell you a story about Jack be Nimble and now my story’s

begun. I’ll tell you another about Jackie’s brother, and now my story’s done.” She says it was

later that she found out that was his way to answer, when she “bugged him” for a stories (B.

Childers, personal communication, May 4, 2004).

Storytellers attribute storytelling experiences as young children to the desire to follow in

the tradition as a professional storyteller. Barb tells about her family both paternal and maternal

sides from England and Scotland respectively. Although her grandparents were English, Barb’s

father and his siblings were born in Zimbabwe, South Africa of missionary parents. Her father’s

childhood in Africa often came through in his stories to her, even after the family moved to 106

Cincinnati, “He probably never felt like he fit in; all of his brothers and sisters expressed that

people couldn’t understand that experience” of being English, raised in Africa and then living in the United States, the mix of the British and African culture in Cincinnati (B. Childers, personal communication, May 4, 2004). Barb expressed that her father was “quite a raconteur” and liked to tell family stories and make them funny and tell them over and over again. She never got tired

of stories so attributed that early storytelling to her own storytelling and stated, “I think I keep

going in that tradition” (B. Childers, personal communication, May 4, 2004). Barb reflects on

stories of ancestors, mostly about her “father and his youngest brother who were like this,” and

she indicates their closeness with crossed fingers. Barb refers to her Uncle Bob’s frog stories and

says, “When I’m telling them, “I’m seeing him, and his mannerisms and his way. He’d be just

deadpan when he told a story and then when he got to the end, he’d just look at you and there’d

be this little twinkle in his eye. He loved to make people laugh” (B. Childers, personal

communication, January 24, 2005). Barb explains family stories and understanding relationships,

“It works like this with family stories, you can’t give a direct answer when asked, “Why did you

do that?” because there won’t be a direct answer. You have to first learn all the relationships of

all the people all through the story and why they might have possibly done such a thing” (B.

Childers, personal communication, January 24, 2005). Laughing, Barb explains that

“Relationships and bits of information that may not make sense or seem to be related are

important in the story, “By the way your grandmother had blue eyes and of course that explains

it all” (B. Childers, personal communication, January 24, 2005). Storytellers examine their

world, their family history and who influenced them and what those people meant in their life.

Storytellers’ stories focus on personal experiences in relation to others because stories told are

based on what the teller remembers of life or what is willingly shared. 107

Stephen Hollen and I met at the 35th and 36th Appalachian Festivals at Coney Island Park

in Cincinnati where he performed his traveling Medicine Man Show routines and told stories of

his imaginary community of Beloved based on collective memories of his teen years and

twenties in Eastern Kentucky. Stephen remembers and provides a second example as he tells

about his family ancestors and family history. There are stories told by elders while family

members gathered around, listened and worked. He explains that people were often working on

some q uiet task, for example his uncle might mend a harness or an aunt would sew and mend

clothes and someone else may be breaking beans; all activities that could be done while sitting

on a porch and listening or telling a story (S. Hollen, personal communication, January 28,

2005). Family history and kinship connections, responsibility and obligation weave their way through the stories and become poems and books of hope and celebration of life and for healing the losses suffered along life’s way. These family stories are the way the mantle passes from generation to generation.

Stephen’s true story travels back in time to two brothers, Felix Gilbert, Stephen’s great- great-great-grandfather, and his brother, John Gilbert, who, in the early 1800’s migrated to Clay

County, Kentucky. According to Stephen,

Eventually John became a well-known state senator. When they named their sons, in fact,

sons for a couple of and subsequent generations, all had their names. Family knew which

side of the Gilbert family they were on because they were either, George Felix, which

meant they were from the Felix line, or Henry John from the John side. Two Gilberts

married and had a son, so they just named him, Gilbert Gilbert because he’s from both

sides (S. Hollen, personal communication, January 28, 2005). 108

Stephen explains past traditions and childhood experiences as informing his stories, “because

you see crazy names in Kentucky and people marrying each other, cousins and stuff and you see

family names in Kentucky, in performances my stories’ characters carry double names that have a story family history” (S. Hollen, personal communication, January 28, 2005). Stephen creates characters in his Beloved stories that sometimes do things that he did as a boy or resemble actions and experiences of someone Stephen knew. Audience members laugh hysterically as he tells about his Cousin Peanut who had an aversion to water and wore his new PF Flyers day and night for months. Or he tells another story about Cousin Peanut riding the Maytag washer on the back porch like it was a bronco. Stephen explains, there was nothing true about those stories, except he did have a cousin who was named Peanut and as a boy, his Uncle Bill would sit

Stephen on top of the Maytag while it jumped and vibrated around the back porch at his great- aunt’s house. More of Stephen’s stories emerge in mountain life stories. Another way of passing

Photograph 33. Don softly hammers and tells history family stories and history to future generation is to become the

family historian and musician-storyteller like this third

storyteller to be introduced.

Day to day lived experiences from childhood serve to

fuel the stories of present day performances. Don Drewry, a

professional storyteller, and player of the dulcimer (see

Photograph 33) describes himself as a living historian. I met

Don while he was performing at the Harpin’ N Pickin’ Festival in Oxford, Ohio; the interview

was conducted before and after his performance. Don tells his audience about his grandmother 109

who lived in the mountains of Clifton Forge, Virginia and his family. As a boy growing up in

northern Kentucky he tells his audience:

“We visited grandmother’s literally for everything that happened. We’d get the train to go

back for Christmas, Easter, and Thanksgiving and summer vacations and when somebody

got married, and when somebody died and when somebody sneezed twice a week; we got

on the train and went back home” (D. Drewry, personal communication, April 17, 2004).

Don describes grandma’s house, “Grandmother’s house started out as a one room house and as

the family grew, she had 11 kids, rooms were added, and then a second floor was added, but

there was no heat except what could rise through holes in the floor” (D. Drewry, personal

Communication, April 17, 2004). Then he describes memories from his childhood of sleeping at

grandma’s house,

Over the back porch was my room, no heat, but a feather bed and that’s where I slept

piled under three of grandmother’s quilts. In the winter time I could go up there freezing

cold and I’d real quick climb in my feather bed under those quilts and a cozy night’s

sleep” (D. Drewry, personal communication, April 17, 2004).

However, the next morning he had a decision because he could smell breakfast. He emphasizes

“grandmother cooked breakfast, there were no pop tarts because she cooked sugar cured ham… smoked right outside the back door, and potatoes, and tomatoes that were grown in the garden, grits, biscuits, gravy. I mean she cooked” (D. Drewry, personal communication, April 17, 2004).

So the personal childhood experiences of Don as a boy having the choice of staying warm or getting out of bed onto the icy cold floor to go down and eat breakfast became the life history experience that informs his stories during performances as a storyteller and musician. 110

As his performance continues he softly hammers his dulcimer, and tells the story about his family’s military history. Through his genealogical research he says his family arrived in

Yorktown in 1639; he is trying to track down the ship’s log. He tells about those members of the family that served in the American Revolution as Colonials. During that time, part of the family returned to England. Don continues, “Great-great-great-great-great-grandfather moved to North

Carolina, returned to Virginia to join the militia, married the commander’s daughter, and gained his commission as a captain. He then transferred to the Continental Army” (D. Drewry, personal communication, April 17, 2004). While in performance Don continued with his family’s military history and told about his great-grandfather who fought in the Civil War with the 17th Virginia

Volunteers and later, after attending Methodist seminary, became a Methodist minister. He

married and his wife’s name was Johanna. They had a son and when grown, he became a

Methodist minister, married and his wife’s name was Johanna also. He laughed and said,

“History has a way of repeating itself” and “we tied a lot of these things to family history (D.

Drewry, personal communication, April 17, 2004). Later during the interview, he told me more

family history and how his family had originated in Normandy and fought with William the

Conqueror. And yet another way to pass on tradition is through the oral stories passed from

ancient predecessors of the Shawnee, ancestors who traveled from Mexico and migrated

northeast through Florida, Georgia, to New England and west to Ohio and Kentucky, eventually,

although unfortunately for some, to be taken by military escort to Oklahoma to the reservations.

Fred Shaw, the fourth professional storyteller in the family theme depicts these events.

Reverend Fred Shaw, Methodist minister, is also known by part of his Shawnee name,

Neeake. He is an international acclaimed professional storyteller. Neeake spoke of his Shawnee

heritage, ancestors, identity and survival during his interview and performance at the Shawnee 111

Indian Culture Festival in New Richmond, Ohio January 30, 2005. These forthcoming excerpts reveal the interconnectedness and web that weaves through the stories of cultural heritage and migration of ancestors through the Southern region of the United States north into the Ohio

Valley. Neeake describes his ancestors of the Shawnee Tribe in Ohio in earlier times as the tribe migrated northeast from Mexico to eastern United States,

The predecessors of the Shawnee, the Kispoko, Makujay, and the Piqua bands lived in

the Chapala area of Mexico and although not Mayan became part of the Mayan Empire

as it expanded. Migrating through Crystal River, Florida the Shawnee continued

northward and direct ancestors established the Etowa and Stone Eagle mound building

groups of Georgia. Further migration lead north through Georgia with one group

traveling to Maryland and Pennsylvania and the other group traveled across the

mountains into Tennessee, Kentucky and Ohio. These early Ohio Shawnee encountered

the Talegwa (Hopewell) resulting in the Fort Ancient Culture (Neeake, personal

communication, January 30, 2005).

Neeake continued and spoke of his people living in an unbroken line for a long time in Ohio:

Now, our people have been in this place for a very long time. This is our 904th year in the

Valley of the Spaylaywithipi, that’s what you call Ohio. Spaylaywithipi is the gathering

place of the Eagles River. We came here 1101 A.D. We’ve been here in an unbroken line

ever since that time. My people always have been a trading and traveling people and had

to be able to use about 300 of the languages (Neeake, personal communication, January

30, 2005).

As Neeake’s family history continues in performance he tells of the Ohio Shawnee uniting with other bands of Shawnee and the eventual one-way removal to reservations or for 300 Shawnee 112

hiding their identity for survival and their descendents continue to live in the Ohio Valley and

regions bordering the Ohio River. In performance Neeake’s speaks of the 300 ancestors who

resisted and escaped the soldiers to hide out in the hills. Present day Shawnee “will never leave

the bones of their ancestors… and all of us here today are descendents of those people and we’re still very much a part of this land” (Neeake, personal communication, January 30, 2005).

These early stories of Neeake’s Shawnee ancestors fleeing for survival sake and protecting their identity are continued and replicated in other family stories of other professional

storytellers with Cherokee, Creek, and Lakota ancestry under the performance content theme of

Identity. Family history, ancestors, death of a loved one, discovering a sense of her people and the value of kin intertwine in the next family stories told by a professional storyteller.

The fifth professional storyteller, Hannah Cooper, introduces family stories of her mother. During the interview Hannah went on to describe her mother, Wanda May, whose people all came from Perry County and her Daddy’s people, the Starks, all came from Shelby

County Kentucky. The special relationship Wanda May had with her daughters was primarily because “daddy was a truck driver so he was gone all the time so it was mommy and us girls”

(H. Cooper, personal communication, February 7, 2005). Hannah continues her explanation of

family and the woven meanings of kinship, clannish, and kin. She describes her mother’s sense

of kin, “if you were kin to her she was always there to offer support and even her home.” Hannah

says mommy was,

Very clannish. If you was kin to her she would do anything for you. If you was the least

bit kin to us you could come and live with us, you know? And sometimes cousins did.

They’d come and lived with us for, you know, months and months and we would go and

stay with them sometimes (H. Cooper, personal communication, February 7, 2005). 113

I ask Hannah about these situations when people come and live, how do they contribute? Are

they expected to contribute to the overall upkeep, care of the family, income, and housework?

What are the expectations and family dynamics like in this family environment? Hannah

responds that everybody pitches in and works. These probing questions lead into a story as

Hannah tells about times that she had stayed with aunts and uncles and all of them worked in the garden and carried water or whatever needed to be done, dishes and helping milk. Then in turn, when they stayed with her family, they helped with housework and chores.

In performance Hannah Cooper introduces family stories of her mother by displaying or wearing her mother’s crocheted shawl.

In writing about her mother’s people she realizes they are her people too. Hannah shares a treasured possession with her audience to introduce a story in performance. Hannah tells family stories that can be as basic as telling about a cherished piece of crocheted clothing. An example of this is the story

Hannah tells about her mother‘s crocheted shawl (see

Photograph 34. Hannah wearing the shawl and crooning over Red Photograph 34). Hannah was showing me photographs of her mother, Wanda May. She went

over to the wall hook and brought me a heavy gold shawl. She held it lovingly and caressed it,

“That was my mommy’s and it’s a beautiful hand crocheted shawl and my mom did all kinds of

needlework; she did crochet and knit and quilt.” I responded by touching it and admiring the

“workwomanship.” Hannah admires the shawl, “Isn’t that a beautiful piece? The pattern is called

the shell, and “isn’t that an unusual thread? It’s real rough like but I just love it” (H. Cooper,

personal communication, February 7, 2005). The shawl’s stiffness reminded us of how ladies 114

used sugar water to make the item stiff. Hannah went on, “You know what? When I was a

younger girl in my early twenties, I wore it around my hip like that” and she demonstrated, by

wrapping the shawl around her hips.

Hannah had within the past three and half months (December 2004) lost her husband to a

long term illness. During the interview at her home Hannah wore the shawl as she told me the details of providing total care of her husband during his invalid state and eventual death. Hannah

told about family members draping the home, mirrors, and door with black ribbon to signify

there had been a death. Some family members sat up all night with Hannah as she sat near Travis

as was custom. A dead family member was not left unattended. Food and drink arrived from

family and friends. After the funeral the relatives and friends went home, leaving Hannah with

her daughter and Big Red. In those first weeks of sleeplessness, her mother’s deeds came to her

thoughts, of how her mother had always attended every funeral, taken food or sent cards and

been there for her family and friends in times of need. Hannah recalled it was about five in the

morning when she wrote “My People.” At this point in the interview, Hannah went to a cabinet,

removed a paper and proceeded to read her free verse poetic thoughts to me. It was an honor as I

was the first person outside of the family, her daughter and sister, to share this poem with her.

Hannah describes the sense of kinship, family and community support felt as they brought food,

cared for her, and provided comfort. Hannah granted me permission to include her poem in her

interview and this writing. We sat in Hannah’s living room with photos spread across the table as

Hannah read about her people:

My People

My people, I didn’t always understand my mother all the time making a fuss over some

reunion or funeral or some second cousin in the hospital. Mommy sent cards and letters 115

on all occasions to nieces and nephews. If one of here sisters was sick we just might pack

up and go and stay a month with them. Then when mommy was sick they come and

stayed with us. My mommy would plan and cook for days and never miss a reunion

where there was singing and preaching and it was an all day dinner on the grounds of our

family cemetery; not very exciting for a child. Mommy would be introducing us children

to some second, third cousin or “This is Aunt Meg’s girl,” like that was really supposed

to mean something. Then there’d be a funeral and God only knows where and we would

dress in our best clothes, mommy would fry chicken, make potato salad and maybe

banana pudding and off we’d go toting a load. Mommy would have a card with money in

it and we knew it would be late by the time mommy finished talking to all of her people.

See, mommy was all about her people. “My people” she called them and this wasn’t just her kinfolks but her church people and people she grew up with. They were all “her people.” Now, mommy would do anything for “her people” like they belonged to her and that there was some great obligation and that’s what I didn’t always understand. Now that

I’m older, and I mean older, it has become so clear what the “my people” is all about. My

husband had been very ill for sometime and then he passed on and this has been the

hardest thing I have ever dealt with but “my people” have helped me through this. My

family, his family, the church, neighbors, friends, people I’ve worked with, friends, oh so

many friends. They came from God only knows where with fried chicken, potato salad

and cakes. My home was full of people. Cars were parked all up and down the street and

the phone never stopped ringing. The cards and more cards with money in them and

words of hope and faith and trust. This has been the biggest storm of my life but “my

people” and my God have rescued me. “My people, God’s people and now I understand 116

more about my mommy and I think my mommy would be pleased (H. Cooper, personal

communication and permission to print “My People,” February 7, 2005).

After reading she inquired, “What do you think? That’s the kind of stuff I write.”

A few weeks later wearing her mother’s shawl with tears in her eyes and at times barely

able to speak, Hannah read this poem about her mother’s people in public for the first time near

the close of her performance at O’Bannon Terrace Assisted Living on February 26, 2005. Since

that spring evening on different occasions at different events, I’ve heard Hannah briefly orient

her audience and tell about her husband’s illness and death and then read “My People.” At the

O’Bannon Terrace Assisted Living and the 36th Appalachian Festival, Hannah told stories about her mother and father and her husband. The family dynamics, loss, grief and love experienced by

Hannah have become a personal sharing and outreach with the audience at performances. Family

kinship and family support offered in times of need contribute to the source of Hannah’s stories.

Family unity and a deep sense of kinship are revealed in these following examples from

Hannah’s interviews that were subsequently heard in part as performance content at various other events. Another story involving kin is one with two siblings, their relationship and a desire to be his own boss.

The next true story told by Omope is about childhood escapades involving cigarettes, a lack of common sense, sibling relationships and a scientific message to her audience that “heat will transfer from something hot to something cold” (O. Daboiku, personal communication,

February 18 & May 5, 2005). Often at these community events, there are many children in the audience. I’ve heard Omope tell this in performance at the Appalachian Culture Festival at the

Cincinnati Museum Center and at the 36th Annual Appalachian Festival for the children’s day, the day before the festival opened to the public. 117

Omope as the sixth storyteller introduces a family story primarily about her brother and a childhood escapade. Those are the things that you tell about your brother and your sister, especially when they’re not around: “Now, my brother Bruce is four years younger than I am and he, when he was young, he was stupid. I mean my brother Bruce could do things that nobody else could ever dream of doing.” Omope liked to visit her mother at work in a hospital lab because of all the “cool stuff in jars like specimens around the wall of a toe, a hand and babies that hadn’t lived” (O. Daboiku, personal communication, February 18, & May 5, 2005).

But this story is about a day she had to wait in the car with her brother Bruce and about him putting his tongue into the cigarette lighter. Omope added, “That’s when my brother learned his first science lesson; that heat will transfer from something hot to something cold” (O. Daboiku, personal communication, February 18 & May 5, 2005). Omope tells this story,

“One time we was in a car together and my daddy had taken us to the hospital too but this

day my dad said I couldn’t go in. I had to watch my brother. Then my brother decided

that he wanted to play with the ashtray, so he opened up the ashtray and started playing

with the cigarette butts. I said, “Bruce, stop that. You’re going to get me in trouble.” He

said, “I don’t care. You ain’t my momma” (O. Daboiku, personal communication,

February 18, & May 5, 2005).

The story in the car continues as Omope and Bruce go back and forth,

“If daddy smells that cigarette he will whip us.” “He ain’t gonna whip me. He’s just

gonna whip you cause you’re the oldest and you’re supposed to be watching me.” So,

instead of putting it back he began to straighten it out and then he put it in his mouth and

pretended to be smoking. I said, “Boy, momma’s right. You ain’t got the sense God gave

a goose. If you don’t put those cigarettes back you’re going to get me in trouble and if I 118

Photograph 35. Omope demonstrates – cigarette lighter and tongue trick of Bruce get in trouble I’m going to beat you down

when I get you home.” He said, “You ain’t

my momma. You can’t tell me what to do.”

And then he proceeded to put his finger on

the cigarette lighter” (O. Daboiku, personal

communication, February 18, & May 5,

2005).

Omope addresses the children in the audience and explains the difference between lighters in cars now with safety features and cars then when they were young children:

Now, in these days’ children the cigarette lighter in a car didn’t have the mechanism it

has now. It got hot whether the car was on or not and he pressed it in and I could smell

the metal getting hot and I could smell the leftover tobacco on it burning and I said,

“Bruce, you are really cruisin’ for a brusin.’ You ain’t my momma.” And then the

cigarette lighter popped out and he took it and I thought he was going to light a cigarette,

right, that would have been dumb enough but no, he wasn’t even that smart to do

something that dumb (O. Daboiku, personal communication, February 18, & May 5,

2005).

Omope gestures and demonstrates (see Photograph 35) for the audience how he stuck out his tongue and placed the lighter up to it and then poked the tip of his tongue to the glowing hot cigarette lighter core, 119

He put the cigarette in this hand and stuck his tongue out to show me that I was not his

momma and I was not the boss of him and then he took the cigarette lighter, he was that

dumb, and burnt the end of his tongue up. It smelled just like hamburger on the fourth of

July and it sizzled too, “Ahhh!” I said, “Serves you right. I ain’t your momma,

remember? (O. Daboiku, personal communication, February 18, & May 5, 2005).

Omope closes with the words of caution, “That’s when my brother learned his first science

lesson; that heat will transfer from something hot to something cold and your tongue is just like

hamburger. If you put it on something hot it will go sizzle.”

Within the performance theme of family, storytellers examine their world through family

stories told to them as children by grandparents, parents and other family members. Stories

reveal family nursery rhymes as the teller places themselves in the story. Cultures from England,

Africa and the United States influence a father’s funny stories. Family relationships and informational details that in themselves may not make sense or seem important gained value within the context of the story. Family stories were an avenue for gatherings as they continued to work but also share family time to listen and tell. Family stories portray a way of life for families traveling back and forth to the “home place” and daily events such as going to bed, sleeping under quilts and remembering a mouth-watering breakfast at grandma’s becomes topics in stories from memories. Family responsibility and caring for each other are demonstrated through family closeness, sense of kinship, and community practices of assisting families and neighbors. This is characterized by the storytellers as part of the mountain life. Family and friends depended on each other partly due to the isolation and cultural traditions that are a way of life in mountain regions. 120

Mountain Life

The next theme, Mountain Life (see Figure 11) at 113 occurrences (19%) was a very close second to the theme of Family. Mountain Life represents primarily ways of life and family ties that connect people to the mountains; isolation, often mentioned in stories, is given credit for

preserving the Appalachian way of life. Isolation contributes to the way the families put out large

gardens to provide food throughout the winter months and food production was a means to

earning a living. Family closeness and kinship, taking in each other’s children during hard times

is reflected in these mountain stories.

Storytellers, Stephen and Hannah, describe the beauty and remoteness of the mountains

and describe a way of life remembered from childhood and into adulthood. Stephen illustrates

generations of family members living in the same hollow and a man’s longing for the mountains.

Hannah describes grooves in the rocks from the wagons as they squeezed through mountain

passes, the people’s closeness to the mountains, and roads so bad the mailman delivered mail on

horseback in the 1960s. Music and oral storytelling contributed to leisure entertainment in the

mountains. Don Drewry tells in performance about the music of the mountains, his instruments

and how the people migrated to the mountain regions from other countries and brought their

instruments and music. Some modified their instruments creating new instruments. Don tells the

history of some of the songs popular in the mountain region. 121

Figure 11. Conceptual Framework Performance Content: Mountain Life

Performance Content Theme

Mountain Life

Ways of Life

The first teller of mountain life is Stephen as he reflects his love and respect for his heritage, and his identity with and love of the mountains. In interview, I ask Stephen to describe himself. He describes himself as a husband and a dad then as a writer, a storyteller and mountain humorist. Stephen was asked “Does your past inform the stories you tell?” and his response answered that and several other questions such as: “Where do you get your inspiration for your stories?” and “What influenced your decision to become a storyteller?” Stephen response connects his family history and stories to eastern Kentucky and the mountains, “that’s where I get my really strong faith, my family values…where my stories come from… where I learned to tell stories (S. Hollen, personal communication, January 28, 2005). When Stephen was in his teen years he left the family home in Dayton where he was born and returned to Double Creek in eastern Kentucky and lived with his aunts and uncle prior to graduating from Oneida Baptist

High School and then graduating from Georgetown College in Berea. Many of his performance stories are set in the make-believe eastern Kentucky mountain town of Beloved which in

Stephen’s memory was his home on Double Creek. Stephen drew me a map of Double Creek 122

where his family moved in the 1840s. He wrote in the names of his family members he lived

with and visited as a boy (See Figure 12).

Figure 12. Stephen’s hand-drawn map of Double Creek in eastern Kentucky where his family moved in the 1840s. Courtesy of S. Hollen, January 28, 2005

Stephen explains his drawing and describes the family landmarks of his story: “There is a

road that follows the creek and then crosses it. There is a little bridge where it crosses.” His grandma’s house is shown in his hand-drawn map where the great-great-grandfather lived and

where they were all born. According to Stephen, “My two aunts, Aunt Mag and Aunt Bess, lived

with Uncle Bill right across Double Creek from Grandma’s house. Uncle Jim and his wife, Aunt

Sally, lived across the creek and down from grandma.” Drawing with his finger on the map, he shows, “They all live within a hundred yards of each other” (S. Hollen, personal communication,

January 28, 2005). With his voice full of emotion Stephen continues his story to me,

On the old dirt road, if you went down this way, there was a cemetery, where my

grandma’s buried, my grandpa, my Aunt Bess and Uncle Bill are all buried right up here.

And this cemetery has my family history for about a hundred and fifty years. Right here 123

is the basis for a ton of my storytelling, this couple of hundred years either direction. This

bridge is where I talk in my book about the minnows (S. Hollen, personal

communication, January 28, 2005).

Photograph 36. Stephen reading from Old Ragged Verse Stephen tells the stories that inspired his book of free

verse, Old Ragged Verse in performance (see Photograph

36) at the 35th and 36th Appalachian Festival at Coney

Island Park in Cincinnati (2004 & 2005). He tells the

background to the poem and then reads his poem

“Minnow’s Secret” about a mountain boy stuck on the wrong side of the Ohio River. It’s about a mountain boy who is feeling displaced and looking back home and being hungry. The boys is sitting on the bridge and watching the minnows and listening to the hills calling his name. This ends with the description of the “minnows show you their secret…they are spellin’ out your name.” Another favorite story Stephen tells in performance and also reads (see Photograph 36) is “Hungry for the

Hills” in which he describes the longing,

Sometimes a soul gets hungry, not homesick exactly, more like hungry for the hills.” He

describes this as needing the ancient mountains which become the lifeblood of a man

who remembers the mountain laurel, tobacco, the dark eyed girl, tasting the yellow dust,

traveling through the creek and up the holler to a tin roof gleaming between two hills,

entering the cool cabin and the heart is home… The “soul is fed” and “the Appalachian

Mountains reach up” through the plank floors into the “Eden of bein’ home to the hills” 124

(Hollen, 2004, p.27-29) and in performance at the 36th Appalachian Festival (S. Hollen,

personal communication, May 7, 2005).

This same hunger drove early settlers westward through the mountain passes in search of

a better life. Hannah Cooper, the second teller of mountain life, reflects and questions the

perspectives of early pioneers and family members traveling through the Cumberland Gap area,

to where her family had land grants for generations. Then she tells about her family and the

Eastern Kentucky of the early 1960s becomes vivid with another story about family life and

gardening in a remote mountain holler in Letcher County, Kentucky. After the gardening the

children could play and play often involved going to the swimming holes.

During performance Hannah offers her interpretive view of cultural preservation and

maintaining family roots in Appalachian history. She poses a rhetorical question to the audience

during her performance at the 35th Appalachian Festival,

Don’t you wonder what our ancestors thought when they was coming out of Virginia or

mommy’s people, a lot of them come out of the Carolinas so they was coming through

the gap and the breaks and you think, ‘Man, they must have just been astonished at it (H.

Cooper, personal communication, May 9, 2005).

Hannah continued and said,

You know, my mommy was born at a place down in Perry County. There’s a place they

called Hell for Certain and I’ve been down there and it is a rocky, steep hillside,

mountain side. It’s so rocky and such a big rock bed that there’s grooves in the rocks

from the wagons going over that road. Then after you go over it there’s a place called

Kingdom Come and it’s all smooth and pretty (H. Cooper, personal communication, May

9, 2004). 125

Hannah connects and identifies the counties where her parents’ people were born and raised. She explains that “Bull Creek is in Letcher County, on the edge of Letcher County just out of Perry and it’s between Elk Creek and Montgomery Mountain. Hazard’s in Perry County. I lived in

Letcher County one county down from Perry.” This is the place where Hannah’s mother’s people were from and her Dad’s people lived in Indiana and later moved to Louisville, Kentucky.

Hannah recalls when she was about five years old, describes the roads of her family home as a child and tells about an event that she thought was just the coolest thing ever.

You’ve heard of 20 miles of bad roads, well, we lived at the end of it… near Bull Creek;

they were so bad the mail was delivered on horseback by a man who didn’t have any

fingers, they were blown off with dynamite caps while working in the mines (H. Cooper,

personal communication, May 9, 2004).

Hannah tells “As kids we’d listen for his horse and run across the log and sit and wait for

Emmett to bring the mail because we wanted to see old Emmett flat roll a cigarette with those stubs.” Hannah continues her mailman and cigarette story,

But he could flat roll a cigarette and he’d take it out of that Prince Albert can, work them

little nubs, buddy, he’d roll that cigarette like that. Man, we just thought that was the

coolest thing ever was. Man, the next thing you know we was rolling any kind of paper

we could get our hands on and trying to learn how to roll cigarettes. We smoked

everything from rabbit tobacco to corn silk (H. Cooper, personal communication, May 9,

2004 & February 26, 2005).

Hannah told the mailman on horseback story and the next story about gardening and the water supply in performance at the 35th Appalachian Festival and at O’Bannon Terrace. The mailman story depicts life in the remote mountain regions of eastern Kentucky in the early 1960s and the 126 dangers of mine work, but was included in this section of mountain life because it illustrates an important event in Hannah’s life based on her memories of her mountain home. The children had fun and played, but they were also expected to contribute to the overall well being of the family.

Hannah spoke of the work the children provided as a means to help the family survive. Hannah’s children once asked her if the children in the mountains became bored without television and places to go. Hannah says, “Oh no, we had too many things to do to get bored. We had no television or swimming pool so the children went down to a hole in the rocks and made that their place to swim and play (H. Cooper, personal communication, February 7, 2005). The children had plenty of work helping the adults in the family put out gardens and care for the plants, mostly vegetables because this was their winter food supply. Since what was grown during the summer months had to feed the family and extended family throughout the winter season, these family gardens were quite large and everyone was expected to contribute. Hannah describes the garden, setting out those young plants, and carrying water,

When mommy and them set out cabbage and tomatoes and peppers and stuff it all had to

be watered by hand. We had no water hose and all of our stuff we set out. They set out

gardens that was unbelievable: 100 cabbage plants, 50 pepper plants and 200 tomato

plants and all them plants have to be watered by hand in little buckets. … It was a 5

pound lard bucket and we’d take and go down to the creek and scoop the water up in

them and take them and carry them to wherever they were sitting them plants out and

then they’d pour the water on them and we’d have to go back and get more and there’d be

sometimes seven or eight of us kids running buckets of water back and forth to whatever

garden that mommy, Aunt Suzie and Aunt Helen was putting out. You’d be praying for

rain all the time (H. Cooper, personal communication, May 9, 2004 & February 2005). 127

It was the Appalachian traditional thing to do; to provide for others and to assist in work and

family care. Hannah states that it was not competitive, “That was a very traditional thing. The

women worked and helped each other instead of trying to outdo each other.” And this same

sense of family and neighborly assistance applied to the men. “The men were very big on

helping each other build a barn, helping each other kill their hogs, helping each other plow,

clearing new ground, and building a house. Whatever they were doing the men helped each other

and worked together” (H. Cooper, personal communication, February 7, 2005). Leisure activities often followed the work of the day. Introduced next are two forms of leisure, children and their swimming holes and mountain music stories. In performance at the 35th Appalachian Festival at

Coney Island Park, I watched Hannah take the audience into the garden work of a child and then into the local swimming hole. The audience laughed at the antics of the children in their

swimming holes. Hannah vividly describes the mountain waterfalls, the swimming holes and the mountainous places where water collected, not always safe places because rocks and sun are good places for snakes.

There’s a lot of beautiful places up in the mountains that people have never seen. There

was a waterfall we used to climb to when I was a kid. Way up in the mountains you could

see there was a little branch, what we called a branch. It was a little stream of water that

staggered down out of there but if you climbed that branch and go way up in there, there

was a big hole of water and a waterfall that come down and big rhododendrons and big

rocks, a beautiful place and a good, cool place to swim in the summertime when it was

hot. We had another place called the slate pool and that was down the road from the

house and it was where the creek was slate bottom. It would wear down and then made a

big slate pool… what a place for a snake to sun. We used to love to go down to that slate 128

pool and then there was another place that we used to swim called the narrs. We used to

go to the big hole and that’s where the kids that lived the next farm down was Virgie and

Morgan Sexton’s kids and we used to meet them at the big hole and we’d go down there

and, you know, new rocks had been washed in from the rains and floods and we’d clean

it out and get all the rocks out of the way that we could and throw them up on the bank

and make our swimming hole deeper. We had three or four places. We had the slate hole

and up on the hill at the waterfall and we had the big hole and then we had a place called

the narrs. That was where there was some rocks as big as this room… It was a narrow

place and they called it the narrs (H. Cooper, personal communication, May 9, 2004, and

2005).

Children often headed for the swimming holes. After the hard work the people gathered for food and relaxed, some in the group told stories or produced a musical instrument such as a fiddle, a banjo, or a dulcimer. The next category in the mountain life theme has to do with professional musicians who tell stories while they play their music in performance.

Don Drewry, the third professional storyteller in the mountain life theme describes himself as a living historian and retired Methodist minister. He tells stories about his musical instruments, and the songs in history. During his performance at the Harpin’ N’ Pickin Festival in Oxford, Ohio he played softly as he told stories about the instruments and continued playing softly during his interview. Noted in the storytelling circuit as the historian, he shares in performance that “the hammered dulcimer actually dates back to 1000 BC to ancient Persia.” He noted that the dulcimer was brought into Europe by the crusaders and then it finally it came to this country with the first group of settlers to Jamestown in 1607. From New England the dulcimer migrated up into the mountains with the people. “It stayed alive in the mountains when 129

everybody else started playing newer instruments. We kind of kept some of the old instruments alive, but unfortunately, they are dying out” He told the audience briefly how he had made this dulcimer by combining patterns. While hammering his dulcimer, Don, told a story to an audience who were standing or sitting on bales of hay about visiting grandma’s house (D.

Drewry, personal communication, April 17, 2004). In another part of his performance (see Photograph 37) he plays his bowed psaltery, an ancient and medieval instrument that

Photograph 37. Don bowing psaltery and telling a story resembles a dulcimer but is played by plucking the strings with the fingers or strumming the

strings with a plectrum. Don commences to tell the audience,

About 600 years ago, somebody wanted to play their dulcimer with a bow, so they

invented a new instrument. The bowed psaltery is a dulcimer that somebody restrung so

you could play with a bow like they did this fiddle. It makes a very different sound. The

psaltery they rearranged so you reach them all from the edge. Kind of neat, isn’t it?” (D.

Drewry, personal communication, April 17, 2004).

Don bows a psalter and tells the story of “Greensleeves” explaining how his music dates

back to the 1100s (see Photograph 37). He invited children and other audience members to come

up closer to see the details of each of his instruments, the hammered dulcimer, the bowed psalter,

and the mountain dulcimer. He gave a special invitation to the children, “Actually, if the kids

want to come up and see, they can come up. That’s no problem” (D. Drewry, personal

communication, April 17, 2004).

130

The Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal near downtown Cincinnati was the

Photograph 38. Russ telling about his banjo site of the Appalachian Culture Festival, an extension of the popular springtime Appalachian Festival held annually in

May at Coney Island Park. The festival featured music in the

Reakirt Theater by six bands, one of which was the Rabbit

Hash String Band with Russ Childers playing Appalachian music with his fiddle and banjo. Barb Childers joined Russ and they performed as Bear Foot telling more stories. In another performance Russ told stories for children in the

Cinergy Children’s Museum in the lower level of the

Cincinnati Museum Center. Children sat or lay on the floor, sprawled against their parents, or sat on built in benches (see Photograph 38). Once he started telling stories, children may move slightly, but their eyes seldom left Russ. He instructs in story

form about his musical instruments, a banjo and a fiddle. He

questions the audience if they know what his instrument is as

he holds up his fiddle. Some audience members call out

“fiddle” and others say “violin.” Russ tells them they are both

right it is just in how the instrument is played that makes the

difference. He combines

Photograph 39. Dancing the limber jack while Russ fiddles traditional Appalachian children’s toys into his music and in his stories. Early in one 131

performance, he was telling the children about a little wooden toy called a limber jack; only this

one was a limber-chicken. A limber jack is an Appalachian dancing toy that mimics the clogging dancer’s distinctive sound and style. Adults danced and children could follow with their dolls or animal shapes whose feet would clackety-clack-clack- clog on one end of a wooden paddle that can be bounced in rhythm to the music. It was often used to entertain children. The way it works is that someone is seated and puts the end of the board under their leg, and with one hand taps on the paddle thereby bouncing the paddle. The other hand holds the stick the puppet is attached to and the toy figure dances. In one performance, Russ asked for volunteers to dance with his Mr.

Rooster while he fiddled. He looked at me sitting in the audience prepared to take photos and

record his performance. He invited me to put my recorder and camera down, come up on stage to

dance with Mr. Rooster. I was introduced to the audience as a “college girl who was doing research on him and storytellers.” So on the spot learned how to place the paddle, tap on the paddle and dangle the chicken just right to make it dance in time to his fiddle music while he played “Turkey in the Straw.” In the next performance that day an audience member volunteers to dance with Mr. Rooster (see Photograph 39).

Russ has won the Kentucky state Banjo competition twice and named a Kentucky

Colonel for his playing. So those that knew Russ expected him to play his banjo and he did not

Photograph 40. Playing Clawhammer style disappoint his audience. Russ played banjo, explained and

demonstrated the difference between playing banjo by

strumming versus playing in the Clawhammer fashion (see

Photograph 40). 132

At this same Appalachian Culture Festival at Cincinnati Museum Center, (see Figure 13) there were many cultural events and activities in the rotunda, Cinergy Center and Reakirt

Theater. These included “Appalachian Adventures” – Appalachian culture through games, crafts and “Exploration: Appalachia!” which allowed people to experience the music and activities of the mountain cultures. The rotunda was the site of numerous displays exhibiting detailed colorful tatting, unique handcrafted silver and gemstone jewelry, gel candles, sassy sacks, gourmet cookies, organic horseradish, wooden spoons, photographs, acrylic and watercolor paintings, community organization’s displays and storytelling. 133

Figure 13. Diagram of Appalachian Festival at Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal

Hallway to Reakirt Theater where Children Russ Arts/crafts performed Gourmet Hall- with Cookies way Rabbit Wood carver Hash chair maker Tatting lady Food vendors, tables and chairs Gel Other candles Rotunda candles displays stage where Purses Omope Jewelry totes performed

Paintings Jewelry

Gift Photography Wooden shop utensil

Stairs to Cinergy Information Children’s Museum where Gift shop Russ told children stories and played banjo Entrance area and fiddle

At this same event in the rotunda, Omope was on stage and telling stories about her family, one story was about her brother, Bruce, poking his tongue into a cigarette lighter. Stories of family and identity that are remembered are passed down and across to the next generation. Stories preserve family culture and family identity. The next theme of “Identity” links closely with

Sacred Beliefs in the stories of Neeake and Kijimanitou, the first true storyteller. Identity is intertwined in the balance of life and in the stories. Identity is in a name, how you are known 134 interpersonally to the world, identity is also who you are intrapersonally on the inside, the thoughts and feelings known only by the person until shared in a story. Identity flows like an undercurrent through Omope’s stories of survival by changing identity and fleeing by night.

Hannah tells about her Cherokee Grandma Hannah protecting her identity. Neeake returns to tell about the Shawandasse Nishnabe hiding out in remote mountain regions to keep save and to prevent being removed from Shawnee lands and sent to a reservation in Ohio, Kansas, and

Oklahoma.

Identity

Identity, the third major theme with 105 incidences (18%) is illustrated in the Conceptual

Framework of Identity (see Figure 14). In these stories identity is sacred and the beliefs of

“Olammapise,” Truth Teller, of the Shawandasse Nishnabe, Shawnee Nation United Remnant

Band and their place on the land for over 900 years. Identity is believed intertwined to the balance of all life and the stories themselves, “stories as a sacred trust are of the balance of all life and the gist that each life is to the other” (Neeake, personal communication, January 2005).

Identity includes stories of mixed ancestry crossing Appalachian, Shawnee, Cherokee, and Creek backgrounds. Identity is complex in that it integrated and forced people to change who they were to the outside world, but not who they were in their self identity. Identity connects to identity change for survival and influences stories of family survival and fleeing in the night from a forewarned lynching. Identity change occurred to have voting rights and land ownership rights.

Identity and nondisclosure of identity influenced where people lived and their right to live free and not be removed to a reservation. Stories of identity are intertwined to the Appalachian

Mountains and to the storytellers themselves. 135

Figure 14. Conceptual Framework Performance Theme: Identity

Performance Content Theme: Identity

Identity Change

Survival Civil Rights

Right to own land & vote

The first stories of Identity are with Reverend Fred Shaw, known as Neeake, the

“Olammapise,” Truth Teller, of the Shawandasse Nishnabe, Shawnee Nation United remnant

Band (see Photograph 41). It is appropriate here to confirm that I provided Neeake a draft of my transcribed notes from his performance and interviews for his corrections of my spelling of words from the Shawnee language used in his performance. He provided an email with corrections in blue. Since 1971 Neeake has shared the stories of his people and was elected as the

Principal Storyteller by the Tribal Council in 1986. The stories Neeake “holds as sacred trusts are of the balance of all life and the gift that each life is to the other. They are

“bibadinsawawchitah,” the proper way to walk upon the earth” (F. Shaw/Neeake, personal communication, January 30, 2005).

Neeake spoke to the audience at the Shawnee Indian Culture Fest in New Richmond,

Ohio about Shawnee identity in a name, and using the language of the hands, not because they couldn’t speak, but because there were over 600 different languages among the Shawnee. The trading and traveling people had to be able to use about 300 of the languages. Neeake 136 demonstrates to the audience how to speak in sign and has the audience interact with him in speaking. Neeake spoke in Shawnee and English to reveal the many parts of his name.

Photograph 41. Neeake “Olammapise,” Truth Teller, of the Shawandasse Nishnabe He interacted with audience members (see

Photograph 41) in explaining names and in situations when someone asks your name, “You answer by saying ‘I am called and you speak your name.”

Neeake responds that when people ask him that question, he can’t give a nice, short and pretty answer like “Gene,” instead he has to say, “Ilani Ahuk

Shawandasse Nishnabe Peckewe Andakwa Neeake

Fred Albert Shaw.” Then he laughed and asked,

“Long enough? Neeake then continues the story of his name illustrating the meaning of his name:

The first part of the name is Ilani Ahuk which means ‘I am.’ That tells me in my name

and that I’m not an accident on the earth but rather I am a gift to this world. My life is full

and good only as I allow that gift to be shared with others and as I allow them to share

their gift with me. I am Ilani Ahuk (Neeake, personal communication, January 30, 2005).

He tells his audience, “I am,” is also part of their name, that they don’t say it out loud but whenever anyone asks you your name you think ‘I am’ and then you speak it. And thus “each time you speak your name you’re to be reminding yourself of who you really are, a gift to the world” (Neeake, personal communication, 2005). In turn that also “means anybody you meet is a gift whether you like them or not.” Neeake continued with the next part of his name that 137

represents the name of his people, “Shawandasse Nishnabe, the true south wind people.” Neeake

explains,

We are the south wind people and that tells you a lot about us. Not only where we’re

from, which was way back in time, down south in Lake Chapala, Guadalajara, but also

how we think of ourselves as a giving people. The south wind is the giving wind. It is the

caretaker of the migrating animals. It is what first kisses the ice and brings it back to

flowing life. The south wind gives the first gentle caress to the grass and turns it green.

We are giving people (Neeake, personal communication, January 30, 2005).

So the name not only tells that he is a gift to this world but also the name of his people. Then the

next part of his name is the name of his opportunity in life,

Our primary opportunities, they’re called septs, each with its own opportunity.”

Personal responsibilities are described in relation to Ohio,

You have a Chalagatha, mispronounced in Ohio as Chillicothe (He asked audience

members for any ideas on meaning) and the Hathawakila. Those two groups are what

they now call bureaucrats but in the very best sense because they are the people who have

the organizational skills to get things done. Then you have the Mackoche. They are the

herbalists, the healers, and the doctors. Next are the Kispoko. They believe that your life

is more important than their own. Today you call them the EMTs (emergency medical

technicians), the police, the military, people that will lay their lives down for you. And

then you have my sept, which is Peckewe. It’s a man that stands up out of ashes, a man of

hope. We are the intelligencia. We are the people of the mind. We are storytellers,

teachers, and people with the mockingbird power. We are those who are the diplomats,

the people of the mind, the peacekeepers. Then I have my responsibility. That is my clan. 138

There were twelve traditional clans… and mine is Andakwa, the Raven. Any of you walk

in the woods? Who tells you whenever you walk in the woods? The raven or the bird, you

know, the raven, the crow. You step into the forest, you hear, it, “Caw, caw, caw, caw.”

There they are, look out. So they are the warning birds. They are the scouts, the watchers.

Two hundred years ago that would have meant that as a male I would have been expected

to run 50 miles a day over terrain like this so I could stay between the people and any

danger that was out there. I would be of the scouts. You could also be those that warn

against spiritual danger, what today you call priests. Now, when you look at me it’s pretty

easy to decide which track I took. Do I run 50 miles a day or am I a priest? So, that is my

responsibility. Then I have my called name, for some reason nobody ever wants to call

me by my full name, Ilani Ahuk Shawandasse Nishnabe Peckewe Andakwa Neeake Fred

Albert Shaw. So, you have your called name. For me that is “Neeake”, “He talks as he

flies, the Canada goose,” and that is the way the goose sings his name. We just change it

for our vocal chords. The last part of my name Fred Albert Shaw was so I can get a

drivers license. So, you have to go through all of that to say who you are but the most

important part of your name is always that of your people, the true south wind people.

That is what teaches us how to walk in a proper balance upon the earth. And we learn

much of that in the stories. Now among our people I am one of those who is known as

Olammapise, a truth teller, a storyteller (Neeake, personal communication, January 30,

2005).

Neeake teaches the audience systematically the importance in the names he carries and each part of his name there is importance to his identity. Family identity connects to his people, that he is a gift to the world, his sept is Peckewe, a man of hope, a storyteller and peacekeeper, then his class 139

responsibility, to warn against spiritual danger as a priest, and then his call name of Neeake. He

teaches that the most important part of a person’s name is always that of your people and that is what teaches us how to walk in a proper balance upon the earth. The following three stories of changing identity deny these people their identity and place them out of proper balance upon the land. These next three stories told by

Omope (see Photograph 42), Neeake and Hannah follows the struggles of their Native American ancestors

respectively, first about Omope’s great-grandfather and

great- grandma, educated and respected Indians in Georgia,

who were forced from their land under threat of murder by

night because their son had been educated and questioned the cotton ware-house master. The second professional

Photograph 42. Omope tells of family identity change for survival storyteller in the identity theme, Neeake shares the place of identity and removal to reservations

or concealing their identity to live free. The third storyteller in identity, Hannah tells of her great-

aunt who was Cherokee and how she concealed her identity.

In this subcategory of identity change, the first story Omope tells of her own family

history, identity and heritage in performances and in interviews at the Contemporary Art Center in downtown Cincinnati. This event was called “DownHome DownTown” and sponsored by the

Urban Appalachian Council of Cincinnati. This story was heard again in performance at the

Appalachian Culture Festival at the Cincinnati Museum Center. Identity and fleeing for survival’s sake is critical in this story because as Indians who were respected by their peers and 140 his family as a medicine man, his wife as a midwife, and as cotton farmers; yet they were unable to speak their mind or to go against the governmental systems of the day. They were still unable to own land in Georgia in 1921 and to be treated with respect by those in authority. Omope orients her audience to the story her grandfather told her and we know it is true because he was the boy who dared speak out (see Photograph 42). Omope tells,

So my granddaddy used to tell stories. My mom and daddy used to tell how they came to

Ohio to become colored. ‘Cause they were Creek Indians and couldn’t own land. He was

a medicine man. His wife was a midwife. And in Ohio they didn’t have to be Indian; they

could just be colored. So they came up in nineteen twenty and two. Actually they didn’t

come because they wanted to. My grandpa’s daddy had a real thing about education and

so my granddaddy could do math in his head. And they went to go settle up at the

warehouse for the cotton they’d gotten as seed and for the fertilizer for which they had

mortgaged the land and my granddaddy with his smart-alec self was doin the math in his

head, while the warehouse master was doin it with paper and pencil. My granddaddy beat

him to the punch and noted that he had made a math error. Not the thing to do in

nineteen twenty and one. That night a little old lady with white skin and white hair came

knocking at the back door and said to my great-grandmother, that if she wanted to see my

grandpa alive at the break of day, she’d get him outta the state of Georgia that night.

Sooo, they put in her lorry, pulled by two horses, her sewing machine, her spinning

wheel, her and my great aunt Ellen with an infant and they walked from Rome, Georgia,

actually, to Chattanooga, Tennessee that night, about forty miles, [audience murmurs

oohh]. They walked off their land never to go back again. So that’s their story and that’s 141

how come I came to be born in Ironton, Ohio and not Chattanooga Tennessee (O.

Daboiku, personal communication, April 16, 2004).

Omope’s great-grandfather and great-grandma and their family were forced from their home and

land under threat of murder by night because their son had questioned the math ability of a

cotton warehouse master who tried to shortchange them what they were owed for their cotton.

Identity change is not what they had envisioned the day they went to the cotton warehouse.

Identity change became a matter of survival in Ohio. In Ohio, according to her story, “they

became colored, so they could own land.” Her great-grandfather as the story goes, “believed

Indians were on the land first, and decided to do what they had to do to survive, even if that

meant changing their identity” (O. Daboiku, personal communication, April 16, 2004; February

18, 2005). Cultural identity was affected by cultural prejudices and civil rights of the time period

in Georgia of 1921. I have heard Omope tell this story many times in performances at events

such as, Christmas on the River, the 35th Appalachian Festival at Coney Island, at the Down

Home Down Town at the Rosenthal Contemporary Arts Center and allude to it at Appalachian

Culture Festival at Union Terminal. The degree of detail may vary slightly based on her

performance length, but the injustices inflicted still impact audiences. The second storyteller for

the identity stories is Fred Shaw known to his Methodist congregation as Reverend Shaw, but at

the Shawnee Indian Culture Festival he is known as Neeake. Neeake spoke of his people being

“pretty well divided up by the government.” From the stories of Neeake’s family ancestors, it is

known that they migrated from Mexico north through Florida eventually to Ohio and further

northeast and had lived on the land in the Ohio Valley for 904 years, before settlers, wars, U. S.

Calvary, and reservations. According to Neeake, 142

These early Ohio Shawnee encountered the Talegwa (Hopewell) resulting in the Fort

Ancient Culture. Later the Pennsylvania Shawnee joined the Ohio and the five bands

were united. From 1560 to 1792, the Shawnee fought the wave of white settlers, then in

1795 Blue Jacket and other Ohio tribes signed the Treaty of Greenville which attempted

to remove all Native people from the southern two –thirds of Ohio. In 1817, a new treaty,

the Treaty of St. Mary’s, placed all Ohio Native Indians on land called reservations. The

Indian Removal Act of 1830 dissolved the reservations in Ohio and forced the Ohio tribes

to Oklahoma and Kansas (F. Shaw /Neeake, personal communication, March, 2005).

Neeake continues his identity and identity change story with Shawnee history about those

Shawnee who secretly resisted and returned to homes in Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, and West

Virginia where they were regarded as renegades and hunted. So rather than traveling as tribes, they formed small family groups and lived in extremely secluded hard to find places in southeastern Ohio, and West Virginia. These secluded places most often in the mountains and valleys of the Appalachia Mountains and the hills that serve as gatekeepers. Neeake speaks of his people’s identity and keeping identity a secret to survive,

Well, one of the things that a lot of us have experienced here and other native people in

Ohio is that we had that long period of time where we had to keep it secret that we are

Shawnee because if you let anybody know who you were you got a free trip to Oklahoma

and nobody wants to go to Oklahoma, not even today (F. Shaw/Neeake, personal

communication, 2005).

After his performance I asked Neeake about how his people, his ancestors, kept their identity a secret and he told me that by that time period there had been intermarriages and the Shawnee had been fairly light skinned. Families hid out with people already living in the mountains and 143

contributed their skills to their adopted communities. A medicine man was valuable and so the

community members protected each other. His family took on the English name of Shaw (from

Shawnee) and dressed to fit in and be protected. Neeake tells of his people in northern Ohio who

fought on the Union side,

Later on in the 1830s the last of his people up at Hog Creek were forcefully removed and

taken out to Kansas and then to Oklahoma. Then during the War Between the States there

was a group who raised the Calvary and fought for the union. They were called the loyal

band of the Shawnee nation (F. Shaw/Neeake, personal communication, January 30,

2005).

Neeake explains there are different bands of Shawnee, some live in Ohio, others travel between

Oklahoma and Ohio and surrounding area. “It’s a very, very mixed bag of people and it’s mainly

because of government interference,” (F. Shaw/Neeake, personal communication, January 30,

2005).

In closing his performance at the Shawnee Culture Festival Neeake speaks of his own

children and keeping identity a secret. Neeake’s father was Shawnee and his mother was Scots so

“he moves in both worlds.” Neeake’s wife was the little blonde girl next door who was the

daughter of his second grade teacher. He decided when they had children, his son and daughter

“should never have to worry about identity so they move in both worlds.” His 27-year-old son is a high school history teacher, “corrupting the system if you will and setting history right.”

Neeake then told the audience about his 23-year-old daughter “who tells stories by way of

animals as a wild animal trainer and works at a little company called Disney’s Animal Kingdom

down in Orlando.” According to Neeake “she keeps life well balanced, trains birds all day and goes home and lives with tigers and bulls all night” (F. Shaw/Neeake, personal communication, 144

January 30, 2005). Neeake tells that when his son was four he thought the boy was old enough to

understand who he is so he sat down with him and very carefully explained it to him. Then he

asked the audience, “You know what he did? He cried, which really upset me.” Once settled

down he asked, “Son, what are you crying about?” and between his sobs he finally got out,

“Daddy, I wanted to be a cowboy” (F. Shaw/Neeake, personal communication, January 30,

2005). There was a time in Neeake’s life as he tells it “when he used to train the gentle horses for

a living and wore cowboy boots and a cowboy hat.” When he told his son about this horse

training work his son’s eyes got very big and he said, “Dad, I get to be both.” Neeake agreed

with him and replied “We are both” (F. Shaw/Neeake, personal communication, January 30,

2005).

Identity in a name is true for Omope as she tells the audience about her name, Omope and

Daboiku was her married named name because her husband was from Nigeria; Omope’s maiden

name is Carter of the Carters of Appomattox, Virginia (O. Daboiku, personal communication,

February 18, 2005). In a different performance Hannah briefly tells a story of her grandmother

Hannah, after whom she was named being a Cherokee. Grandma Hannah kept her identity a secret to avoid being sent to a reservation, leaving family, and her lands of the Cherokee. She changed the way she wore her hair and her dress (H. Cooper, personal communication, May 9,

2004. To the audience Neeake spoke of present day multiple identities, blending the past with the present, and living in two worlds, and having the stories of the elders to teach how to walk upon this earth,

We are both. We still have our ancient language. Many of us also speak English, German,

French, Spanish and some of us because of our jobs have to be able to dabble in Hebrew,

Greek and Latin. We are people that still know how to move quietly through the woods. 145

We can survive among the orange barrels on I-275. We are people who sometimes dress

like this but the rest of the time we dress just as funny as everybody else. We are people

of two worlds. We still have the ancient world but also have the modern. Although we

know the old ways I still use a computer every day in my office. The way that many of us

keep in touch with each other is phone, and email. We are people of two worlds yet it is

the world of our grandfathers and grandmothers, the stories that teach us how to walk

upon this earth (F. Shaw/Neeake, personal communication, January 30, 2005).

In these stories of identity the professional storytellers have referred to identity in a number of

ways, the Shawandasse Nishnabe, Ohio Remnant Band, tribe, clan, family as your people,

kinship identities, and relations and in each case the people were connected to their land. Don

referred to his five generations of great-grandfathers, who have lived on and fought in the military for America and the South for the land. Omope’s family ancestors left their land in

Georgia for survival but changed their identity in Ohio in order to own land. Neeake spoke of his

people being on the land for 904 years, the land of his ancestors and “we will never leave our

ancestors.” Stephen told of his family all living within a hundred yards of each other near Double

Creek and the road, the old dirt road that lead to the cemetery, where his grandma’s buried, his

grandpa, his Aunt Bess and Uncle Bill are all buried. For Stephen this cemetery has his family

history for about a hundred and fifty years. Hannah spoke about the importance of land, “I think a lot of Appalachian people have a different set of values. Things that mean something to them is their family, their traditions, their faith and their beliefs, their land and their heritage means more than silver or gold… That land is very important to my people, to own land.” Hannah continued and told me about owning a little piece of property down there (meaning eastern Kentucky) that she bought 20 years ago; land that was near her family’s property and that is the site of the old 146

mission school where her mother, Wanda May, attended school when young (H. Cooper,

personal communication, February 7, 2005). These Appalachians through their stories about the land and their ownership of land demonstrate the sense of place and how the land defines who they are. In these stories the land connects them to their heritage, their work, their sense of values and their ancestors. These stories of family, mountain life and identity teach us “how to walk upon this earth.” This land called the Appalachian region is represented in folklore of the people who contribute many cultural beliefs. Some stories are truly folklore and some slide close to being believable.

Folklore

The fourth major performance content theme with 79 references (14%) revolves around

folklore representing the Appalachian region, Native American cultural beliefs, and European

stories (see Figure 15). Folklore depicts myths, legends and traditions that people use to express

beliefs and to make sense of their environment and ways of life.

Figure 15. Conceptual Framework Performance Content Theme: Folklore

Content Performance Theme: Folklore

Regional

Shawnee

European

The first representation of folklore derives from the Appalachian region. Jack Tales,

although regional represent only six of the folk stories told. Jack Tales are known throughout the

Appalachian region as the “little guy who uses his wits and succeeds, (B. Childers, personal 147

communication, May 4, 2004). Omope describes Jack Tales as “stories usually about a boy

named Jack or he’s an old man named Jack… He’s kin to the same Jack that’s in “Jack and the

Beanstalk.” They’re third cousins on their momma’s daddy’s sister’s cousin’s momma’s brother-

in-law’s side (of the family).” In Jack Tales, Jack often seems the fool in the beginning but he

always comes up the winner in the end.

Omope referred to her dialect when telling the story, “Now I won’t make none of you all offended by the dialect I am using because this is my

native tongue that I’m speaking and I ain’t making

fun of nobody but myself”…Omope continued, “In

order to be able to hear a Jack tale you’ve got to be

able to and willing to sit because they’re long, real

long, and they come in circles of three” (O. Daboiku,

personal communication, April 16, 2004). Many

Photograph 43. Omope giving Jack the knife times the stories are about Jack but this is about Jack taking a wife. In order to involve the audience, Omope requested five audience members to mime as she narrated a Jack Tale. In

Photograph 43, Omope gives Jack a knife, “what all good mountain boys carry” (O. Daboiku, personal communication, April 16, 2004) and introduces the Jack character (see Photograph 43).

Others volunteer to be Jack’s mother, and to be Jack’s future wife known as Mary Martha Sue

Ellen and her father.

In a different performance at the Appalachian Culture Festival Omope uses the Jack

background information to introduce a story she made up while telling her daughter who was 6 at

the time a bedtime story. She explains that her children, two daughters, like to hear stories but 148

they don’t like to hear the ones that she tells because she has been telling stories for about fifteen years so that’s all they hear are the stories from their momma as a performer. So in this instance, her daughter wanted a story designed just for her. In Omope’s story, “The Cobbler’s Shoes” the

Jack character is a man and a shoe cobbler. Then Omope tells a piece of her own history and explains that when she was a little girl, they “had a cobbler and his name was Deacon Collins and he went to my church….” Omope described the man as looking like a monk but he was a cobbler (O. Daboiku, personal communication, February 19, 2005).

Rick Carson’s Southern folktale stories are humorous and punctuated with exaggerated theatrical gestures and sound effects. At the festival he told a

Jack Tale about Jack killing many giants. In one visual scene

(see Photograph 45), Rick as Jack makes a production of removing his eye and then handing the giant a grape. Rick reaches out to an audience member as if to hand him the “eye” and the person leans away as if Rick was really going to hand

Photograph 44. “Jack” removing his eye him his eye (R. Carson, personal communication, May 8, 2005). The next stories involve other

southern Appalachian characters known as Brer Rabbit, fox, possum, and snake.

The next story has a character known throughout the Appalachian region and Omope

involves the audience by asking them about present day rabbit known as a trickster; “He has long

ears, lives underground, always has carrots and even though he lives in dirt his gloves are never dirty…” and before she can complete her description, the audience calls out, “What’s up doc?”

She pretends she doesn’t hear, “Who?” and audience response, “What’s up doc? Omope continues with her introduction, “Bugs Bunny. He’s Brer Rabbit’s distant cousin.” She connects 149

the cartoon character of Bugs Bunny the audience knows to the Appalachian rabbit known as

Brer Rabbit. Then she continues by bringing in another character, a possum, “Well, this here story is about a rabbit and a possum. How many of you know what a possum is?” How many of you ever ate possum? Possum is good, Honey, especially with some sweet potatoes around it.”

Then she proceeds to tell the audience how to clean a possum to eat. “You’ve got to be real careful because it’s got a real nasty little gland in it. You don’t take that you just make it taste all nasty,” and she makes a face before moving on to the description of possums, “Possums are kind of a big like a cat but they’re white and they’ve got a long nose and whiskers like a rat and a long tail with no hair on it and I’ll tell you how that come to be right after I tell you this one right here.” Omope ends her story with a moral teaching that a snake is a snake and it “don’t matter if that snakes got no legs or two legs, a snake will always be a snake and they can never be trusted.” Omope begins her story of Possum, Snake and Brer Rabbit,

You see, Possum was a good old boy. He had a good heart. He wasn’t bright, didn’t have

good eyes but he had a good heart. His momma had always told him to never hang out

with the wrong crowd. She told him, she said, “Son, never trust a snake. Snakes just can’t

be trusted. Don’t matter what they tell you, a snake can’t be trusted.” She told him that

but then on the other hand she was always saying that you’ve got to help people in

trouble. A friend in need is a friend indeed. So he’d grown up with both of these

teachings and one day he’s a walking down the road. He come upon this snake curled up

in the middle of the road and it had a rock on its back. He looked at it and then he thought

about what his momma told him about snakes then he looked at it and he took pity on it

because it was laying in the road going… “Snake, what you doing up underneath that

rock?” “Oh possum, fancy that you would ask me that question. I’m so cold laying down 150

here. Would you mind picking this rock up off my back? I promise I won’t bite you.”

Well, the possum looked down and he said, “Well, if you promise, promise, cross your

heart.” Snake said, “Oh, I do, I do, I do. I promise. I cross my little snake heart I won’t

bite you.” “Okay then.” So the possum bent down, picked the rock up and threw it over in

a field. Snake stretched and said, “Oh, brother possum that is just so fine now I’m going

to go home. Do you think maybe you could put me there in your pocket where you keep

your babies because you don’t have none?” “Get off of me,” the possum said to the

snake. “No, I ain’t got no babies in there and I’m not putting you in there neither, you’s a

snake and my momma told me about you all. No!” “Oh, come on possum, be a Good

Samaritan.” Then he got to thinking about Sunday school and how you’re supposed to

help those in need. So he looked down at the little snake and said, “If you promise you’re

not going to bite me I will pick up and you can get warm and then you’ve got to get out.”

“Okay, I promise, I promise. I cross my little snake heart I won’t bite you.” So with that

promise the possum picked up the snake and dropped him down in his pouch. That snake

got in there and he twisted and turned and he got himself warm and he popped his little

head out. “Oh brother possum,” the snake said. “What do you want now?” the possum said. “I want to bite you. I’m going to bite you and then you’re going to die.” Well the

possum was so outdone that he just stood there dumbfounded and then something finally came out of his mouth and is sounded like this, “Oh brother snake, you said you wasn’t going to bite me and now you say you’re going to bite me and I’m going to die. Why would you do a thing like that?” And the snake said, “Cause I’m a snake and it’s just in my nature.” “Well, if you’re going to bite me and I’m going to die can I go see Brer

Rabbit? He’s my best friend in the whole world and I just want to tell him good-bye 151 before I die.” He said, “Yeah, make it snappy, you’re such a whiner.” And so that possum ran. (Omope asks audience to run) Can you help me run? We’re going to run like this.

Oh, that possum ran and he ran and he ran so fast he stumbled and he rolled and then he got up and he ran some more and he ran and ran down that path and he ran all the way to

Brer Rabbit’s house and he tripped going up the steps. Bam! Hit that door. Rabbit came out and there was the possum standing. The rabbit said, “What happened to you?” And the possum said, “Oh, it was a horrible thing. The snake was in the middle of the road and he had a rock on his back and I said no and he said oh please and I said no, my momma told me about you all and he said I won’t bite you and then I took the rock off his back and he asked could he get in my pocket and I said no you can’t get in my pocket and he said oh, I just want to get warm and he said I’m going to die.” The rabbit said, “I didn’t understand a word you said.” And the possum opened up his mouth and he said,

“Whoa, let me ask a question and you just give me the answer. Did you say you found a snake laying in the middle of the road?” “Uh-huh.” “Where is the snake now?” “In my pouch.” “Oh, well why don’t you take me back down where you found it. Where did you find it?” “At the crossroads.” “Okay, that’s where we’re going.” So they went back down there. The rabbit, possum and the snake and Brer Rabbit turned to the possum and said,

“Now, put the snake back where you found him.” And he reached down there and he had to go all the way down in the bottom because the snake didn’t want to come out and when he pulled the snake out he threw it on the ground. Now that snake was doing his best to try and get away. Rabbit said, “Didn’t you say something about a rock?” “Uh- huh.” “Go get that and put that back where you found it too.” So he went over to the field that possum did and grabbed that rock and he chased that snake and finally he dropped it 152

down on it. The rabbit turned to the possum and said, “Weren’t you listening when your

momma told you about snakes? Now, you know they crawl on their bellies. They go up

underneath rocks and anytime you see a rock on top of a snake you just have to know

somebody put it there on purpose sonny.” “Now let this be a lesson to you,” the rabbit

said to that there possum. It don’t matter if that snakes got no legs or two legs, a snake

will always be a snake and they can never be trusted so if your momma or your daddy or

your grandma or your grandpa, your aunt or your uncle, your guardian has said, “Child,

that one right there is a snake. Don’t play with that one.” They’re telling you the truth.

Don’t be a possum. (O. Daboiku, personal communication, February 18, 2005).

Jack Tales are part of the Appalachian culture, and Brer Rabbit and Brer Fox stories are part of the Appalachian culture. In these stories Omope uses a Brer Fox folktale to teach a truth. The next story is also about a possum. Omope continues with her story of possum by describing in vivid detail to the audience information about real possums,

Now, for those of you that really don’t know what a possum is, March is coming soon

and they will be laying in the middle of the road dead. I told you they don’t see well,

they’re not very bright. I guess they think the headlights on a car is the spotlights of the

stage and they stand there looking beautiful and the car runs over them, then the next car

and pretty soon they just look like rolls of toilet paper that’s been soaked in the toilet and

then smashed in the road (O. Daboiku, personal communication, February 18, 2005).

Omope then relates this new story with her previous description, “I told you that possums have no hair on their tail.” In this story Possum is taken advantage of by Brer Fox in the same manner that many rural mountain people were taken advantage of by big city swindlers and people who were not kind. Then she continues her introduction of the story by connecting to the time period 153 in Appalachian regional history when work was hard to find and masses of people migrated north to the industrial cities to find employment. The Cincinnati Museum Center was formerly the Union Train Terminal and a central switching area for trains traveling north, south, east and west. Omope tells of taking a train from this very terminal. In this story, the folks traveled from

Mississippi north to Chicago. Omope continues,

Now, this here story started in Appalachia and found its way all the way up there in that

big city called Chicago. Because, you know, a lot of mountain folk when times got hard

in the mountains and folks got smart and decided they didn’t want to cough up coal dust

for the rest of their lives they’d go off to the city and make a living. A whole lot of them

come up here. I remember being a child and being in here myself to catch a train. We

went right down the ramp like you go up the steps to go to the Omnimax. Well, you went

down the steps, a big old long ramp, and when you come up you were on the other side of

the railroad tracks and we’d catch a train and go from here to Ashland, Kentucky and

back. Folks caught trains and went on up to Chicago. They might come here and change

and go on up to Chicago. Well, when they went they took their stories with them and they

made up new stories because people were having trauma. Do you know what trauma is?

Trauma is what you experience when your parents get to have their way and you don’t

get to have yours. That’s pretty traumatic for some of us (O. Daboiku, personal

communication, February 18, 2005).

Omope then relates one of the reasons people went north, money. They would work in the industrial cities in factories and steel mills. But manners of dress are different from rural south to big city and hair styles were different. People that didn’t know better were taken advantage of 154 and made fun of or the brunt of jokes. In this story it is possum traveling north and suffering with a bad hair process. Omope’s story continues,

Possum had decided that he’d heard all these people down in Greenwood, Mississippi,

that’s part of Appalachia too. He heard them talking about Chicago and the money that

you could make in Chicago and man, if you had any sense at all you would leave these

piney woods and come on up with us to Chicago. So he heard about Chicago and how

you could make all this money in a packing factory and how you could go work at the

Steel Mill so he decided he was going. Well, when he got up there all the people that was

up there already made fun of him. They laughed at him. “Look at you, don’t you know

we don’t dress like that up here in the city? And look at your hair; don’t you know we

don’t dress like that? Your hair standing all out. You supposed to have it slicked down.

That’s the way we wear it in the city.” Now, at this time possum had a long tail covered

with hair. It stuck out like a bottle bristle washer (O. Daboiku, personal communication,

February 18, 2005).

Omope interrupts her possum story to explain bristle bottle washers and it being a process to clean bottles.

You know them old bottle washers that you had to use when you had to drink out of glass

bottles when babies was babies? Some of you all probably don’t remember nothing but

there used to be glass with a nipple on it and you had a brush and they had hard edges and

you slammed that brush down in there and then there’d still be a line of dead milk down

at the bottom. So then you’d have to push the dishrag in there and then you put your

finger in there and then pull it out and shake it. It was a lot of work. Then you had to

sterilize that bottle. Put it in boiling water and let it boil for twenty minutes and let it sit. 155

So now it’s easier just to use a plastic insert, pour it in and stick it in the baby’s mouth

but in these days it was a long process and so it was the same about hair. It was a process

and that’s what they told the possum that he needed.

Now the possum learns about a process and meets Brer Fox.

“Man, what you need is a process.” He said, “What’s a process?” He said, “What you do

is you go to the barber shop, you tell them that you want a process and they’re going to

put this lotion on you and it will make your hair straight.” He said, “How much does it

cost to get a process?” He said, “Fifty dollars.” He said, “Man, I just came up from the

country. I ain’t got fifty dollars.” He said, “Well, we know somebody that’s got a cheaper

formula for you. Just go find Brer Fox.” Now, if you know anything about Appalachian

stories you know a fox always represents somebody that’s got a little education. Well, the

fox said to the possum, “Yes indeed I’ve got what you need right here. I create my own

formulation and I will sell it for you for, how much you got in your pocket?” He reached

in his pocket and he had fifty cents. He said, “Well, this formulation costs two dollars but

I’ll take your fifty cents as a down payment” and he snatched the possums money and

handed him the jar. He said, “Now how do I use it?” He said, “Well, just open it up” and

he did and he said, “You just grab your tail” and he did. He said, “Now you just rub it on

there” and he rubbed it on there. It had a feeling like lotion in his hair, you know. He

said, “Now you’ve got to wrap it up with a clean, white cloth and in three days you will

have long, straight beautiful hair on your tail.” Well, the possum was so excited he

decided he was going to throw a party and he invited everybody over so they could see

his new urban look, his straight hair on his tail. He was going to have food, all kinds of

food. Chicken wings, collard greens, cornbread, pinto beans. He was going to invite all 156

his friends and have a little music playing, maybe he’d even find himself a girlfriend

because sleeping in a bed by yourself in the windy city was a cold phenomenon to be

short. And so he planned for the party, he bought all the stuff. The third day came and

folks showed up, he let them in, the music was blasting, the chicken was frying, it

smelled so good and everybody was having fun and then he decided he would have the

great unveiling of his new hairdo. He bent down and grabbed his tail and he began to take

off that white cloth that he’d wrapped around there and the more he pulled off the more

he realized that his tail was completely bare and burnt pink and he looked up and he

couldn’t find the fox anywhere and everybody was laughing and saying, “Why look at

you, you’re tail is as naked as a jaybird’s baby.” And poor possum was so ashamed that

he ran and hid in the dark and it’s the truth now that possums won’t even come out in the

daylight because they’re afraid you’re going to laugh at their tail. And it’s true too that

many a person left the south for the north and people laughed at them for the way they

wore their hair and they used to put lye in their hair to get it to be straight and a whole

bunch of ladies wore wigs because their hair fell out and I suspect one of them sat down

one day and made up this story so that I could tell it to you. Thank you (O. Daboiku,

personal communication, February 18, 2005).

When people traveled and moved to new locations they took their stories with them. They often made up new stories to explain life experiences. In the Brer Fox and Possum story the animals portrayed what people had experienced. I asked Neeake how he learned to tell the stories and he told me you learn to tell the stories because there are elders who teach you and you must learn how to listen very well. Animals take the lead in the next Shawnee folklore story by Neeake as he explains the animals as teachers and how smart the animals became to keep their mouths 157

closed. Neeake introduced this short story with these traditional words, “your grandfathers and

grandmothers will tell you,

The very first teachers were the animal people but in long ago time, the animal people

were very, very large and very, very smart. Human beings were very, very small and so

the animal people asked the creator that they might not give themselves away to the

human beings and said the human beings would be better fit to walk upon the earth. The

animal people began to give themselves away to the human beings and the animal people

began to get smaller and the human beings began to grow bigger and bigger and smarter

and smarter and the animal people got smaller and smaller and so smart that now they

keep their mouth closed” (Neeake, personal communication, January 30, 2005).

In the previous folklore stories from Appalachia and the Shawnee cultures animals talked and interacted with humans. In the Appalachian tales Brer Rabbit is wise and helps possum outsmart the snake but in the second tale Brer Fox is the educated northern fox whose slick deals costs possum all the money he had, fifty cents, but also cost him all the hair on his tail. In the Shawnee tale the animals talk to the creator and give themselves to the humans, become smaller and learn to keep their mouths closed. In the European folktale from Russia which was told at the Harpin

N’ Pickin Festival the animals again interact with humans and with each other. Fox returns but not as Brer Fox, this time Fox tricks the man, grandpa and steals his fish. Then Fox tricks Wolf into loosing his fluffy tail much as fox tricked the possum into loosing the hair on his tail. Susie

Crate introduces her audience at the Harpin’ an’ Pickin’ Festival to a Russian folktale. In this story Susie interacts with the audience, especially the children and draws them into the story.

Susie acts out parts and asks questions of the audience and gets their response. Remember from

Chapter 4 professional storyteller’s introductions, Susie lives part of the year in northern Siberia 158 to do her cultural ecology research and tells the audience some background about the Russian people and connects that people everywhere have grandmas and grandpas. “Russia is the biggest country in the world…spanning eleven time zones, and a lot of people. There are over one hundred different peoples in Russia that are not Russians, Asian peoples, Tungust, Indo, Eskimo type people, all kinds of people, all kinds of culture” (S. Crate, personal communication, April

16, 2004). Susie’s story combines a few different stories that are all about grandma and grandpa, and then she addresses the audience and asks, “How many of you have a grandma and grandpa?”

She asks children in the audience to be characters in the story and Susie’s own daughter quickly volunteers, “I want to be Natasha!”

Susie’s story begins,

Grandma and grandpa were very hungry one day and grandpa looked at grandma and

said, “I have an idea, I’ll go fishing.” Susie continues with side dialogue addressing the

audience, probing and educating, “What kind of a place is Russia? How many of you

know? Is it like a tropical place?

Kids: “No!”

Adult: “Cold.”

Susie: “It’s cold. Most places where you fish are frozen but do you know how people fish?”

Child: “They cut a hole in the ice!”

Susie: “They cut a hole in the ice. That’s exactly what grandpa had done so he went down to his

little hole in the ice where he fishes all the time. He heads on down there and he starts

fishing…Every time he put his line in there a fish came out. Now, Mr. Fox, you all know

about the fox now don’t you?”

Child: “They’re sly!” 159

Susie: “That’s right. The fox is sly, not just in Russian stories but in many stories, the fox plays

the sly, crafty, clever character. Of course Mr. Fox is watching grandpa catch all these

fish and Mr. Fox himself he’s a little hungry too…. so he makes up this scheme. He sees

grandpa put all these fish on the back of his sled and he jumps on there himself when

grandpa’s not looking and heading home. Grandpa can’t wait to get home and show

grandma how many fish he’s caught, she’s going to be so happy. They are going to eat

fish until they can’t eat anymore, to be so full it’s going to be great. Grandpa’s driving

those horses home as fast as he can and Mr. Fox is back there on the sled pitching those

fish off into the woods and as soon as they’re all gone he jumps off and he’s got his nice

big pile of fish there. Well, meanwhile grandpa gets home and runs right into the house

he’s so excited and tells grandma, “You won’t believe it. I went down to the river, I

started fishing and every time I put my line in I caught a fish. We’ve got a pile of fish and

we’re going to eat so much you’ll just be laughing you’re so full.” Grandma is so excited

she goes outside and she comes right back just as angry as she was glad. She looks at him

and says, “This is your idea of a joke?” Grandpa says, “What do you mean? I’ve got a

whole sled full of fish out there.” He goes out there and it’s empty.

Susie to Audience: “You and I know what happened. Back in the woods there is Mr. Fox sitting there and eating those fish right off of their little spine and along comes Mr. Wolf.

Well, Mr. Fox, you’ve caught yourself a big pile of fish there. Why, there’s too many fish

there for you to eat all by yourself. Why don’t you share a little bit with me?” Mr. Fox

thinks for a couple seconds, that’s all it takes him, and he says, “Mr. Wolf, you know

what; I’ve got a better idea. Instead of me giving you some of my fish you know what

I’m going to do? I’m going to teach you how you can catch this many fish yourself so 160

that every other day after this you can go whenever you’re hungry and go down to that

river and catch fish.” Mr. Wolf was beside himself, “Well, Mr. Fox, that’s so generous of

you…. I’ve never known you to be this generous…. That’s so nice of you.” So Mr. Fox

takes Mr. Wolf down to the river and he says, “Okay, now what you’ve got to do is you

need to take your tail, get your tail all nice and fluffed up back there, and just stand right

over that hole in the ice, you know, those people cut the holes in the ice to fish out. Stand

right over that hole in the ice and then lower yourself down into that hole with your tale

and just wiggle that tail around nice and easy like and in just any second fish will start

biting at your tail as fast as they can. You’ll just be so surprised. Oh my goodness, I got

to go, I’ll see you later. Bye” and off runs Mr. Fox. Well, Mr. Wolf, he’s still trying to get

over how generous Mr. Fox is being. It just goes to show you can never tell. So he gets

over it after a while and Mr. Wolf decides, all right, now I’m going to get down to

fishing.

Susie to children: What did he tell me I had to do?

Children in audience call out the steps.

Child: Fluff up his tail.

Susie: Fluff up my tail. What do I have to do next? (Susie wiggles and pretends she is fluffing a

tail)

Child: Squat down.

Susie: Squat down over the hole, get my tail in the hole and give it a little wiggle right? Here we

go. Nothing is happening. It’s getting kind of hard to wiggle my tail. Still waiting for that

fish. No fish yet. Well, Mr. Wolf, he wiggled his tail and he sat there for a very long time.

It got harder and harder to wiggle his tail. Why do you think that might have been? 161

Child: Because it freezes in the ice.

Susie: That’s right. Why do you think little girl?

Girl: Frozen.

Susie: You’re right. Because his tail was freezing in the ice and you know what happened? He

finally gave up, he finally said, “Well, I guess Mr. Fox fished all the fish out of this hole.

He did have a big pile there in the woods. I’m sure that’s what happened. I’ll just have to

come back tomorrow.” He tried to get up and you know what? He couldn’t move and all

of a sudden a bunch of kids came running down the side of the hill and they were

pointing right at him saying, “Look, there’s a wolf, let’s get him!” Mr. Wolf sees them

coming and he wants to get out of there as fast as he can and he runs away and leaves his

tail right frozen there in the creek.”

In this theme of folklore there has been a sampling of folklore from different cultures that

were all told at Appalachian and Shawnee culture events throughout the Greater Cincinnati region. Sandy Messerly concludes this theme with thoughts on folklore. In performance she tells a folklore story about a lovesick dragon at the Fine Arts Fund Sampler Weekend at the Lemming

House Community Park in Milford. In an interview Sandy reveals her thoughts about folklore

and her reasons for telling this genre, “Folktales are a way of connecting generations together.

You can take a story from ancient Ireland and show how people haven’t changed in some of the

things we do… stories from Ireland, Scotland, or Germany may address how husbands and wives

communicated and related to each other.” Sandy says, “Look at how many Cinderella stories

there are. They all have the same background, but in each country they have a different spin.

Storytelling teaches respect” (S. Messerly, February 3, 2005). Most of the stories Sandy really

likes to tell are the Scottish travel tales which have to do with real stories. “I really like the power 162 nature has over us. Scottish stories are really scary stories. They were a proud people and really afflicted with the Norse raiders in England. The clans were very proud. Raiders were like the fog coming. It was a mystery because you had our own little areas but they’ve got some of the greatest ghost stories coming from those caves (S. Messerly, February 12, 2005).

A few days after meeting with Sandy I met Robert Terwillegar at the Farbach Werner

Park where he was telling a classic tale for the Cincinnati Storytelling Guild meeting. Sandy was in attendance as Vice President of the guild and Sue Cox was present as President. After meeting

Robert and hearing his story at guild I was invited to his home for lunch with him and his wife and to conduct his interview. He spoke of the variety of stories he tells many of which are folklore and some are historical. In some groups he could tell O’Henry’s story about the man who gives his wife combs for her hair and she sells her hair to buy him a watch. With many of his stories he “attempts to place himself in the story” and tell it as though it happened to him. He tells a Halloween story called “Abigail’s Jewels”. Another tale is “the snake-bit hoe handle” in which he pretends to be bitten by a snake and it takes place in Kentucky. In one story he is snowbound in an area around Cades Coves, near the Smoky Mountain Hiking Club cabin (R.

Terwillegar, February 21, 2005).

Folklore characters traveled north for work representing the migration of southerners to the cities in th e north. In the next theme of living means the stories told in performance encompass day to day life in the mountain and means of living with stories of mining, floods, survival, gardening to produce food for winter, house holding, community assistance, and hunting and gathering.

163

Living Means

Living means was a performance theme in 9% of the stories. The means to earn a living derived from work in places like the mines, railroad, farms, lumber mills, and forests and in household work. Often people were forced to migrate out of the region to places farther north where there was more industry and to urban areas for more variety of work and gainful employ ment. Living means encompasses the frugality of the people in the ways they made what they had stretch a little more. Conceptual Framework Performance Theme: Living Means (see

Figure 16) illustrates these categories.

Figure 16. Conceptual Framework Performance Theme: Living Means

Content Performance Theme: Living Means

Work

Migration

Hannah describes the coal mining life and the conditions. Some miners attempt to survive and others choose other means to make money for their families. Hannah tells in performance about the “land being scooped out from below the people.” Her grandpa and other members of her family worked in the mines. Her grandpa was only 13 years old when he was put to work in the mines with the ponies. Some turned to moonshining because it was profitable in urban cities across the Ohio River. Hannah tells her story, 164

“Land had been scooped out from underneath them. They were working in horrible

mining conditions and living in mining shacks and working, you know, my grandpa

started working in a coal mine at 13 years old, leading a pony and a cart at 13 years old

and the ponies was blind. The ponies went blind from being in the mines and these young

boys would lead them in and out. A lot of these people that had been tortured and

tormented and starved out by these mining companies, they’d get into moonshining. They

could make big money and they could be independent and they’d make moonshine and

then they’d get people to run it out and they’d run it to Cincinnati and Chicago and

different places and make big money on it. Uncle Will, Aunt Kat’s husband, he spent five

years in the pen for moonshining and had twelve children at home.

Hannah tells about her uncle’s farm down in a “holler.” “You know, where my uncle lives, their place sometimes gets pretty flooded but their house is not that far from the creek and it is a flood plane in there but boy, its good sandy soil to grow anything.” Hannah philosophizes, “So, you know, you’ve got to kind of take the good with the bad. You can’t raise your beans and taters in a rock pile and so they would take and scratch out their places to live in these hollers.” She explains that “hollers were little flood planes in between the mountains” and families would go

in there and build. “Where my uncle lives when they plow that garden out from the house, you can go out there and pick up all kinds of arrowheads. If they plow and then it rains you can see them glistening if the sun comes out “because the Indians lived on places like that too” (H.

Cooper, personal communication, February 3, 2005).

Another important aspect of house holding is the area of food production, hunting,

gathering, harvesting, preserving, and recipes that provided for the daily living means. In

performance at the 35th Appalachian Festival at Coney Island Park in Cincinnati, Hannah 165

describes her life as a child of about 5 years old helping out in the large family garden in eastern

Kentucky. Everybody contributed to the work effort and it was not competitive. She explains that

the Appalachian traditional thing to do is to provide for others and to assist in work and family

care. The women worked and helped each other instead of trying to outdo each other. I queried if

this sense of community also applied to the men. Her reply indicated that men contributed in big ways in farm work, construction jobs such as building a new house or barn, farm work, hunting and slaughter of animals for food. Hannah added,

The men were very big on helping each other build a barn, helping each other kill their

hogs, helping each other plow, clearing new ground, building a house. Whatever they

were doing the men helped each other and worked together and the women helped each

other and worked together and the women were to cook and can and preserve and dry all

the foods” (H. Cooper, personal communication, February 3, 2005).

Hannah continues with her description of gathering berries for making jams and collecting

flowers and various kinds of nuts from trees native to the region. Hannah describes each by name

and the seasonal time of the blossom. They collected and made use of not just the fruit, but also

used the nuts and even the bark of some trees. There were some dangers associated with getting

into thick ets.

As kids we’d get out and pick berries. That was one of the big things we liked to do.

We’d get out and pick blackberries and mommy would can them and make blackberry

jam and she’d cook blackberries up and make blackberry dumplings or blackberry

cobbler. We were always picking something. You know wild strawberries and red

raspberries grew wild and sarvise and huckleberries. Sarvise, that’s the tree to bloom in

the early spring. That’s the first tree to bloom. It’s got a little white bloom on it. You 166

don’t hear much about them anymore. But with sarvise you would get the berries. We

made jams out of everything. Elderberries, we picked a lot of stuff wild. We used to

gather hazelnuts; we had a thicket of hazelnuts. We used to gather persimmons. Gosh, we

used to gather nuts and berries and barks off the beechnut tree. We used to cut the bark

and scrape the inside of the bark and chew it like chewing gum, like beechnut chewing

gum. It’s real white and it tastes good. It’s got kind of a minty flavor. We used to pick a

lot of mint and we were always digging some kind of roots, ginseng and burdock. They

used to make a lot of medicine out of burdock. They used to dig that and make some kind

of medicine for colds. Huckleberries are like blueberries but they’re smaller and they

grow on a little scrubby bush and you have to be careful, that’s a snaky place you know

(H. Cooper, personal communication, February 3, 2005).

Canning was a means of survival for them. Hannah describes some of the foods and preparation of food for survival. The foods that were grown during spring, summer and harvested in the fall

provided the food for the whole family during the long winter months. This food was shared with

other family members and neighbors. Since the men and women worked together to provide for

the common good they also shared for the common survival. Since food was a very precious

commodity, no produce was left to rot in the garden. So whatever vegetables that were still on the vine after first frost were harvested and combined into a food called chow chow. Hannah

describes the making of chow chow,

We always made something called chow chow. We’d make it every year and its tomatoes

and cucumbers and onions and peppers, sweet peppers and hot peppers, and we might

even throw a little bit of cabbage it… We chopped it real fine but the other stuff is

chopped a little on the course side. We cook it up, put a little salt and a little vinegar, 167

cook it up…I don’t like to put sugar in it but some people do… if you put sugar in it, it

will knock that hot flavor out and I like that hot flavor I just put enough vinegar in it to

preserve it and pickle it but not make it too sour. Sometimes it makes a huge pot, just

depending on what you’ve got left in the garden. We’d put it in a great big pot and we’d

just chop forever all the cucumbers and all the stuff that’s left in the garden and might

even put a zucchini in it, whatever’s left. It makes a hot relish and we serve it with soup

beans… like a relish to go with soup beans. I used to make that every year (H. Cooper,

personal communication, February 3, 2005).

This telling of how to make chow chow at a performance leads into another story about a relative canning the old fashioned away, the way people back in the mountains canned over a fire. In this instance, Hannah tells about a male cousin who likes the old time ways just to remember how.

Hannah continues with her story at O’Bannon Terrace,

My cousin, he wants to do things the old-time way. Every now and then he wants to do

some kind of old time and make sure he remembers how to do something. This summer I

went down there and he had a washtub sitting on a propane flame and he had, I think he

said he had eighteen jars with green beans in them and the water up to the top where the

rings start and he had wet towels down there in between them jars to keep them from

hitting together and breaking and he was canning beans with an open fire the way the

people used to… Then when they got hot enough, they boiled for so long, then they’d let

the fire go out and then when the water cooled they could take them out (H. Cooper,

personal communication, February 3, 2005). 168

At the 35th Appalachian Festival at Coney Island Park, Hannah describes how her family survived because they bought very little at the general store, things like salt, flour, and coffee.

They raised everything else. According to Hannah,

We had hogs. We had chickens. We had cows and had milk. And when we wasn’t eatin

that stuff my uncles and all of ‘em and all the boys and men and grandpa, all of ‘em;

They’d get out and squirrel hunt and groundhogs. You’ll say, “You’ve eat groundhog?”

I’m here to tell you, groundhog is some of the finest meat you’ll ever eat. My mom used

to take and skin that groundhog out and she’d do what you used to call a hard boil and

she’d hard boil that groundhog until the fat was rendered off of it good and then she’d put

it in the oven and put a lot of salt and a lot of black pepper on it and put sweet potatoes

around it and I’m telling you what, that was some of the best eatin’ you’ll ever eat

because groundhogs is a clean animal. It don’t eat nothin’ but vegetation; it ain’t nasty

like a possum. I mean if you get real hungry you could eat possum, but that’s another

story (H. Cooper, personal communication, May 9, 2004).

Omope tells the audience at eh 35th Appalachian Festival on Mother’s Day weekend a

story about her people and the work of the women in her family. She compares the work

of a laundress to present day dry cleaners.

My people was from West Virginia. When I was coming up the women took great pride

in not having to work except those who did and some of them was hospital workers like

my Mama and others of them when I was younger was laundresses. I had three aunts that

washed clothes for other people. That made them, I figured out after my divorce and my

life fell apart, entrepreneurs. You know, they’d buy property and build porches and

getting graduation gowns and certificates for courses from money they made from 169

washing for other folks so ain’t no shame in being independently employed, is it? Folks

that got business you call them dry cleaners and what do they do? Wash other people’s

clothes (O. Daboiku, personal communication, May 9, 2004).

Omope introduced the audience to her mother’s work in the lab at the hospital and how much she loved visiting her or picking her up after work,

I liked to go in the hospital because there was all kinds of cool stuff like jars of specimen

around the wall floating in brown fluid, you know, like a toe, a hand, an ear, babies that

hadn’t lived. They had buckets of frogs and cages of rabbits… and I loved to go in there.

It smelled really bad in there…but it was so much fun being in the lab with my mom” (O.

Daboiku, personal communication, February 18, 2005).

Omope had told the story about her great grandpa and grandpa at the Appalachian Culture

Festival at the Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal so she refreshed the audiences’ memory as a lead into her next story, “When they walked off their land they did so to save my grandpa’s life. My great grand daddy made sure everybody got an education.” It was his ability to do math in his head and being outspoken that had gotten him noticed by the warehouse master.

This education was passed to other members of the family. Aunt Jenny’s education takes her to

Spellman College where she receives a teaching certificate, and she owns a restaurant. Omope introduces the audience to her Aunt Jenny as the next family member to be a part of her story on work and the jobs available to men and women. This story also connects to community practices of feeding those less fortunate and how those people marked the good houses to visit. Omope’s story,

My aunt Jenny, which was the oldest one in the family, was sent to Spellman when

Spellman was a finishing school for teachers and she was supposed to go to school, get 170

her teaching certificate and come back to Rome, Georgia and teach so that my grandpa

could go on to school but she met a man who worked for the railroad and at that time

being a Red Cap for the Railroad was one of the highest paying jobs that an African-

American man could get. We knew that Aunt Jenny and Uncle Arthur was rich cause

they had ham and chicken on Sunday. They had two meats, you know, she always had

homemade bread. She had a little restaurant next door. They say that during the

depression hobos would write little signs on the side of my aunt Jenny’s house to let other

hobos know that if you came this way she would feed you. So she was the lady that fed

everybody.

These people lived well, but frugally. Food did not go to waste. In a performance at The

Appalachian Culture Festival in the Cincinnati Museum Center at Union terminal Omope tells a story about how her mother made slum glum soup out of all the leftovers for a week. Omope descries her mother’s slum glum soup,

At the end of a meal you always scrape what’s left over into a little carton and you put it

away and at the end of the week you take all the little cartons and you put them together

and you might add some tomato sauce to it and call it vegetable soup or you might brown

a little flour and call it stew. In my house my momma called it slum glum. Don’t ask me

what that means. It just means its Friday and whatever is left over it’s going in a pot

together and sometimes we ate it over rice and sometimes we ate it with noodles and

sometimes we just ate it with a spoon but that was our Friday night dish (O. Daboiku,

personal communication, February 18, 2005).

The varied ways that people earn a living as represented in these performance stories connect them to the coals mines and to the land as farmers and gardeners. Farming and 171

gardening in the mountains was no easy task when water had to be hauled from the nearest creek

or river. The next professional storyteller studies the ways people make a living and their

relationship toe their environment.

Susie Crate is a professional storyteller that I met at the Harpin’ N’ Pickin Festival in

Oxford, Ohio in April 2004. At the time Susie (Dr. Crate) was a faculty member at Miami

University and conducting research in cultural and political ecology. She is now continuing her

faculty work and research at George Mason University. This is important because the stories

Susie tells in performance relate to her work as a cultural ecologist in the Sakha region of

northern Siberia. Her interview and performance content inform the study and explain the ways

people earn living. As Susie explains cultural ecology to her audience, “it’s a study of human

environment relations and the way that cultures interact with their environment, the way they

affect their environment and the way the environment affects them” (S. Crate, personal

communication, April 17, 2004). During her performance Susie sang songs and told stories about

the inheritance of the earth, and her Siberian cultural and political ecology research. I asked her

to explain how cultural ecology related to her stories. From the standpoint of making a living,

“subsistence, if you can understand the culture and ecology of any culture it is easier to

understand the culture and ecology of a more nature based culture where people live close to the

land, hunters and gatherers, agriculturist and pastoralists.” Cultural ecology in the stories

explains what the people do in order to feed themselves, how that affects their environment and

ultimately affects them. Political ecology is taking it to a broader scale and actually looking at

what outside influences come into that picture, like how government policies do influence these peoples” (S. Crate, personal communication, May 2004). This connection to environment is 172 revealed in the Appalachian stories of people making a living, subsistence at times in their history, but it promotes an understanding of many of these people who lived close to their land.

Susie told folktales and sang songs written by friends about the earth and the inheritance people have from the earth. Susie has lived in the Piedmont region of Appalachia for nearly 20 years and tells of her love of the earth and the inheritance all people have from earth. Susie tells her audience the background story to the song, “Your Wonders Never Cease,” and “Inheritance.”

In performance Susie tells of her intrigue with Russia and meeting Alexa Nedvuga in the

Ukraine. Nedvuga is the person who wrote the song “Inheritance” and gave Susie permission to sing it and tell the story in her performances. Susie’s explanation of inheritance applies to the inheritance the other storytellers speak of when referring to the Appalachian Mountains,

“Inheritance is all about our ultimate inheritance is the earth and the earth is really our mother and inheritance. The story in the song is about my grandfather the thunder and when I was young he would scare me but now I’m older and I understand. My grandmother is the grassy field that blows in the wind and says to me, this is your inheritance. You know I didn’t inherit wealth or lands or this or that, but I have inherited the earth” (S. Crate, personal communication, April 17,

2004).

In earlier performance stories of identity and family connect the people to their land. Don tells of generations of ancestors who lived and fought in the military for America and the land

(D. Drewry, personal communication, April 17, 2005). Family ancestors left their land in

Georgia for survival but changed their identity in Ohio in order to own land based on Omope’s family stories (O. Daboiku, personal communication, April 17, 2004). Neeake spoke of his people being on the land for 904 years, and never leaving their ancestors. In the folklore stories that connect to sacred beliefs, Neeake tells one of his favorite stories of Grandmother Turtle 173

diving to the bottom of the seas to bring up a piece of earth on her back so the Creator could

fashion the land for the people (Neeake, personal communication, January 30, 2005). Hannah

spoke about the importance of owning land in eastern Kentucky near her family’s property (H.

Cooper, personal communication, February 3, 2005). Stephen told of his family all living and

dying within a hundred yards of each other on land in eastern Kentucky. Stephen owns land near

his Double Creek family home that he hopes to retire to someday (S. Hollen, personal

communication, January 28, 2005). Robert Terwillegar and Russ Childers in their interviews and

Russ in performance spoke of purchasing land within the Appalachian region of southern Ohio

and northern Kentucky respectively to maintain the connection to the land. Roberts land is a farm

in Ohio’s Adams county that he purchased in 1971 (R. Terwillegar, personal communication,

February 21, 2005) and Russ’s land is in northern Kentucky (R. Childers, personal

communications, January 25, 2005). These stories of family, mountain life and identity connect

to the importance of land to identity. These stories told by these professional storytellers teach

us, in Neeake’s words “how to walk upon this earth” and in Susie’s words how to work and

“inherit the earth” (Neeake & S. Crate, personal communications January 30, 2005 & April 17,

2004).

Neeake disclosed the reason Shawnee want to remain in the eastern region is because of the land: maple trees and the patterns of their lives is configured by the forests. Great forests

existed in Ohio and still exist southern Ohio and south into the Appalachian region of eastern

Kentucky and grow in the mountain ranges south to Mississippi. With this connection to the

forests, Neeake asked his audience if they could understand why the Shawnee resisted transfer to

the reservations of Oklahoma; there were “no maple trees in Oklahoma”: 174

When 900 years of your culture has lived in a maple forest, the sounds of your language

were shaped by the forest, the product of your life have been from the forest, your

seasons set by the forest, how can you live where there are no maple trees? (Neeake,

personal communication, January 30, 2005).

These stories carry forward beliefs that as a people, the Shawnee, and each of the other

storytellers spoke of never leaving their ancestors. Stories connect to sacred beliefs of the

Creator, Kijimanitou, and Grandma Turtle providing the piece of earth on which the creator

made land for the people. Family, mountain life and identity connect to the importance of land to

identity. These stories told by these professional storytellers teach us, in Neeake’s words “how to

walk upon this earth” and in Susie’s words how to work and “inherit the earth.” Storytellers

through their stories provide a connection to environment that is revealed in the Appalachian

stories of people making a living, subsistence at times in their history, but it promotes an

understanding of many of these people who lived close to their land. Sacred beliefs regarding

land and the people,

Sacred Beliefs

Stories of Sacred Beliefs composed 8% of the stories told in performance and are related to personal life stories of the professional storytellers (see Figure 17) for the conceptual framework of performance content theme: Sacred Beliefs. Sacred stories are holy, and depict blessed and consecrated events such as a wedding between two musician storytellers and the ceremony performed by another musician storyteller. One story tells about a mother who was sanctified and lived to die and the only stories told in her home were Bible stories or family stories. There are stories about living out Christian values of helping others and witnessing to them. Sacred beliefs are integrated in the Naive American stories and ways of life of Shawnee, 175

Creek, and Cherokee. Some of these stories portray attitudes and the viewpoint of the professional teller and describe a way of life and values.

Figure 17. Conceptual Framework Performance Theme: Sacred Beliefs

Sacred Beliefs

Creator Beliefs

When in interview with Barb Childers I asked her about Bear Foot, the name that Russ and Barb called themselves on stage. Barb explained that they were performing together before their marriage in 1988. Barb told about Bear Foot and then a story about her wedding. Barb continued that Don Drewry was the preacher and she never thinks of him as a storyteller. The wedding story, “He was our preacher, and we chose him to marry us because we knew him through the Appalachian Festival. I didn’t even know he was a preacher. I had no idea.” Barb and Russ as musicians always saw him at performances because Don is a performer too. “He was always there and seeing the stage shows and playing music. And then I found out he was a preacher and I said, “Would you marry us?” “Yep, he would.” She then told about their wedding and the guests, “a lot of our musician friends were there” (B. Childers, personal communication,

May 4, 2004). Don Drewry in telling me his story, told me about their wedding as a friend and their preacher. The second storyteller in Sacred Beliefs tells in performances about her mother’s sacred beliefs. Omope speaks of her granddaddy telling stories and his daughter raised in the church.

Omope learned stories from her granddaddy, “My Granddaddy always told stories about the family. She added that the only stories told in her mama’s house were family stories or Bible 176

stories. At the 35th Appalachian Festival which is Mother’s Day weekend, Omope told about her

mother,

Now my Mama, his daughter, was raised up in the church and she was a holy sanctified

woman. She lived to die if you get my drift. She was looking forward to going home with

Jesus and that’s where she rests right now (O. Daboiku, personal communication, May 9,

2004).

Hannah Cooper, the third storyteller in sacred beliefs, in an upcoming performance story in community practice shares her sense of Christian witness and community practice with a woman found near a major highway in Cincinnati. Hannah’s care and concern for a woman named

Debbie leads her to call the adventure into danger, assault, abandonment, and rescue a

“vacation.” Hannah’s witness and prayer became the “best part of my vacation.” Hannah informs me that she told this story to the women at the jail. Hannah’s words to the girls,

“God has got a network if you get in trouble, you can call on God’s network in the name

of Jesus. Better yet than that you can get saved and get out of this jailhouse and go home

and go to church and serve the community and be part of God’s network that when

somebody’s in trouble you can be the one that God’s sends to them and be the blessing

and God will give you stories like He’s give me” (H. Cooper, personal communication,

February 26, 2005).

The fourth storyteller as a Methodist minister and Shawnee Neeake demonstrates through

performance that he knows who he is and how he must live and teaches through his traditional

face painting and story, “I am one who stands between the people and the monsters of this earth.

And so, the wound that I wear is not red for blood, it is green… it says that I am to be a giver of 177 life. It is good to be such, huh because all life is a gift anyway (Neeake, personal communication,

January 30, 2005).

I questioned Neeake about his regalia, face paint and the large metal heart he wore and if these represented symbolism of his beliefs and were there stories behind all these?” Neeake expla ined (see Photograph 45),

This hat is a gestauwe. It has a very broad porcupine quill band around it. All the rest of it

then brain-tanned deer hide and then the feathers are ostrich feathers. It was of a style

that’s really been in use for centuries, but it was a way of saying a man was of some

importance. He definitely was of the village and then the design that is on mine is a story

in itself. It’s kind of hard to describe it but there’s a dark band in the center of the primary

band and then it’s white above and white below. And then you’ll see what look like

triangles and they point toward the center band and then on either side just over the eyes

there is what looks like an hourglass shape. They are what we refer to as vortexes and

this is a storyteller’s responsibility because the dividing line is the division between the

physical world and the spiritual world. The vortexes are the doorways, the gateways

between them. A storyteller is the keeper of them for good or for evil. The triangles then -

- because that is who the storyteller is and it is such a dangerous place all the time -- The

triangles represent the tips of thunderbird wings and so if you were to think of it in terms

of a Christian context it would be that you’re surrounded by a flock of guardian angels.

So as you are in that place of vulnerability, between the physical and the spiritual, you’re

protected (Neeake, personal communication, January 30, 2005).

Neeake then explained the gorget, the metal heart; he wore around his neck. Pronunciation depends on whether you’re French, English or American. Gorgets are the last remnant of knights 178

of old armor. Neeake wears the gorget as “a badge of office because the stories are the heart of

the people and I’m the keeper of the stories, so that’s my badge of office” (see Photograph 45).

Above the gorget, he wears another cross shaped pendant, which he describes as the cross of

Loraine, French, but Neeake wears it because “being Christina it looks like a dragonfly and we

have long known about metamorphosis so this is our symbol for resurrection. The dragonfly is

the Shawnee symbol of eternal life” (Neeake, personal communication, January 30, 2005).

I clarified and in a Christian belief it would be that same kind of idea only you’re being

protected from say, the dark forces. Neeake agreed as I clarified and as keeper of the story then it

would be like keeper of the Bible? You’re keeping the stories of your culture.

Neeake told some ancient stories that connect with Shawnee sacred beliefs and folklore.

Stories that always begin with the words, “the grandfathers and the grandmothers tell me that in

the time before this…” which is how some say, “Once upon a time.” However, when Shawnee

say, these words in reference to the grandmothers and grandfathers, “it means that what is to

follow is absolutely true (Neeake, personal communication, January 30, 2005). The story that

follows is relevant because it explains the face paint that is symbolic of Neeake’s place in the

Shawnee Band as Olammapise, the truth teller. This story tells about the first truth teller, the

storyteller and Kijimanitou, the great creator. Then Neeake said, “Ha katopi,” “You listen and let

me tell you this ancient story,”

Kijimanitou is the great creator, the one who thinks and it happens. Kitchamonatu said to

the man, who was always hitting his biceps, getting in fights, always making a big noise about himself. He would kill animals and let them rot. “My child, you have been a very bad man but now you will teach these people how to live in peace.” One day people got so tired of this man

they burned him all up, but all at once the ashes of that man who started to puff and to blow; he 179

stood up again alive. All of the stories were put into the head and the heart of that man and he

became the first truth teller, storyteller. This man’s name, Peckewe, meant “the man who stands

up out of ashes.” In Photograph 45 Neeake wears his gestauwe, face paint, the gorget (heart) and the cross of Loraine.

Because “I am the blood and spirit of this man and am a storyteller I wear the gray line like the ashes of the first one so whenever I see or paint it I remember who I am, that I am teacher of life, one who was very evil was made good by the creator.” The curved row of white dots represents his role as storyteller, he speaks and the audience listens. The story of

Photograph 45. Neeake’s regalia the three green lines about a half inch wide painted across his left cheek represents the claw marks of the bear and the gift of the scar that man and bear are brothers. This is another story.

Grandfathers and grandmothers tell me

that in the time before this there were great

monsters that walked on the earth…

Photograph 46. Neeake – Bear and Man fought giving gift of the scar 180

sometimes you find their big bones sticking in the river banks…. So people were afraid

until one day a man stood up and he said, “I will go out and fight all the monsters and kill

them all.

Kijimanitou gave that man strength and he went out and fought all the monsters and he killed

them all except one.

They came together and fought for many, many days but their strength was the same.

Mountains trembled, trees fell, streams ran backward and their strength was the same

until the bear slipped and the man wounded it but as the man jumped back the bear’s

claws reached down and whack. They stood there and they looked at each other, the bear

spoke. “Brrrrrrrother, it’s enough, you bleed, I bleed, you are strong, I am strong,

together we could be very strong, huh? From that day the man and the bear have been

brothers, each gives life to the other and it gave us a gift, the scar (see Photograph 46).”

(Neeake, personal communication, January 30, 2005).

Life is a gift based on Shawnee beliefs and life is a gift based on the Christian beliefs told

to an audience in one of Hannah’s performances at O’Bannon Terrace. Hannah spoke of her

outreach and working in her church, “I’ve been a born again Christian for, it will be 26 years in

May.” Though not raised in a church environment by her parents, her grandma and grandpa took

her to church when she was with them, so got a taste of both worlds. When you live with

Christian people there’s a peace like a river. This peace enters Hannah’s stories as she speaks about her family, her people, and her God. Her stories tell of rescuing women lost in the night and of her own performances in jails for women. 181

Community Practices

The performance content theme of Community Practices consisted of 7% of the professional storytellers’ performance stories and includes stories of community support of the people for their neighbors and the place of kinship in community (see Figure 18). These stories

offer glimpses into the Appalachian regional historical stories of community and embrace the

Greater Cincinnati regional history. As the people of this region migrated into the Greater

Cincinnati area they brought their stories with them, passed them on to future generations that

are now shared with audiences across the region by the professional storytellers. Sometimes the

stories themselves take place in history somewhere else outside of the region, but are told to

audiences inside the region.

Figure 18. Conceptual Framework Performance Theme: Community Practices

Community Practices

Historic Figures

Don Drewry as a historian and professional storyteller relates many of his stories in performance to military history and real community events that can be told in story and song. He plays a tune on his dulcimer (see Photograph 47) and afterward introduces the Civil War story about a famous abolitionist, Julia Ward Howe because it relates to events that took place through the media during present day wars and battle. So as his story goes, Julia Ward Howe was an abolitionist visiting a friend in Washington D.C. and was invited by that friend to go out and visit 182 a Union army camp at night. Howe heard the soldiers singing rather sad songs and was impressed.

Momentarily, Don addresses his audience to think of the words, “campfire, morning dew, and encampment.” He returns to the story in which Howe and her friend watch a battle, “The next day she and a friend went out to watch a battle.” Don then related this action to his present day opinion, “We think that’s rather crude. You back your picnic lunch, you get in your wagon and you go out and you watch people fight. The only thing crude about it is the technology.

Photograph 47. Don relates events in story and song We sat at home and watched bombs drop in Iraq, same story just different technology.” Don returned to the Howe story,

“Well, Julia Ward Howe came back hearing soldiers dying and singing their mortal songs

and decided they needed a peppy, upbeat song and she picked the tune he had played on

dulcimer. This song had been used for the words that became a tribute to the abolitionist

John Brown. Interestingly enough, the John Brown mentioned in the tune was not that

John Brown, but a fellow in a Massachusetts regiment whom they were teasing. This

song later became the tribute to the abolitionist, Julia Ward Howe and was published in

The Atlantic Monthly a few months later Howe became a pacifist. Interesting the way life

goes” (D. Drewry, personal communication, April 16, 2004).

Interestingly enough, the next story centers around war, WWI, and the flying corp of pilots, not all of the pilots, but one special pilot, Bessie Coleman, who was head of her time as the first Black woman pilot in WWI. As an actress who has performed for PBS specials, Omope 183

created an enactment about Bessie Coleman, a woman who took her civic and community duties

very seriously. During the interview I questioned how she selected this particular woman to do a

character enactment performance and Omope provided the following response after reading

about her and feeling inspired,

Number one, she was a short woman, like myself and she overcame public definition and

defined herself. That moved me. You know, she rose up as a child of slaves; she’s a

sharecropper and goes off to Chicago with nothing but a prayer and a promise. Coleman

heard her brothers return from WWI talking about flying airplanes and that’s what she

wants to do, and was told “Well you can’t do that, you’re a woman.

Omope emphasizes the place of women in the 1920s, “Not only are you a woman, you’re a

unskilled, unread, woman of color. How you gonna do that? How you gonna get to France to even learn to fly a plane?” Omope continues her story about Coleman deciding to make herself a news story and convincing the publisher of The Chicago Defender, a black paper, that she is going to fly, she is going to make news, and they should invest in her.” Omope’s excitement is in her eyes and voice and she exclaims, “and they pay, give her the money to take the first lesson and she saves up money and they pay the balance on deposit. We’re talking about steamboat,

1924; at the end of WWI and before WWII” (O. Daboiku, personal communication, May 1,

2004). Omope’s respect for the accomplishments of this woman is evident in her emphatic

statements and expression. Omope reports her death, “So she dies in like 24” (Researcher’s note:

Coleman’s death was reported as April 30, 1926). But the main emphasis on Omope’s story

relates to herself and her own history as she continues her reasons for selecting Coleman,

She overcomes as a female, the color of her skin, and the economics. She travels to

France when most people don’t even leave their home town and she’s traveling to France 184

(1920), goes to the Première de Caudron, the top flying school in France, and convinces

them to let her take lessons and flies for France as an American, and then she comes back

to America. Bessie died in 1924 (O. Daboiku, personal communication, May 9, 2004).

Omope’s personal family history reveals that her family, her great-grandfather and her

great grandmother who were Creek in Georgia in 1921, the same time frame as

Coleman’s story, overcame the civil adversity of the time. Her great-grandmother

overcomes as a female, the color of her skin, and the economics of the day as she with

her family, her husband, her son, her sister and sister’s child travel through the south

making their way from Georgia eventually into Ohio (O. Daboiku, personal

communication, May 9, 2004).

I heard Hannah tell this next story while in performance at O’Bannon Terrace Assisted

Living in Goshen. She also tells it to women and girls who are incarcerated in the Greater

Cincinnati and Clermont County region. Her performances demonstrate her strong beliefs about helping others and her sense of community. As Hannah tells this story at the O’Bannon Terrace there were members of the audience with tears in their eyes. Hannah begins her story,

Two weeks before Christmas I got to go down to the Hamilton County Justice Center

down by the jail and I got to tell my stories to the women that was down there

incarcerated, in jail. You know, Christmas time’s a very hard time for people in jail

because they’re not gonna get to go home and see their family and be with their children

and sin has took them to a place that has made a separation and it’s a hard time for them.

Our Bible tells us the merciful shall inherit mercy so we need to be merciful. (H. Cooper,

personal communication, February 26, 2005). 185

Hannah told the next story to these girls. This incident in the story of community practice and her

personal witness happened about 26 years ago “after I first became a Christian. Hannah and her

mother both worked the night shift at the Waffle House on Sharon Road in Cincinnati. Hannah

explains,

I was a night shift waitress and my mommy was a night shift cook and up in the middle

of the night, I’d say maybe 3:00 in the morning or so, in walks this young black woman.

She’s holding a newborn baby, maybe three or four weeks old, and has got a little three

or four year old boy by her side. She’s standing there and she looks like she’s in a daze.

Her lip looked like it was busted, her eye was drooping on one side and her hair looked

like it had been pulled every which way and she was standing there.

Hannah explains that she watched this woman for awhile and told her mom that she felt she

needed to do something for her. She found out her name was Debbie and that she had been left at

the side of the interstate. Hannah continues,

We got off work and I took mommy home and I took Debbie and her children over to the

Lincoln Heights Clinic. They had to put like a tight bandage around that baby becauseits

belly button was ruptured. They doctored her (Debbie) up and sent her over for x-rays

because she ended up having a light concussion where he’d beat her in the head and they

told her, they said, “We can put you in a halfway house or we can go home with your

friend (H. Cooper, personal communication, February 26, 2005).

Debbie turned and looked at me and I said, “Debbie, We ain’t got much but if you want to come home with me you’re welcome to it.” She (Debbie) said, “Hannah, I want to come home with you.” Hannah elaborates on her story of Debbie and the place of her faith in her daily life to help someone less fortunate and in need. Hannah did not think of taking a stranger into her home as 186

having any risk because she was doing what was right in her heart. She discovered she had been the answer to prayers, the prayers of Debbie’s mother in Detroit. The story continues,

So, she come home with me and we called her mother up in Detroit and her mother was a

good God-fearing woman and she was crying and Debbie talked to her mommy and then

her mommy talked to me and she said, “When she left here with that man I knew he ain’t

no good” and she said, “I’ve been praying, God, if my girl and babies gets in trouble send

somebody to her and the Lord has sent you to her. (H. Cooper, personal communication,

February 26, 2005)

As the story continues more is discovered about the plight of Debbie, not only is she stranded with two children, she has no money, and no identification. Hannah telephones Debbie’s mother who sent money to Hannah by way of Western Union. Hannah and Debbie visit a local thrift shop, purchase clothes and other needed items to prepare for Debbie’s return to her mother and

safety.

“Her mommy sent me the money Western Union because I had an identification to go

down and get it. This poor little girl didn’t even have identification for her mommy to

send her money because you had to present an ID to get it. Well, I took her down to the

thrift store. We got her a suitcase and got her some clothes and she stayed two or three

days with us. We ordered Chinese, we talked, we acted like we knowed each other all of

our life. She said, “This has been the best part of my vacation.” I prayed with her, she

stayed with us; we took her down to the bus station. We put her on a bus and sent her

back to Detroit to her mother (H. Cooper, personal communication, February, 2005).

Hannah’s care and concern for Debbie leads Debbie to call this adventure into danger, assault, abandonment, and rescue a “vacation.” Hannah’s witness and prayer became the “best part of my 187

vacation.” Hannah informs me that she told this story to the women at the jail. Hannah’s words

to the girls,

“God has got a network if you get in trouble, you can call on God’s network in the name

of Jesus. Better yet than that you can get saved and get out of this jailhouse and go home

and go to church and serve the community and be part of God’s network that when

somebody’s in trouble you can be the one that God’s sends to them and be the blessing

and God will give you stories like He’s give me” (H. Cooper, personal communication,

February 26, 2005).

Hannah told me, “Oh, them girls down at the jailhouse loved that story.” I commented that the maybe some of the girls could probably relate to a lot of it. Hannah, “Sure they could. That’s why I said I’ve got stories for all kinds of situations. I’ve got jailhouse ministry stories, I’ve got senior citizen ministry stories, but ain’t that a story and a half?” (H. Cooper, personal

communication, February 26, 2005).

Hannah revealed that she has stories that will help

women that have made bad choices and stories that will make people laugh. “I’ve got stories that make people remember

Photograph 48. “Mommy’s quilt blocks” their grandparents or their mother or appreciate the little things in life that, you know, people are so busy about buying a bigger house, a bigger car, a newer this and a newer that. They’re so busy with that kind of stuff they’re missing all the little things that mean so much like my mommy’s little quilts, her little quilt blocks” (see Photograph 48), (H. Cooper, personal communication,

April 15, 2005). I probed if she meant the blocks that she had shown to me at her home. Hannah 188 had shown these quilt blocks to women in performance at the Lily of the Valley Garden Club meeting in Milford. Hannah responded and continued talking about the value of her mother’s quilt blocks,

Where she’d cut out of her old dresses and made quilt pieces out of some of her old

housedresses, that means more to me. I wouldn’t trade them off for a brand new car. Sure

wouldn’t. You could offer me a brand new car or to keep them quilt pieces and I’d say,

“I’m keeping the quilt pieces,” because sometimes, and that’s back to that set of values. I

think a lot of Appalachian people have a different set of values. Things that mean

something to them is their family and their traditions and their faith and their beliefs and

their land and their heritage means more than silver or gold (H. Cooper, personal

communication, April 15, 2005).

The next story also speaks to Appalachian family tradition and this sense of community spirit in providing for surprise dinner guests just to be neighborly. Omope told a story in performance at the Cincinnati Museum Center about her mother’s Appalachian way of setting aside some food to be neighborly. “We always cook just a little bit more than what we need just in case somebody comes by and we can be neighborly and offer then a plate of food” (O. Daboiku, personal communication, April 2005). Another time when community traditions are important and supportive is when someone dies.

One storyteller spoke of traditions when a member of the family dies. Hannah told the ladies at the O’Bannon Terrace about her husband’s long illness and death just about two months prior to the performance. She called it “sitting up with the dead” and that it was something her family did and what she had done with her husband. “When somebody dies and they’re laid out at least two people have to sit up all night with the dead. We lay our people out at the church 189 house, not at a funeral home.” They can’t leave the body there in the church house without it being attended. “It has to be attended. That’s an old tradition that they believed, somebody had to stay there like on guard with the body.” Hannah spoke of her grandma, “I remember when my grandma died and me and my sister was two of them that had to sit up. Me and her and two other people we sat up all night at the church house in Hazard.” Then Hannah said they boards of health won’t let them leave the body at the church house over night, now it has to go to the funeral home. Hannah referred to her late husband, Travis, that when he died in December 2004 he had been “laid out’ over at the church. They had the funeral and the laying out at the church and then took him back to the funeral home. It is also tradition that the church folk and the neighbors and everybody cook for the family that lost a loved one. That‘s a big thing. “And of course, down home we’ve got a family cemetery that we bury our people on down there.”

Hannah and Omope lived the instances in their stories and these everyday kinds of family values provide the inspiration for their stories. Their families provided for each other and often extended family members and neighbors contributed to this sense of community practices.

According to Hannah, “It was a very Appalachian traditional thing to do; to provide for others and to assist in work and family care.” Hannah tells about the Appalachian tradition of taking food to the home of the family that has lost a loved one to death. She had observed her mother providing food, cards, and gifts of flowers over the years to her people. When Hannah’s husband died in December of 2004, Hannah tells in performance about the food, “Oh so much food,” cards, flowers, and phone calls arrived. This sad experience prompted Hannah to write a poem,

“My People,” about this giving tradition of her people and understanding at last why her mother always referred to others she was close to as her people. Relaying this story about people bring in food, led into another story about food, harvesting and preserving food while in performance. 190

In performance at O’Bannon Terrace Hannah spoke to the ladies about her memories of canning since it was a means of survival for them. Hannah describes some of the foods and preparation for preservation. The foods that were grown during spring, summer and fall were harvested in season and canned to provide food for the whole family during the long winter months. This food was shared with other family members and neighbors. Since the men and women worked together to provide for the common good they also shared for the common survival. Since food was a very precious commodity, no produce was left to rot in the garden. So whatever vegetables that were still on the vine after first frost were harvested and combined into a food called chow chow. I’ve already provided Hannah’s description of making chow chow in living means under gardening and preserving food work. This telling of how to make chow chow at a performance leads into another story about Hannah’s life experiences as a child. The work of the children was to gather berries and nuts so their mothers and grandmas could make jams and other desserts. Hannah continues to describe the community practice of gardening where family members set out huge gardens and the children were expected to help,

When mommy and them set out cabbage and tomatoes and peppers and stuff it all had to

be watered by hand. They sat out gardens that was unbelievable: 100 cabbage plants, 50

pepper plants and 200 tomato plants and all them plants have to be watered by hand in

little buckets. It was a 5 pound lard bucket and we’d take and go down to the creek and

scoop the water up in them and take them and carry them to wherever they were sitting

them plants out and then they’d pour the water on them and we’d have to go back and get

more and there’d be sometimes seven or eight of us kids running buckets of water back

and forth to whatever garden that mommy and Aunt Suzie and Aunt Helen was putting

out because there wasn’t no water hose. Unless we had a drought and we had to water 191

them by hand but you’d be praying for rain all the time (H. Cooper, personal

communication, May 9, 2004).

After the long summer growing season fall harvest would continue the gardening work.

Gardening devices needed to shelter the harvest and to help with cold storage were often found objects. An extended notion of community practice and not letting anything go to waste, involves what other people would leave behind. A found car hood becomes a cover for cold storage and an easier way to remove snow to retrieve a cabbage in winter snow.

“We’d take cabbage and sauerkraut and then we would hole cabbage up and that’s where

you dig a big hole in the ground about three foot deep or so and you line it with straw and

you put your cabbage heads in there and you cover them up with straw and then you

cover them up with some dirt and of course we always laid a car hood on top of that, an

old car hood. People would wreck old cars and leave them laying in the creek and we’d

take that car hood and take it and lay it on top. Then in the winter time you could go out

and raise that car hood up off there, dig back the dirt and dig out the straw and reach

down in there and pull out a big, white, crispy cabbage head and that was called holding

it up and you could hold up potatoes (H. Cooper, personal communication, February 3,

2005).

I clarified the term “holding it up” and was the car hood to mark the spot. Hannah further explains that hood marked a spot and also, “if it snowed then you didn’t have to rake the snow back, you just had to lift the car hood. In a performance Hannah told the ladies of a gardening club about writing a college paper once on the topic of a “six-month harvest into a twelve month eating,” 192

“It was all about from the beginning of the six month harvest period where you can start

picking greens the first thing. See, people would be so out of food this time of year, they

was down to where they didn’t have much left and so by the time spring came they was

really getting low on groceries. You didn’t have no Kroger or nothing to go to. You

didn’t have the money to go and you didn’t have the stores to go to because the general

store… I mean, you might be able to go over there and buy flour.”

Health and Medicine

Heath practices, the last major performance content theme (see Figure 19), consists of 5% of the professional storytellers’ stories and portrays labor and delivery on mountain, a sister as midwife, a daughter conferring with her father, a Medicine man, herbal and home remedies, and immunizations. Stories provide new and old remedies while some medicines take on new uses and items found in the kitchen take on a new use. Vicks Vapor Rub, lard, and castor oil are but some of the remedies.

Figure 19. Conceptual Framework Performance Theme: Health Practices

Health Practices

Medicines & Folk Remedies

People used what they had available and passed along family healing traditions using herbs and household items often to different uses than originally intended. Hannah tells the first story about 193 a late night delivery on the mountain. Hannah and Omope share family stories involving health practices when they were younger.

Hannah speaks often of her Aunt Susie during her performances. Aunt Susie and Uncle

Joe live on Bull Creek in Letcher County. This story of labor and delivery on mountain was told at the 35th Appalachian Festival and O’Bannon Terrace and is an example of family support, community help and the dilemma of going into labor at night in the mountains. This story told by

Hannah was about her Aunt Susie expecting her sixth child. The women had gathered to help

Susie; some were caring for her other children and doing chores. “It used to when somebody was expectin’ a child the other female people in the family come and stayed with ‘em so they could take care of their youngens and do the chores.” Hannah remembers this because her mother,

Wanda May, is Susie’s youngest sister “Mom had gone and stayed with Aunt Susie.” It was middle of the night on Montgomery Mountain, on the edge of Perry and Letcher County, when

Susie went into labor,

Well, mommy and Aunt Susie and Uncle Joe, they loaded up in the jeep… cause they had

to go down Montgomery Mountain towards Vico or Hazard to the hospital when the baby

started coming. Wanda May stopped the jeep on the way to the hospital. ‘Fore they ever

got off the mountain Susie was in tremendous labor and went ahead and was having the

baby. She laid across the front seat of the jeep with nothin’ but the dash lights and my

mommy had to get out and deliver that baby by the dash lights of the Jeep. She delivered

the baby and cut the cord with Uncle Joe’s pocket knife.

In her story, Hannah says, “People want to know what was Uncle Joe doing during all of this?” and she answers, “Uncle Joe had a brand new ball cap and all of his hound dogs had followed them down the mountain. They were running around the jeep and barking while Susie was in 194

labor. He was beating the dogs back with his brand new ball cap” (H. Cooper, personal

communication, May 9, 2004). At O’Bannon Terrace, Hannah adds this on to the story, “After

the baby was born, they just went on back home and the next morning Uncle Joe and Wanda

May went into town to record the birth at the health department. The baby was named Tanzil

Ray but most call him Jeep (H. Cooper, personal communication, February 26, 2005). After

mountain side home delivery, home remedies focus on some unusual and common place items

methods that these professional storytellers have told audiences.

Omope addresses some of the health practices and remedies learned from her family and

practiced by her mother and grandparents. At the 35th Appalachian Festival, Omope reveals that

the “only time we went to the doctor was to get an immunization shot or some turpentine grade

cough medicine.” Omope speaks about her momma, “Cause if my momma couldn’t cure us

she’d just call her daddy. His daddy had been the medicine man and he would ask her what she’d

used and what to go pick and what to smoke us with so we could get well” (O. Daboiku, personal

communication, May 9, 2004). In introducing a story the audience is questioned about

Appalachian words and remedies. If the audience answered affirmatively, then they were

Appalachian.

Omope questions her audience at the 35th Appalachian Festival at Coney Island, “if you

keep Vick’s Vapor rub beside your bed, raise your hand.” Then looking over the audience she

responds, “You’re probably Appalachian, that’s the number one pharmaceutical, across the

counter medicine that we use.” Then she proceeds to provide all the conditions that Vick’s Vapor

Rub is good for curing,

We use it for all kinds of things: bee stings, mosquito bites, stuff that ain’t on there

(referring to the jar). And those of us that know how it really works despite the caution on 195

the side, if you got a bad chest cold, you know, you just got to swallow one finger full

(and she demonstrates placing a finger in an imaginary jar) and the mucous will come

right out of you the next day (Audience laughter), guaranteed. (O. Daboiku, personal

communication, May 9, 2004).

Another remedy for bee stings is a little different from a dollop of Vicks down the throat. In

performance at Hannah tells about her uncle and what would be considered by most to be a

painful experience.

Years ago Uncle Joe was a beekeeper and he’d take his shirt off and roll his pant legs up

and let the bees sting him. He said it helped his arthritis. He’s 93 years old and gets

around good so I reckon it did help his arthritis” (H. Cooper, personal communication,

February 26, 2005)

Hannah told another story in performance about folk remedies, this one is greasy. Hannah believes “Lard is one of the finest things ever was. We used lard for everything. We was always making some kind of salve out of lard. Lard and what you would put in it.” Hannah proceeded to give the audience two medicinal uses for lard, “Lard and camper spirits and a little bit of kerosene and lemon make a real good chest rub for consumption.” Then she recalled and told a story about the hazards of gardening and insects, especially getting chiggers on her. Hannah was miserable from the scratching so her mom, Wanda May sent her to her Aunt Kat’s for a remedy.

The remedy was lard and salt which made Hannah even more miserable. Hannah tells her

chigger cure story,

I went up to Aunt Kat’s and I was eat up with chiggers, up in my armpits and all around

my waist and behind my knees. I’d been digging and scratching and mom sent me up to

Aunt Kat. She went in and she had a big deep Dutch oven, a big iron skillet and she 196

dipped down her hand into that white lard grease and she took a salt shaker and salted it

right good and started rubbing it together and made a salve. The she coated me with that

salty lard all over me. Now, the lard put a coating that smothered the chigger out and then

the salt caused the healing. Let me tell you something, if you’ve been digging and

scratching and put salty lard on, it burns and sets you on fire. Oh I was miserable (H.

Cooper, personal communication, February 26, 2005).

Another remedy was the use of mentholathum. Hannah offered that she always kept two things, castor oil and mentholathum. She used castor oil on her eyes for a sty or something around the eyelid. She rubs it in and it won’t hurt. Castor oil made a good salve especially for the dogs. The

dogs would get their eyes cut running through high grass. Hannah demonstrated, “just take it like

that on your finger and we’d rub it on the dog’s eyes.” Castor oil is great for skin. Castor oil

makes little age spots fade. It is good for warts and little irritations, ju st rub it and it goes away.

The health practices theme portrayed remedies that people used in the mountains because access

to a doctor was not always an easy task. Neighbors and family members offered their sense of

support, knowing that one day they may need help. People used what they had available and

passed along family healing traditions using herbs and household items often to different uses

than originally intended. Stories of healing and care such as eye care for hunting dogs may have

fit with mountain life and Hannah’s story of her mother and Aunt Susie crossed into family,

mountain life, and community practices. This concludes the performance content major themes.

These performance content themes of Family, Mountain Life, Identity, Folklore, Living

Means, Sacred Beliefs, Community Practices and Health reveal the depth of the performance and

the life history connection to the performance content. Professional storytellers in this study indicate through their narrative performances that cultural preservation of oral traditions and 197

cultural preservation of ways of life are the main factors informing their narrative content.

Storytelling is an act of expression, a means to experiment with words, to “play with words” as expressed in Barb’s frog story and lollipop story (B. Childers, personal communication, May 4,

2004). Telling is an avenue to memory and to make others aware of family history as revealed in

the family stories nights at grandma’s house, family military history and family stories of

marriages (D. Drewry, personal communication, April 17, 2004). Storytelling is a sacred trust

keeping stories for future generations as in the stories of the Shawnee predecessors migration to

the Ohio Valley and over 900 years of ancestors buried in the land. Being elected the

Olammapise of the Shawnee is an honor bestowed on Neeake as “Keeper of the Stories”

(Neeake, personal communication, January 30, 2005). Storytelling maintains an undercurrent of

social value and messages of regional history in stories of historical figures from the Cincinnati

region such as Harriet Beecher Stowe and John P Parker (M. McLeod, personal communication,

January 24, 2005). Stories are dynamic living oral creations that are ever evolving to maintain

and pass on traditions as evidenced in stories of Beloved and an eastern Kentucky way of life

and identification with the land (S. Hollen & O. Daboiku, personal communications, May 7,

2005). Professional storytellers practice the art of storytelling and make it their business to

entertain the audience and pass on oral traditions. 198

Chapter 6 Findings Part III: Professional Storytelling

Through performance professional storytellers construct for their audience excerpts from

their lives. Since this study is an analysis of professional storyteller’s life experiences and their

performance content it makes sense to examine the professional side of storytelling and how life

history experiences influences them to become a storyteller and then in turn to become

professional. Four professional storytellers (18%) engage in storytelling full time (R. Childers,

O. Daboiku, R. Carson, & B. Stewart, personal communications, 2005) and the remaining 18

(82%) engage in storytelling or “story-tell” part time as a source of livelihood (personal

communication, 2004/2005). As professional storytellers, they perform their storytelling routines in performances at events, workshops, or artist-in-residence programs and receive pay. Tellers

often learned storytelling from family groupings in their homes as children listening to elders tell

stories while doing some type of handwork such as quilting or mending or oiling a harness, or

breaking beans (O. Daboiku, S. Hollen, & H. Cooper, personal communications, 2004/2005).

Others learned or improved their natural skill as storytellers from theatre, drama, communication

classes in high school or college (S. Hollen, L. Breithaupt, K. Issacs, M. McLeod, S. Messerly, &

B. Stewart, personal communication, 2005) or from tribal elders (F. Shaw/Neeake, personal

communication, January 30, 2005). Tellers told about local, state and national workshops offered

by storytelling guilds, state or national organizations (S. Cox, S. Messerly, R. Terwillegar, R.

Carson, & S. Hollen, personal communications, 2005). Storytellers spoke of other storytellers

such as Rita (Grandma Buzz), Omope, and Sue, who perform locally and nationally and from

whom they had taken workshops. Fred Shaw as Neeake is recognized internationally as a

storyteller (F. Shaw, personal communication, January 30, 2005). Storytellers learn and improve

their craft from observation of other storytellers at events and performances and from friendly 199

informal critique offered by fellow storytellers, for example, at the 36th Appalachian Festival I

observed one veteran teller advising another newer teller “to pace delivery” and “to build details

of the characters”, so the audience could create a mental image of the characters. They conform

to standards of the profession by exhibiting professional behavior such as being punctual for

events, gaining permission from an author to tell a story originating from a book, giving credit

for a story adapted from another source or teller, and performing in an ethical and professional

manner. All the professional storytellers exhibit great skill and are considered expert performing

artists. As experts, Russ, Omope, and Stephen instruct in artist-in-residence programs through

the Ohio and Kentucky Arts and Humanities Programs. Russ and Omope apprentice other tellers

(R. Childers & O. Daboiku, personal communication, 2005). They all perform at festivals, community organizations events, and social gatherings.

These 22 professional storytellers introduced in Chapters four and five share life experiences with their audience. It is one thing to voluntarily tell stories sitting on the front porch in the safety of family and friends but quite another experience to tell personal moments from their own life experiences or to share personal and often traumatic accounts of events to an audience of primarily strangers at festivals, community cultural events, educational settings, or fundraisers. Professional storytellers tell stories to entertain, but their reasons tend to run deeper than pure entertainment. Sharing may involve personal or traumatic accounts of events that happened to more immediate family ancestors such as parents, siblings, grandparents or great- grandparents, or an aunt or an uncle. Sharing their stories in a professional manner provides a means to make sense of some of these shared events in their lives. Social values, beliefs, dilemmas and human interactions are reflected in these professional storytellers’ narrative oral stories. In telling their stories to a public they add a layer of credibility and validation to the 200 emotional base of the story. They could just tell folklore stories or stories from books that have no connection to their lives, but they share often intimate details of childhood experiences in the mountains, memories of visiting beloved grandparents, generational stories passed by oral traditions to predecessors hundreds of years ago. Their stories add threads of their lives to the tapestry of lives and stories from their past. Professional storytellers share their reasons for telling stories, reasons for becoming a professional storyteller, and how they were first exposed to storytelling.

Becoming a Storyteller Barb Childers offers that although she worked at Cincinnati

Public Library (CPL) since 1970, she really started telling stories in

1982 through the when she started working in the children’s department. She found out that all the storytelling she did informally, she enjoyed, “I didn’t even know I liked telling stories until I really started working with children (see Photograph 49), and found out

Photograph 49. Barb likes telling stories yeah, that‘s what I’m doing all the time (laughed)” (B. Childers, personal communication, May

4, 2004). Barb went through some life changing events and discovered from it the place of storytelling in her life. She offers,

Life changes and storytelling were actually…it was a very good thing for me because I

had to find out who I was. I had to start over again… it made me take a look at who I was

and who influenced me and what those people meant to me in my life. My father was

gone by this point, but I was really thinking a lot about what he, what he was, who he was

as a storyteller” (B. Childers, personal communication, May 4, 2004). 201

When Barb started in the CPL children’s department she “met Connie Harris who was at that

time head of the children’s department and she was a storyteller and a raconteur; the way my

father was, full of family stories.” Barb was exposed to “This wealth of children’s literature we

have and she really pushed me to become, I would say everything that I am. She really was the

spark” (B. Childers, personal communication, May 4, 2004).

Barb, in chapter 5, revealed that her connection to stories started when she was a child

listening to her father and grandfather quoting literary passages and telling stories. Barb

expressed that her father was “quite a raconteur” and liked to tell funny stories over and over

again. So it was this memory of her father, his stories, and this opportunity at the library that

contributed to and influenced her to start telling stories. She never got tired of stories so

attributes that early storytelling to becoming a storyteller, “I think I keep going in that tradition”

(B. Childers, personal communication, May 4, 2004).

The second professional storyteller expresses that she arrived at storytelling as her life

evolved in ways she had not anticipated. Martha McLeod shares how she became a storyteller.

She is active and always thinking of ways to incorporate background material into her stories.

Martha’s background involves degrees in psychology, history, art history, fine arts, and social

work so she draws from these areas in thinking about her stories. Martha shares, “So storytelling

is my answer to be working all the time and not minding it because its fun. I’m always thinking

about the stories and it makes everything interesting” (M. McLeod, personal communication,

January 24, 2005). For a time in her life Martha was involved with felt making and weaving

tapestries, then the social work and counseling became her work and the storytelling fits into it

all. Martha first became involved with storytelling through an African-American history month

event at Union Terminal in Cincinnati where she was introduced to the Greater Cincinnati 202

Storytelling Guild president, Sue Cox, and “really got hooked.” Martha’s interest in storytelling

opened another thread in her life as she became the hostess and on the air storyteller and

interviewer of storytellers for WAIF AM. Someone had approached the storytelling guild about

doing a radio show in the summer. Martha called it “Stories for All” and had guest storytellers

like Stephen Hollen and Sue Cox. “I’d go with whatever they wanted to tell” and break in with

music here and there. “It was live! So it was the only time I could talk with the tellers and say,

“How’s it going? What do you want to do next? It was an incredible challenge” (M. McLeod,

personal communication, January 24, 2005).

Even Martha’s woven logo for her marketing identity derives from weaving and stories.

“I think of myself coming from weaving tapestries, which is what I did, into the tapestries of

people’s lives…then I used the same logo for the storytelling as I used for the weaving because it

was also weaving stories” (M. McLeod, personal communication, January 24 2005).

Life evolves, as we’ve seen in Barb’s and Martha’s personal accounts of how they became

storytellers. They don’t just one day decide to be storytellers as we will see with the third

professional storyteller, Hannah Cooper.

Hannah shares that it wasn’t a sudden decision because she grew up hearing stories from her mother and grandmother as a child. “I mean, it wasn’t like all of a sudden I woke up one

morning and said, “Hmm, I want to be a storyteller.” I’d say I’ve always been a storyteller.”

Hannah reveals that as a child stories were told while they worked, “As a child I grew up

listening to stories and we’d sit around and break beans and peel apples or whatever we was

working up and mom and grandma and them would tell stories” (H. Cooper, personal

communication February 7, 2005). 203

Hannah believes storytelling is part of who she is, in her identity. She shared in a

conversation that she is the fourth generation of women in her family to tell stories. For Hannah,

stories were a form of entertainment, “I’ve always loved to be, you know, carry on and act crazy

and be funny and entertain. I’ve got that kind of personality. So, storytelling goes right along

with who I am.” Hannah tells stories as part of her conversation, “I can hardly meet anybody without wanting to tell them a story.” She continues, “I’ll meet somebody and say, “Oh, I got to tell you this old story. I’m just full of it and you can’t hold them all in.” Hannah declares those

times s itting with her mother and listening to stories influenced her, “So I’d say if anything

influenced me in my storytelling is my mother telling stories and the fact that I can tell a story

and it can make people happy or that it could build their faith of it could touch them in some way

that helped them, you know” (H. Cooper, personal communication February 7, 2005).

Hannah told her first story as a professional storyteller at O’Bannon Terrace Assisted

Living in Goshen where her aunt was the manager. They were having a ladies tea and dressing

up with hats and shawls. So Hannah “told them a couple of stories and Sharon Brummagem

heard me tell that story, the one I tell about Wanda May, and she just loved it.” From this first

exposure and encouragement Hannah was asked to perform at other events, “She wanted me to

story tell…then she got me to come and story tell for the Clermont County Senior Services. I

went a couple places and told some stories for them up at the Hartman Log Cabin.” She

explained that the Hartman Log Cabin is a community place and different organizations such as

the herb societies and historical groups use it for a meeting place (H. Cooper, personal

communication February 7, 2005).

Hannah referred to one of the interview questions “when did you start telling stories?”

and responded, “Actually, I told stories as a child and got whooped for it, for telling tales. I got 204

whipped for it.” Then Hannah stood up and started demonstrating how she would throw chicken feed and call the chickens to come listen to her performance,

I’d go over to the smokehouse and get a bucket of chicken feed and I’d get up on a chair

and I’d start throwing that chicken feed out and start singing, “Do Lord, oh, do Lord, do

remember me,” and the chickens would come running every which way, you know, and

that was my audience and I was performing for the chickens and I’d throw that feed out.

Oh, you could just see them because the chickens was loose and they just run from all

over the place running to eat and then I’d have me a big audience full of chickens to hear

me sing. I can’t sing a lick but it got me an audience right quick” (H. Cooper, personal

communication, February 7, 2005).

If the c hickens started leaving she would call them back to listen to a story. She told me she was

one of the kids “that was always up to something. You know, I was creative and loved to

perform and carry on…I’d get up on big rocks and sing and dance… always performing

something, telling some kind of big, yarny something” (H. Cooper, personal communication

February 7, 2005).

Professional storytellers share their reasons for telling stories, reasons for becoming a professional storyteller, and how they were first exposed to storytelling. Listening to a father,

described as a raconteur, tell stories of his childhood in Africa or to an uncle tell when to cross

the river, influenced the life of one professional storyteller. These professional tellers voluntarily

take audience members on an auditory excursion into their lives. They hear stories that were told

while sitting on the front porch in the safety of family and friends. This intimate sharing is an

experience. Storytellers tell personal moments from their own life experiences or share personal

and often traumatic accounts of events to an audience of primarily strangers at festivals, 205

community cultural events, educational settings, or fundraisers. Stories are told to entertain, but

the storytellers’ reasons tend to run deeper than pure entertainment. Sharing may involve

personal or traumatic accounts of events that happened to more immediate family ancestors such

as parents, siblings, grandparents or great-grandparents, or an aunt or an uncle. Sharing their

stories in a professional manner provides a means to make sense of some of these shared events

in their lives. Their stories add threads of their lives to the tapestry of lives and stories from their

past. In sharing their lives and connecting their lives to the stories, the professional storytellers

reveal how to make the story being told their own.

Making the Story Your Own Storytellers were asked how they prepare for storytelling. “When you talk about practice,

when you get the idea for a story, how do you practice?” Barb refers to making the stories “your

own.” She tells different kinds of stories and recounted her uncle’s story during an interview. In

the mountain regions there are many rivers that become deeper after heavy rains. Barb said

accordi ng to her uncle, she “could always know where to cross the river if she listened to the

frogs.” When she was a young child she told him she didn’t understand this, “What do you

mean? How do you listen to frogs and learn how to cross the river?” and the uncle’s response,

“No, no you listen, you listen and I’ll tell ya.” He told her about crossing this river and it was

really hard to tell how deep it was and then he heard the frogs! The frogs were going “Toedeepn

toedeepn….” He decided he might try and crossed the river and “by golly it was toe deep!” It

was just like the frogs had told him. And from then on, he thought well, “I had better listen to

‘em.” As the story progressed the river waters became deeper each time a crossing was attempted

and each time the frogs told him the depth. The frogs were going “Kneedeep, kneedeep

kneedeep, kneedeep, kneedeep, kneedeep” then, “Thighdeepn, thighdeepen, thighdeepin, 206

thighdeepen, thighdeepen.” And by the fourth day it really was deep this time, it really looked

deep, really deep and I took a look at the frogs. And they said, “Youdbettergoback,

youdbettergoback youdbettergoback youdbettergoback youdbettergoback. So I did” (B. Childers,

May 4, 2004).

Barb told different stories but called “Listen to the Frogs”, a family story or anecdote. In

making the story her own she had to practice the key lines. The frog story’s key lines she could

play with to get them right. Lines like “youdbettergoback, youdbettergoback” took practice and

she stressed “You’ve got to get those words in your mouth play with those words in your

mouth,” (B. Childers, personal communication, May 4, 2004).

Another example of having to say the words fast, to play with the words in your mouth

comes from Stephen Hollen as he tells how he created some of his characters, the townspeople of

Beloved. When he is telling this story he enunciates clearly, emphasizing the “plosives,” the “p”

words, the /p/ sound and he talks fast. I asked him why he says the story words so quickly.

Stephen starts to explain and then launches into a story about Percival Poovey and proceeds to give Percival’s family history, and adventures. His reply and story,

But you have to play with those words. When I drive, when I travel, I play with words.

Like when I tell a story. I used to talk about Percival Poovey, Miss Poovey, who was a

school teacher down in my home town of Beloved. Miss Poovey had a daddy, his name

was Percival Poovey. He’s actually the original Dr. Ironbeard. When I’m doing my

medicine show but I’m also telling stories about the family. Percival Poovey was a

purveyor of potent potables (Pause) that is to say, he made moonshine.

Stephen stops his story to explain the plosives, “Listen to the plosives there, Percival Poovey was

a purveyor of potent potables.” So I say that, “And Percival Poovey sounds so uppity. And you 207

know folks I have to tell you about Percival Poovey. He was a purveyor of potent potables. And I

pause. That is to say he made moonshine.” Stephen pauses to elaborate how he emphasizes (see

Photograph 50) the plosives,

And when I talk about Percival Poovey inventing the tincture papyrus he actually became

an Egyptologist and he went over and he was searching around through Egypt and he was

on a dig. They dug up one of the grand potentates of Egypt. This potentate was the point

man for the pontiff. He was an important man. And they found a papyrus, yes; they found

a papyrus, a precious papyrus. Percival Poovey the purveyor of potent potables found a

precious papyrus and he purloined, yes he even pilfered the precious papyrus (S. Hollen,

personal communication, January 28, 2005 & in

performance, May 7, 2005).

Stephens continues to explain and emphasize the plosives,

“And I got all those plosives, you know , as I talk and I say

that over and over and over again, the p’s over and over and

over again.” The fast repetition becomes part of his hook to

keep the audience listening, “And people are just rolling with

the p’s and they’re looking for them as I come along.” He

continues, “You know he was a plaintiff” and I found all kinds

of reasons to say the letter

Photograph 50. Telling of Percival Poovey the purveyor of potent potables “P” and the repetition of that pulls you along through the story. So I learned that in college.

Learned the word plosive and everything, you know, learned the hook. You know when you tell 208 stories or have a song, you look for a hook” (S. Hollen, personal communication, January 28,

2005).

I return to Barb as she tells about reading a child’s books, and then selecting the story because of the flow of the language and making it hers to tell in performance. Barb pointed out that she gained permission to tell the story.

Barb told about another a story that she really likes to tell called The Magic Lollypop

from a book written by Ellen Koshland. Barb provided the background information about the

author, “a language, literacy teacher, reading teacher from I think New York City.” Barb reveals

that Koshland wrote a picture book that she found in the children’s department called The Magic

Lollypop and did not like that book the first time it was introduced. She said, “This is a dumb

story, until I read it to a class full of kids and saw what it did to the kids.” Barb discovered that

she wasn’t involved; it was just the story and the pictures on the page, “I saw the kids really liked

it and got caught up in it.” Then she thought this might work for her as a told story. She felt

Koshland had worked hard “to get the language right” and “I didn’t want to mess with that, you

know the language was already there, so I had to practice that language and that’s a different

kind of practice.” Barb had to practice the story, “I had to find all the places where the pauses

were and put the words in my mouth, just right, so that the climax would come where it was

supposed to.” It was time consuming, “I just had to say it over and over again, write it out, say it,

memorize it, and then mess with it. And then you can change it a little bit. That’s how I do it” (B.

Childers, May 4, 2004).

I inquired about the upcoming Appalachian Festival and did she have a preplanned

program? Barb indicated that she did and was anxious for me to talk with her husband, “That’s

really funny and I can’t wait for you to talk to Russ because we’re like total opposites when it 209 comes to storytelling and music, our approach to life is probably at opposites ends.” She explained that “he studies stories, he just listens and relates them to his life and then they’re his. I mean they’re his.” Then she whispered, “I have to study the words and make them fit my mouth and shape them and mess with them, but that’s the way I do everything in life. I just take too long working through things.” She added, “I’m a perfectionist and drive my self crazy learning something and he just casually learns things, but the results are the same so it makes you wonder why you work so hard” She refers to having a framework and a theme in mind when she tells, “I have to have a framework and I have to have a theme. If we’re gonna tell stories, in my mind there has to be a theme and a thread that I follow all the way through. He’ll get there the same way and it will just be really natural” (B. Childers, personal communication, May 4, 2004). The interview with Barb’s husband, Russ revealed how he started telling stories and the apparent ease with which he makes a story his own, “How I started was through my music… the playing of and the singing of the songs, blends to story telling…: He explained that “you initially give the short story of why you sing a song or where the tune comes from…it just naturally evolves from there” (R. Childers, personal communication, January 25, 2005). These storytellers practice the words, play with the words, make the words fit their mouth, and just mess with the words until the story comes out right. Story selection is also about the story coming out right, but it has to also catch the ear or make a personal connection, an identity connection or a personally inspiring moment.

Story Selection As Russ’s interview continued I inquired about how he selects songs and stories and if he selects songs that have a history to them? Enjoyment is important but if a story or song catches his ear then he shares it with an audience. Russ explains, 210

I select songs that I just enjoy. I mean, if it’s something that catches my ear I think that’s

pretty neat too and I like to share that with my audience. So it has nothing to do with its

history. It’s all, do I like the tune and if I like the tune I play it and sing it. (R. Childers,

personal communication, January 25, 2005).

Another professional storyteller selects stories for enactments and telling that portrays her values and identification with the central character. Omope told another story about her own

Appalachian values and what prompted her to select her story figures. As an actress who has performed for PBS specials, Omope created an enactment about Bessie Coleman and during the interview she told me how she chose this woman pilot as a figure for enactment,

I chose her after reading about her and what it was about her that inspired me. Number

one, she was a short woman, like myself and she overcame public definition and defined

herself. That moved me. You know, she rose up as a child of slaves; she’s a sharecropper

and goes off to Chicago with nothing but a prayer and a promise. She hears her brother

comes from WWI talking about flying airplanes and that’s what she wants to do, “Well

you can’t do that, you’re a woman. Not only are you a woman, you’re a unskilled,

unread, woman of color. How you gonna do that? How you gonna get to France to even

learn to fly a plane?” So she decided to make herself a news story. She convinces the

publisher of The Chicago Defender, a black paper, that she is going to fly, and she is

going to make news, and they should invest in her. And they pay, give her the money to

take the first lesson and she saves up money and they pay the balance on deposit. We’re

talking about steamboat, 1924! At the end of WWI and before WWII. So she dies in like

1924. So she overcomes female, the color of her skin, and the economics. She travels to

France when most people don’t even leave their home town and she’s traveling to France. 211

(1920) Goes to the Première de Caudron, top flying school in France, and convinces them

to let her take lessons. Then she comes back. Bessie died in 1924 (O. Daboiku, May 1,

2004) (Researcher’s note, Coleman died April 30, 1926 flying in an air-show).

Omope identifies with this figure and refers to her own stature, “short woman, like myself.”

Omope is moved by the fact that as a woman Coleman overcame public definition and defined

herself, “she rose up as a child of slaves; she’s a sharecropper.” In stories about her great-

grandpa and grandpa and the family being warned to leave their land for the safety of the boy

(her grandpa) it is evident that Omope connects with this woman. She admires this woman going off to Chicago during a time when people did not go to far from home, “goes off to Chicago with nothing but a prayer and a promise.” Omope’s connection is woman to woman. Although Omope is educated, skilled and well-read, her final connection to Coleman is as a woman of color, “Well you can’t do that, you’re a woman. Not only are you a woman, you’re a unskilled, unread, woman of color” (O. Daboiku, May 1, 2004). Omope’s selected the Coleman story based primarily on identification and connection with her. She tells the story from the perspective of the character. The next category relates to this as storytellers explain how they depict “voice,” from the character perspective and storyteller perspective. Her perspective changes if she turns to

a narrative voice

Storyteller’s Voice Barb explains that different stories require different things, “if I want to slip into

somebody’s character and tell it from the inside then I have to tell it as the character

experiencing it.” Storytellers experience and take on multiple characters and voices upon

entering the story’s character and tell it from the inside. They tell what the character experiences from that perspective. They narrate as an objective voice, “I saw this happened, I witnessed this, 212

I know this guy.” I’m sort of describing what happens to him and then I’m within it. It’s like

being in two places at once.” Barb sees herself as both interpersonal and intrapersonal with the

character,

I’m both inside the story but then I creating this character and I believe this character and

I can see this character and I’m probably inside character looking out at the same time

that I’m describing to them kind of the framework of what they should be expecting” (B.

Childers, May 4, 2004).

Hannah uses facial expression, body gestures and

voice fluctuations to express characters in her stories. An

example of her expressions is evident when she tells her

Panther story (see Photograph 51). Hannah moving as the

panther; “it crawls toward the woman and her baby, eyes focused and growls and then lets out a piercing panther

Photograph 51. Hannah crawls like the panther scream as it attacks.” Members of the audience lean back in chairs as the “panther” approaches and move startled in seats as Hannah/panther screams. Changing voice and enacting characters in the stories is challenging. The next storyteller attests to the difficulty of maintaining voice.

Don was questioned about storytellers trying to preserve their voice and when they’re interpreting a voice. At this event, the Harpin’ N’ Pickin’ Festival, the loud speakers broadcasting the musician’s stage was within about fifteen feet of where Don was to perform. He had his own sound system and microphone, but there was still loud background music. Don briefly addresses the issue from a different perspective, voice and maintaining character voice 213

when performing outdoors, “You do change tones and for me it’s a problem being outdoors like

this because I have allergies but you’ve got to have enough volume and most of the time I don’t

have a PA set up. It’s not easy to speak for that long a period of time and try to get a little

different tone in your voice and carry it. You’re getting into character and you’re changing the

way you normally talk and it does effect, it’s hard to keep going.

These professional storytellers take on the expressions and voices upon entering the

story’s character and tell it from the inside. They tell what the character experiences from that perspective. In this example, Omope tells the story from her perspective as a little girl in second

grade. She explains her “asking Mama” voice, the right way to ask and the wrong way to ask for

something. Omope vividly describes a hair curling process she is willing to endure to get dressed

up in her black patent shoes, Sunday dress, and little girl high heels to walk in the school

Memorial Day parade. In this excerpt Omope describes and demonstrates the hair goop her

mother would slather through her hair. “Now, goop comes before gel and it come in a bottle

shaped up about like that… like a honey jar, and it was grease. It wasn’t liquid; it was kind of

semi consistency like snot.” Omope’s colorful description

continues,

You know the color that snot is right when you know

you better get to the doctor or you ain’t gonna be able

to make it to work?... Mama would put the brush

down in it and when she’d pull it out it’d kind of stick

Photograph 52. “You’re hurting the roof of the mouth”

214

to the brush and say it’s own name when you pulled it out. She put that in my hair. Now,

45% of it was alcohol and it was cold and it felt like snot and it looked like snot. So she’d

be rubbin’ this snot, I mean goop, through my hair and pullin’ it tighter and tighter and

then she’d grab the other side and pull it tighter and tighter until it looked like I was from

Asia and I would say to Mama, “You’re hurting the roof of the mouth (see Photograph

52).” And then depending on if she was in a good mood or a bad one, she’s whack me in

the head with the brush with either the back side or the bristles and she’d say to me, “I

know you know better, your hair ain’t attached to the roof of your mouth (O. Daboiku,

personal communication, May 9, 2004).

In addition to using their colorful verbal descriptions and expressions, “prowling” and “panther

scream” or dem onstrating hair being pulled so tight that it “hurts the roof of the mouth” as

personal body props, these professional storytellers use props such as puppets of various sizes

and shapes to illustrate a point. Puppets engage the audience as a second voice telling the story.

Puppets support the development of the story line and create a visual of the character. Puppets

help to sustain the audience engagement with the storyteller. These professional storytellers also

bring some puppets to events to entertain themselves, play with puppet voices, and relax between

performances and to just have fun.

Props When I went to Rita’s home to conduct the interview, we spoke at her kitchen table for a

short while and then she asked me to follow her. Rita gave me the privilege of being taken into

her “Storytelling Room.” The shelves were lined with books and story props. She opened a

cupboard and proceeded to show me one puppet after another. There were many puppets in baskets, in bags, in boxes, and some just loose in the cupboard. She had a frog for the Frog 215

Prince story, a large gold fish, a Magic Fish, (see Photograph 53), a moose, a beaver, an

alligator, a bear, a kitten, a gorilla, a monkey, an elf, a snowy white owl, an eagle, and puppets

Photograph 53. Rita sharing her magic goldfish puppet on strings. There were many puppets. She

unrolled poster size illustrations that she

drew to serve as props for stories such as a mouse on a motorcycle. We spent a couple of hours or longer looking at puppets and

she told stories of where a story came from

and why she used this particular puppet.

She told a story about each puppet and what

event she had been to when she first used a puppet. In one box of puppets she produced a long

notebook stuffed with extra pages and rows of numbers dating back to 1983 with every story

numbered and the corresponding bag

numbered that contains the puppet. She also

writes out each story and keeps them labeled

in a folder. Each puppet was like a treasured

possession carefully wrapped in tissue or

plastic and labeled. Rita shared a moment with me that was very special. Over the years

Photograph 54. Martha showing audience picture props of cradleboards

216

Rita has been instrumental in the training of other storytellers, some are the professional

storytellers in this study. The next storyteller uses her background in history and picture props of cradleboards to illustrate her story. She questions the audience about the words to the song,

“Rock-A-Bye-Baby.”

Martha McLeod questions “did you ever think about the words to that song? And did you ever wonder, ‘Why would you put the cradle in the tree to begin with? This is a lullaby to get some little child to go to sleep!’ She explains that we don’t understand the original language and we don’t understand the original thing they were talking about, which was not a cradle as we think about it but it was a cradle board. The picture (see Photograph 54) illustrates a cradleboard from the Plains, “you can see how sturdy that is.” And holding up a second picture, “this one is an Apache one, where you can see, of course, the baby’s protected from the sun.” Martha

continues explaining, “this was something you could indeed hang on the tree and mom’s right

there working digging up potatoes or doing whatever and it’s gently swinging back and forth.”

She continues her explanation that no one was interested in the true translation of the words from

“rock a bye baby.” People seemed satisfied with the English translation and did not convey or

carry the Indian meaning with the song. The next storyteller speaks the language of the Shawnee

and provides some translation and thoughts on learning to tell stories. Often storytellers are

asked how you learn to tell stories. The answer often involves a story.

Storytelling Training When Fred Shaw is asked, “How do you learn to tell stories?” his answer becomes a

story. “You learn to tell the stories because there are elders who teach you and you must learn

how to listen very well. You have to listen very well. In fact, your grandfathers and 217

grandmothers will tell you,” and he leads into a story. The “stories are the heart of the people” and he is the “Keeper of the Stories.”

Other storytellers offered that in some ways their education helps with their storytelling.

Barb suggests that “maybe it gave me confidence that I was going in the right direction.” Her focus was with literature before storytelling “that is where I love to go because of my love for words.” She would recognize themes in literature and “realize that I’m doing the right thing or things that I didn’t know, I didn’t recognize, that I was going somewhere with this.” She gestures to the bookshelves, “I see again in a piece of Shakespeare that nothing ever changes, humanity is humanity, since the beginning of time they still make the same mistakes and I still find it funny when they mess up” (B. Childers, personal communication, May 4, 2004).

Stephen refers to his college days in communications as where he “learned to use the

hook in the story and characterization. Another thing my education did, I’m constantly building

my little town.” Stephen writes journals so when he thinks about a character, he can “flesh that

character out more and more and more.” So when he writes he says, “I know where they live, I

know what they look like, I know what they’re wearing. And I can describe my characters. So

that gives my stories a lot of depth, my characterizations.” All the stories he write take place in

Beloved, his imaginary pace in eastern Kentucky, “all the stories that I write, kind of take place

down there.” He also tells other stories and some don’t take place in Kentucky, “now I tell other

stories, obviously, if I’m telling a Cinderella, she don’t live in Beloved, I’m sorry. Not everybody can.” He continues that his characterizations and his writing are from his college

days, “But my characterizations from my English classes and from my writing classes. In theater

he learned that “you need to understand the depth of character and from theatre, when I was in

acting classes…I understood character…understood that you had to have back-story, so I have 218

tons of back-story about most of my characters that you never hear” (S. Hollen, personal

communication, January 28, 2005). Stephen explains back-story,

Back-story is the stuff, like as an actor, back-story is the motivations, you know who you

are, where you came from, it never gets on to the screen or the stage, but makes that

character so… an actor might sit down, especially a method actor, they might sit down

and say okay, I’m going to play Harry Potter. Where did he come from? Why is he like

he is? Does his scar on his forehead hurt? It does sometimes. So back-story is stuff you

never see on stage or screen that helps the actor develop the character. Back-story for me

is what helps me flesh out. I know for example that Cousin Peanut would never do

certain things, because it’s not in his nature. I’ve mentioned and you’ve heard me say that

he does not take a bath. You know why? Because he is adverse to water. He does not take

it internally or externally. Once a year, his daddy, Vergie, throws him in the creek, and

that’s about all he gets and that’s all he wants to. So that’s back-story. I know, that

nobody’s ever gonna come in and catch him in the bathtub, (Laughing) Cause that

violates a basic premise of that character. That’s back-story. So I have to be true to the

characterizations that I create and that’s where education comes in. As a college educated

person, I know I have to have back-story (S. Hollen, personal communication, January

28, 2005).

Marketing Storytelling Within the realm of being a professional storyteller is the business of marketing the

stories and the fact that they are professionals. Marketing is a system of getting services or goods

to the customer and in this case the service is the storytelling performances and the goods are the storytellers’ published works, audio tapes, story or music CDs. Marketing involves research, 219

product or service development and these professional storytellers research background for their stories or music and develop their performance routines. Professional storytellers use promotion and advertising to create awareness of their profession as storytellers and use advertising via

their websites business cards, brochures, flyers, and photographs to promote their storytelling

services. Table 2 Frequency Distribution of Data Collection Instruments for Documenting

Professional Storytellers’ Narratives provides a matrix of each storyteller and the marketing

items of each. At some events professional storytellers such as Russ Childers or Susie Crate have

a table or display case set up and someone assisting to distribute flyers or in the selling of their

products. Professional storytellers use publicity to advertise and communicate newsworthy items

about their storytelling through newspapers, radio, TV, and web sites. Often community

organization advertises and uses the professional storytellers’ names such as. This was the case

with the Appalachian Culture Festival where Omope and Russ and Rabbit Hash were advertised

as the storytellers and musicians. The Appalachian Festival at Coney Island has the professional

Storytellers names in the festival guide promoting Omope, Hannah, Stephen, Martha, or Russ

and Barb, and each of the other storytellers are advertised as featured tellers. These professional

storytellers communicate personal life histories through their performances and through their

marketing efforts throughout their communities at various events. These events are diverse and

varied social contexts such as festivals and entertainment in community proceedings. Three of

the storytellers have a book, a chapbook and article publication, and three have music and story

audio tapes or CDs available for audience purchase. These professional storytellers use

marketing promotion as their planned and continuing program of communicating with their

audience or consumers in the effort to influence them toward accepting their stories and buying

their books, tapes, CD’s and inviting them to perform their service, storytelling at events, 220

organizations and in educational settings. Their version of sales promotion is to stimulate their

sales through brief reading from their book, as Stephen does in performance, or to hold up a

music CD or tape near the end of their performance and tell the audience that the stories and music are available for purchase. In this way, the professional storytellers sell directly on a one- to-one basis to their customer. I first met Stephen Hollen in performance at the 35th Appalachian

Festival and then again for his interview and a third time in performance at the 36th Appalachian

Festival. It was at this second meeting that Stephen showed me his newest book of poetry, Old

Ragged Verse and read the dedication, “For my Dad and Oh My Darlin’.” The woman of “Oh

My Darlin’ is Stephen’s wife. Much to my surprise, he inscribed his book, “To Chris, My Daddy says Happiness is like Moonshine; Make your own and you’ll never run out! Stephen Hollen

January 2005” and then gave it to me (S. Hollen, personal communication, January 30, 2005).

In performance at the 36th Appalachian Festival Stephen (see Photograph 55) reads his free verse poetry from his book, Old Ragged Verse, which contains 24 of his “mountain musings” about life and home on the mountains. Stephen provides the second example of a well developed website, featuring: What’s New, Folks Poems, Newsletter, The

Big Roundup Anthology, Features, Events, Books, Links, cowboy poetry, plain brown wrapper stories, and mountain stories journal. His website, www.mountainmusings.com contains his journal writings

Photograph 55. Reading from Old Ragged Verse

221

and hundreds of his free verse poetry with the theme, “the mountains call us home.” His web

site contains useful resources for storytellers and those interested in the oral tradition of

storytelling. Stephen also has a CD, titled, “Tall Tales & Mountain Musings.

The second professional storyteller to have a book published is Neeake, an Ohio Shawnee

descendant; whose English name is Fred Shaw. At the Shawnee Culture Festival, Neeake’s chap

book, Laughter is Born, was on display. Inside the front cover Neeake notes, “This book is

meant to be read…Human breath is necessary for the story to live” (F. Shaw/ Neeake, personal

communication, January 30, 2005). I purchased a copy of Laugher is Born at the Shawnee Indian

Culture Festival.

Susie Crate is a cultural ecologist and performs her own life history and folklore research

in the Sakha region of northern Siberia. We first met while she was performing at the Harpin’ N’

Pickin Festival at Oxford, Ohio. At the time she was a professor at Miami University. After her interview she provided me a copy of her research publication,

“Viliui Sakha Oral History: The Key to

Contemporary Household Survival published in

Photograph 56. Inheritance illustration on tape cover Arctic Anthropology in 2002. Her research agenda includes preserving the oral history of the people of the Sakha region. She has a story and music audio cassette tape, “Inheritance” which I purchased at her performance at Harpin’ N’ Pickin

Festival. Her audio tape features folksongs about valuing the earth and people’s inheritance from the earth. The illustration (see Photograph 56) on the audio cover reveals what the music is

about; it is “Russian, onion domes on the side, the United States, the dove of peace flying over, 222 between both sides of the ocean…symbolically it is “Inheritance” (S. Crate, personal communication, April 17, 2004).

Another marketing example is Barb and Russ’s website, complete with a biography, calendar, affiliation and awards, publicity photos, residency highlights, recording samples,

Appalachian booklists, Study guides/ activities, Bear Foot, Rabbit Hash String Band, Links, and contact information. Their homepage features a photo of Russ and the heading, “Traditional

Appalachian Music and Stories… If you want any more, you’ve got to sing it yourself”

(Childers’ website, August 8, 2004). Russ Childers and the Rabbit Hash String Band produced a number of CDs, one of which I purchased, “Rabbit Hash String Band” volume 2.

Martha McLeod provided me a copy of a video, “The Storyteller, produced when she had a radio program, Stories for All, in Cincinnati on WAIF in 2002 through 2004. Martha also gave me a copy of one of her historical performances, Harriet Beecher Stowe and a coaching workshop. Martha has a unique marketing logo which is seen on her brochures and flyers.

Martha thinks of herself as “coming from weaving tapestries” of people’s lives and progresses into the tapestries of people’s lives. I used the same logo for the storytelling as I used for the weaving because it is about weaving stories” (M. McLeod, personal communication, Jan. 24, 2005). Her logo is a swirl design (see Photograph 57) discovered while living in Idaho.

Photograph 57. Martha’s Lakota slip design The design was identified as the slip design to sign pottery, Pre-Columbian pottery from the

Appalachian area. At the time she didn’t know she would ever move to the Appalachian region.

At the very center of the design is a dot and an “X” representing the Lakota sign for spider. She 223

combined those two elements in the design and uses it on all of her brochures. It is interesting

“for the Navaho, the Spider Woman was the storyteller too, so it all goes irresistibly together”

(M. McLeod, personal communication, Jan. 24, 2005). At the 2005 36th Appalachian Festival

Martha tells a story about a spider whose look causes death.

Sometimes the professional storytellers have fliers, small handbills advertising the

cultural event, or brochures with photos of them telling stories along with basic contact

information and of course business cards. They keep event fliers as examples of events where

they have performed. Hannah displayed numerous such fliers and photographs from events such

as the Humor Fest and the Coney Island annual Appalachian Festival. Hannah notes that

sometimes she hands home recipes and remedies, “Sometimes people, you go to these garden

clubs and herb societies and they love a little recipe handout” (H. Cooper, personal

communication, February, 2005).

Artist-in-Residence and Workshops on Storytelling Professional Storytellers work through Ohio and Kentucky Art Councils as Artist-in-

residence. Barb explained that Russ performs as the artist in residence for programs, “Russ is the

residency artist. He’s the artist with those programs” Barb does her brand of marketing, “I’m

usually involved with doing all the writing, so any of the study guides, his web page, the booklists, the things we prepare for teachers or the classroom activities, enrichment activities that

would be me” (B. Childers, personal communication, January 2005). Barb continues in reference

to the Ohio and Kentucky Art Councils,

They give the grant to him and the school. The school would be paid. You can check the

web page from his site and get to the Ohio Arts Council and Kentucky” (B. Childers,

personal communication, January 2005). Russ goes in and he’ll work residency in the 224

schools and they could be one, two and three week residency in the school, whatever the

school requires. He may make little visits, one hour at a time. He may work with

individual classrooms. He may do an assembly. That is pretty much what Bear Foot has

always done too. As Bear Foot, we don’t do week long assemblies because of my job.

This is my job, but he’ll do that and go into the schools” (B. Childers, personal

communication, January 25, 2005).

During Russ’s interview he explains more of the artist-in-residence for Ohio and Kentucky,

Well, when I started in this business I started full time in 1998 and I was looking for

different ways of promoting myself and I was told to talk to the people at the Art Council

and they have programs. I found out about it and I had to apply, I had to go through

screening. They don’t let just anyone in, you have to have certain artistic ability and they

screen that and I was accepted into both programs and they keep reviewing that every

year to make sure you’ve still got your edge and that you’re still of the quality they want

to represent them so that if the school should call on them they can say, with confidence,

yes I know his work and it’s the highest kind of work (R. Childers, personal

communication, January 25, 2005).

In response to a question about observation, Russ explains about the Art Council showcase, “No,

I go to them and it’s a showcase. You do a showcase before them. There’s several judges and they critique your work and based on that critique, you’re either in or out” (R. Childers, personal communication, January 2005). Russ continued that he started with storytelling through his

music, “the playing of and the singing of the songs, blends to story telling as you initially give

the short story of why you sing a song or where the tune comes from…and it just naturally

evolves from there” (R. Childers, personal communication, January 25, 2005). 225

Don Drewry tells about the workshops he performs and instructs for the education

department at Thomas More College “It’s something more real about storytelling than there is

about reading stories…I think kids really pick up on that and adults pick up so much from

storytelling. It’s something that’s live going on right there and it’s not recorded (D. Drewry,

personal communication, April 17, 2004).

At the 36th Appalachian Festival at Coney Island Park, Omope offered a Saturday

morning two hour workshop on the oral traditions. The workshop was sponsored by the

Appalachian Community Development Association and attendees paid a fee. I paid the fee and

was not permitted to tape record the workshop so took detailed anecdotal field notes. The

primary contents of the workshop were based on the Appalachian traditions and the place of the

people, their values and contributions. She spoke of oral traditions being regional, not ethnic and

referred to immigration and migration of people into the Appalachian region. People were

brought from other countries as indentured servants, some intermarried, some didn’t, but they had children of mixed ancestry. She gave examples of children who grew to become scientist,

surveyors, architects and authors. As people migrated the cities often felt too close and they

moved to land where the “lord hollowed out land” at the head of a creek where hills surround.

Roads into these regions did not exist. Soldiers were given land grants to the other side of the

mountains and Daniel Boone found a southern route known as Cumberland Gap. Omope spoke

about Appalachian music and dance and the instruments brought into the region. People brought

their language so there was a mix of 18th century English, African and European and she gave an

example of “goober” /gooba/ which is a Congolese word for peanut. Angola gave the word,

“gumbo’ which means vegetable. Omope spoke of the Five Civilized Tribes and the contributions of Native Americans to the region. Regional economics was impacted by industry, 226 but the people were independent and resisted governmental controls and one result was the

Whiskey Rebellion. She referred to land taxes and people could not pay the taxes so they sold their land with the mineral rights and the resulting companies came in and dug out the land.

Omope spoke of the radio broadcasting into the region and the language awareness that others speak differently, sound different. Omope spoke of the people and their moral code. They could quote the Bible, maintained family history in the Bible and had their oral traditions, but these gifts were not valued in the city. So the people moved into communities where they could be with their own kind and not look or sound different. People became aware of community benefits, gained educations and others attempt to preserve the culture and keep traditions, “keep wisdom from falling into the hands of fools.” After Omope gave her instruction, three professional storytellers told different examples of stories, creative writing, personal memoir, and public domain. Stephen told about his creative writing and the imaginary community of

Beloved and personal memoirs of his life and how he protects his family. Omope tells stories from a slice of life and folktales with are in public domain. This oral traditions workshop by

Omope was the only workshop attended over the course of the study, but yields the value of oral traditions and the place of oral traditions in community education. Professional storytellers who are not part of the Ohio or Kentucky Art Councils also do performances in the schools.

Audience Interaction and Story Influence Professional storytellers plan their performance repertoire with their audience in mind and strive to have audience interaction. The first example of this is a school performance.

Hannah travels to local schools and performs as a professional storyteller and passes the stories onto the next generation, “I spent a week over at Loveland. I told stories to all their 1st and 2nd graders and they loved it. They want me to come back this year (H. Cooper, personal 227

communication, March 2004). Hannah addresses story selection and audience interaction. When

planning for the Loveland performance Hannah selected a story she thought the children would

like and relate to, she used a color illustration of the real plant and wears pink moccasins.

She told the story of the “Pink Lady Slipper” because it is about a young Indian girl

Photograph 58. Pink lady slippers who asks her father, the Chief, for a pair of pink

moccasins. He promises and goes off to fight and is

killed and a short time later the little girl dies and is

buried by her father. The next spring, pink lady

slippers bloom on the hillside near their graves, and it

is said the chief kept his promise to his daughter.

While telling the story Hannah uses photos of real pink lady slippers (see Photograph 58) for the

children. The Loveland first grade children drew pictures based on the story and gave them to

Hannah as a book. She now carries that book with her to events, like the Lily of the Valley

Garden Club performance and shows the drawings after she tells the story (H. Cooper, April 5,

2005).

Barb addresses a question about story selection and audience interaction. She wants her

audience to laugh with depth, “They’re all my favorite stories. It’s like what authors say, every

book I write it is like my children, how could I call one of them my favorite?” Barb continues, “I

like funny stories and stories with twists in them. I like for people to laugh with depth (B.

Childers, personal communication, May 4, 2004). She addresses the issue of working with

children as the audience in the library setting and reading or telling stories. Storytellers speak of

feeding off the audience when telling a story. There are concerns for the children that make her work extra hard to engage children in the story, 228

I have to say so especially working with kids, there will be sometimes when a child is

sleepy, didn’t have breakfast and they’re tired and they go to sleep. They don’t react to

the stories. They’re too dull. Their brains are too numb to react to anything you have to

say. It is really hard to tell stories and I may take shortcuts. However, I could also in the

same group of kids decide that come hell or high water, I’m going to get them excited!

Then you’ll go overboard and put more energy into a story until they can’t help but be

with you. It can work both ways. But yes, I do feed off the audience, if they’re not

reacting, it is so (emphasized) hard to put everything. You know the story can be so much

(emphasized) and sometimes you just don’t want to waste it on this group of people. So

you won’t tell that story. You’ll pick another one that is a surefire reaction that you don’t

have to think about so much” (B. Childers, personal communication, May 4, 2004).

Barb was questioned about story interaction and does she have children or audience members stand up and pantomime the story. Barb responded that she hardly ever has interaction

with adults,

Because it is so hard to get them to take part in anything you do. They want to remove

themselves. In the first place, most adults sit like this (she fold her arms across her chest

and leaned back in the chair) which automatically tells you they’re putting up a barriers

and crossing their arms to protect themselves from this story coming at them. Kids don’t

put up this barrier. I do skits. Sometimes I do skits, where I’ll have the kids act out a

story. Sometimes they say the words and sometimes they don’t. Sometimes I just give

them a framework and I tell them kind of, to pay attention so you’ll know what to do in

this story and just let them go with acting it. It’s interaction. Even though I go into stories

it’s an interaction (B. Childers, personal communication, May 4, 2004). 229

In a different performance at the Mini Appalachian Festival Omope told her story about

healing herbs and flowers and had audience interaction. Actually, she had called for volunteer

children to come forward, and then instructed them to each find an adult in the audience to help

them identify the flowers. A little girl selected me to go to the front of the room with her to help

identify flowers. Omope held up different flowers and plants, such as a dandelion, a lilac, plantain, and a violet to name a few. Children were to identify the flowers or ask “their adult” for help. Then Omope told in story form the use of each flower as a healing flower or good for tea.

Omope had a way of connecting with her audience and speaking directly to them as will

be demonstrated in this next example. She completed telling a story in performance about

making a honey, butter and sugar sandwich. At the end, she told children in the audience to ask

their mothers to make a sandwich, “So ask your mother if you can make a sugar sandwich when

you go home.” A mother in the audience said, “No” and Omope responded, “Did you say no?

You mean you’re going to deny your children a cross-cultural experience? Honey, a butter and

sugar sandwich ain’t gonna cause no more cavities than that sweet toothpaste you all use.”

Omope then addressed the whole audience, “How many of you use toothpaste that tastes like

bubble gum? Raise your hand. You know you do” (O. Daboiku, personal communication,

February 18, 2005). Omope’s directness is straight at giving children a cross-cultural experience

of tasting a sugar sandwich, something that was a part of her childhood experience and shared

with the audience. Sometimes children are captivated by stories and time passes very quickly as

they listen to the stories.

Professional storytellers “read” their audience and develop this skill with experience.

They gain a feeling if the audience is listening. They also look over their audience and judge

which stories in their planned mental repertoire will potentially hold audience interest. Don 230

Drewry and Hannah Cooper share incidences of audience interaction and maintaining interest.

Don Drewry told about an incident of audience interaction that later captivated the audience

member. I have done straight storytelling in Kentucky. He referred to a group that asked him to

come down one night and do an hour and a half of nothing but storytelling and they were

wondering if this group of kids could actually do an hour and a half of storytelling. Don says,

“Well, after the hour and a half was up I asked the kids, “How long have you been sitting here?”

and their response, “Oh, about a half an hour.” Don gave a second example of a child caught up

in the story. This incident occurred at a school in Over the Rhine, “I had walked in, they had

gathered all the fourth grade classes in the auditorium and I walked in and the teacher introduced

me and told the group I was going to be doing storytelling and this one little kid just as loud as

he could says, “Boo!” An hour later she had to drag him out of that auditorium. Hannah

addresses the “sizing up of the audience,” to see if they are listening, but you kind of size them

up to begin with. Hannah explains that storytellers look over their audience, “You’re kind of

looking over how many men, how many women, what age group and so forth and then you start telling.” And she specifically addresses stories to age groups, “If you’ve got little children in the audience you want to throw a little something in for them that they like and then old folks you

want to tell something they’re interested in, that they can appreciate” (H. Cooper, personal

communication, February 3, 2005). Hannah and other storytellers refer to looking at audience

and gender as influencing the stories told in performance. Hannah looks at gender and explains

her reasons, “I do look to see men and women. I feel like I have to be a little more on guard with

things telling stories to men because I am a woman.” As a woman, Hannah says, “I feel like I can

tell almost anything to women because I’ve got a lot of female stories and insights about women

and I can tell them stories.” In speaking to mixed gender audiences, she says, “Where with men 231

you’re having to make sure you’re telling something they can identify with. A lot of stories they

can but I’ve told you some of these stories.” Hannah incorporates stories that minister to people,

“I’ve got a lot of stories that minister to women because one of my biggest influences on my

storytelling was my mother and my grandmother so it’s going to be a lot of women stories.”

Hannah also speaks of telling stories that will capture children’s interest, for instance her panther story, “Kids love that Panther story so when I go down to the Appalachian Festival I’ll tell that

story for the children.” She also tells stories of “down home,” “I try to tell down home, earthy

stories that people of all kinds can appreciate and the old people, they love them miracle stories

(H. Cooper, personal communication, February 3, 2005).

Professional storytellers in addition to addressing audience and looking for connections

to the stories also select themes that may reach across to many people. Barb was asked about

how she selects themes for her stories and she responded, “And stories have all kinds of themes.

What I might think is a theme for a particular story…. How dare I select a theme for the story!”

She adds, “Because that listener might find something else important to draw from the story and

it might not be what I expected from the story at all! Barb explains that is how a story succeeds,

“Because it reaches people in so many levels and literature succeeds too, because people form all

these networks and incredible like little satellite dishes in their brains where they are picking up

all” (B. Childers, personal communication, May 4, 2005). Barb thinks that it is the audience who

determines the theme, “I don’t think you can decide what the theme is. It is what it is for that

moment for that person. If you have a room full of people, it’s probably going to have thirty

different theme meanings.” 232

Story Value Barb addressed the reasons why she thinks stories are important, “Stories are important to

me…. I think they’ll be important to other people, too” Barb says people told her stories that

helped her later understand things, so when she’s trying to explain something, “I tell a story to

give the background” (B. Childers, personal communication, May 4, 2004). When asked if there

exists a social etiquette to the act of telling a story to an audience, the response from each teller

was similar, a story should not be forced on an individual or audience. There needs to exist a

relationship so that the story comes naturally and needs to fit the situation so it becomes part of

the cultural context of the moment. One storyteller, Barb, phrased it like this, “I don’t like to

force story on anybody, but sometimes I give them a little hint that perhaps they want a story, so

that they’ll ask me” (laughing) (B. Childers, personal communication, May 4, 2004). The

storyteller makes the story a relational activity that encourages others to listen, “You can’t just

dump a story on people it has to fit the situation. It has to come to them as naturally as it comes

to me.” Barb explains this naturalness as sneaking up on people,

I’d rather have the story sneak up on you and sneak up on you and hit you over the

head…. Oh! I get it!” Or maybe after they’ve gone home, they have that kind of aha-aha

kind of moment or they apply that story to something that happens later to them and that

is the “best thing that could happen to a story (B. Childers, personal communication, May

4, 2004).

Omope offers the last words on the value of stories as she closes a performance in which she told

some folktales, “So, you may not know folk tales but I know you’ve got some family stories you

can tell and the way we keep our family’s history alive is by telling your own story. Go tell yours

and thank you for listening to mine. Thank you” (O. Daboiku, personal communication,

February 18, 2005). 233

Professional Interaction These professional storytellers throughout the study had fun with their stories, enjoyed their audiences, and have fun with each other. In the second day at the Appalachian Festival between performances Sue Cox produced a tall stuffed ostrich that was near six feet tall. She is maybe 4’10” and could not get it up high enough to look real, so Stephen took it and at over six feet walked around and “ostrich spoke” to other storytellers (see Photograph 59).

Stephen and ostrich are fooling around and talking to his friend, Rick

Carson, about the day and having a good time. They shared food and cold drinks with each other. If someone brought a container of potato

Photograph 59. Fooling around skins back to the storytelling tent, and others were around, they shared. They sat in the front edge of the audience and listened to each other tell stories. They know each others spouses and children and interact with them. It was like they are a family of storytellers and I was included. On the second evening, Saturday, at the Appalachian Festival at Coney Island after the

Photograph 60. Stephen strumming his stick dulcimer

234

storytelling performances were over for the day, Stephen (see Photograph 60) took out his stick

dulcimer and started strumming. He told about meeting this guy at the festival who made them.

Other storytellers present came around and watched him and soon they were sitting around on

bales of hay and wooden folding chairs singing and talking. Someone started a song and

everyone joined in. Stephen told stories from eastern Kentucky about his real life with his aunts

and uncle on Double Creek, stories about the Double Creek area that are not much different from

his performances. He spoke about his music career and performances. Omope joined in and

spoke about her childhood and how telling stories helps her to gain a perspective on some parts

of her life. Rick Carson was part of this evening group as was Sue Cox and her husband.

Everyone was talking and I was invited to stay and be apart of this informal socialization. Every

so often, someone would say, “the recorder isn’t on?” I responded by showing it was off and in

my leather tote and they continued telling stories. But

some of the stories were more conversations about

families and others they knew in common. It was a

sharing time and a time of caring. They are performers

and friends and have time at the end of the day to laugh

and joke and enjoy the company. We walked out to cars

in the dark together and said goodbyes.

The last day of the Appalachian Festival at

Photograph 61. Storytellers and Me: Back row L-R: Rick Carson, Stephen Hollen and Second row L-R: Sue Cox, Omope Daboiku, Christina Walton, and in front: Hannah Cooper Coney Island, late in the afternoon, the storytellers gathered together for me for some photographs (see Photograph 61). I have attended festivals and events with them individually and 235

in large performances where there are several of them in performances. This was the last event

that I attended that would be part of the study. At the end of the Sunday afternoon performances all of the storytellers who were still there gathered for a bow to the audience. Each was called up and joined the others. In performance Sunday afternoon were Omope, Rick, Stephen, Paul and

Hannah (see Photograph 62).

In summarizing this chapter on

professional storytellers I offer the

following interpretations. Through

performance professional storytellers

construct for their audience excerpts

from their lives. Since this study is an

analysis of professional storyteller’s

life experiences and their performance

Photograph 62. Curtain call the last performance: L-R: Hannah, Paul, Stephen, Rick, and Omope content, it made sense to examine the professional side of storytelling and how life history

experiences influenced them to become a storyteller and then in turn to become professional.

These professional storytellers introduced in this chapter share life experiences with their

audiences, voluntarily telling stories and personal moments from their own life experiences or

share personal and often traumatic accounts of events to an audience of primarily strangers at

festivals, community cultural events, educational settings, or fundraisers. These professional

storytellers tell stories to entertain, but their reasons tend to run deeper than pure entertainment.

Sharing involves personal or traumatic accounts of events and provides a means to make sense of

some of these shared events in their lives. In telling their stories to a public they add a layer of 236 credibility and validation to the emotional base of the story. Their stories are celebrations of events and shared with audiences at events and festivals that are celebratory in nature.

Celebration of the Appalachian and Indian cultures represented in the stories and festival events.

Their stories add threads of their lives to the tapestry of lives and stories from their past.

Professional storytellers in interview and performances related life experiences to their audience and then proceeded with the story. Family members and elders told stories. Within the generations of storytellers, someone told the first story and became the first interpreters of the life event. Figure 20 Reflection on Life Stories Provides the Platform to Tell Stories, Keep

Memories and Collective Values Shared for Generations, provides my conceptual framework of the life story events reflected in the stories of these professional storytellers. Their performance provides the platform and the vantage point with which to reflect on personal experiences, to identify and link experiences, to tell others, their audience about life, and to keep memories and collective values shared for future generations. However, with each telling the storyteller interprets the story through lived experiences and a personal lens. In Figure 20, the platform is the life experience story. Each oval represents a lens and the interpretation of the storyteller.

Each subsequent generation of story is told through a new lens and so the story goes on.

Professional storytellers share their reasons for telling stories, reasons for becoming a professional storyteller, and how they were first exposed to storytelling. Barb offers that storytelling offered her the opportunity s tart over , and to look at who influenced her. She never got tired of stories so attributes that early storytelling to becoming a storyteller. Martha expressed storytelling was her answer to be working all the time and storytelling opened another thread in her life from weaving tapestries to weaving stories. Storytellers often listened to family members and grew up listening to stories. Storytelling is in part a piece of their identity. These 237

Figure 20. Reflection on Life Stories Provides the Platform to Tell Stories, Keep Memories and Collective Values Shared

Life Experience Stories: Family Ancestry Family History Mountain Life First Ways of Life Storyteller Identity Interprets Next Identity Change for Life Event Storyteller Next Survival through Storyteller Next Civil Rights Lens of Stories Storyteller Next Folklore of Region interpreted Stories Story the Story interpreted Stories Folklore from other and passed teller to next and passed interpreted Places and generation to next and passed so Living Means generation to next the Work in Home generation story Work on Land goes Migration for Work

Sacred Beliefs Stories Stories Stories Stories Stories Creator Beliefs Community Practices Historic Figures Health Practices Folk Remedies

238

professional storytellers refer to making the stories “your own” by practicing key lines and

playing with those words. Stephen makes his stories his own by creating his characters and

emphasizing certain words for example, the “plosives.” Storytellers reveal they have to study the

words and have a framework and a theme in mind. They select stories and songs that they enjoy, stories that can portray values and self identification with the central character. Omope, for

example, identified with one of her central characters, based on stature and as a woman who

overcame public definition and defined herself as a woman of color. Storytellers experience and

take on multiple characters and voices upon entering the story’s character and tell it from the

inside, from the character’s perspective and looking out at the same time. Storytellers use facial

expression, body gestures and voice fluctuations to express characters in her stories as a means

of getting into character. In addition to using their expressions, “prowling,” “panther scream” or

demonstrating hair being pulled so tight that it “hurts the roof of the mouth” as personal body

props, these professional storytellers use props such as puppets of various sizes and shapes to

illustrate and engage the audience.

Rita gave me the privilege of being taken into her “Storytelling Room” where the shelves

were lined with books and story props. Each puppet was like a treasured possession carefully

wrapped. Storytellers learn to tell the stories because there are elders who teach that the “stories

are the heart of the people.” Storytellers write journals to thinks about a character, to flesh that

character out and create back-story, the motivations of that character. Within the realm of being a

professional storyteller is the business of marketing the stories and the fact that they are

professionals. Storytellers market their storytelling performances and their published works,

audio tapes, story or music CDs. These professional storytellers research background for their

stories and develop their performance routines. Professional storytellers use promotion and 239

advertising to create awareness of their profession. These professional storytellers communicate

personal life histories through their performances and through their marketing efforts throughout their communities at various events. These events are diverse and varied social contexts such as

festivals and entertainment in community proceedings. Three of the storytellers have a book, a

chap book and article publication, and three have music and story audio tapes or CDs available

for audience purchase. These professional storytellers use marketing promotion as their planned

and continuing program of communicating with their audience. Storytellers use technology and

websites as part of their marketing and provide useful resources for storytellers and those

interested in the oral tradition of storytelling. Professional Storytellers, Russ, Barb, and Omope

work through Ohio and Kentucky Art Councils as Artist-in-residence and receive grant monies

along with the schools. There are judges who critique performances. Storytellers like the realness

of telling stories and think audiences really pick up on that feature.

Professional storytellers “read” their audience and develop this skill with experience.

They gain a feeling if the audience is listening. They also look over their audience and judge

which stories in their planned mental repertoire will potentially hold audience interest. Other storytellers refer to looking at audience and gender as influencing the stories told in performance.

Professional storytellers in addition to addressing audience and looking for connections to the stories also select themes that may reach across to many people. Professional storytellers believe story succeeds, “because it reaches people in so many levels.” Omope offers the last words on the value of stories, “I know you’ve got some family stories you can tell and the way we keep our family’s history alive is by telling your own story.” 240

Chapter 7 Discussion

This chapter focuses on the discussion and interpretation of findings, and my conclusions about what the findings mean. This dynamic ethnographic study fills some existing gaps in narrative knowledge by providing a mixed method investigation of 22 urban Appalachian professional storytellers from Greater Cincinnati who when encountered, were interviewed in-

depth, observed in 50 performances at 18 events, and surveyed to discover: How professional

storytellers’ life experiences influence their professional storytelling performance content? These

professional storytellers’ life experiences influence their performance content and raise the

performance events and interlinking performance themes to a celebratory process. In Findings

Part I the storytellers were introduced and an overview of their background and a part of a

performance routine was presented along with the social context and setting of the performance

event. In each place where the storytelling event occurs there is celebration and festivity.

Celebratory performances occurred at both indoors and outdoors events. Professional storytellers

celebrate the Appalachian culture through their narratives and performance of their stories at

diverse festivals, community organizations, social gatherings, and educational settings. Of the 18

events, featured storytellers’ performances occurred indoors at 14 (78 %) in various categories of

place: in a contemporary arts center, a church community room, assisted living centers, a historic

home/community center, a Union Station train terminal maintained as a community museum

center, a county park meeting room, and in libraries. Four events (22%) took place outdoors –

two in a community park, and two in a large Cincinnati community theme park, Coney Island,

Cincinnati. Each of the 18 events attended have a celebration quality representative of the

entertainment and educational aspect of their overall theme and storytelling. Of the 18 events: 6

(33%) were festivals of Appalachian culture and 12 (67%) were to preserve the folk art of 241 storytelling, and to create awareness of Appalachian cultural traditions for the audience.

Storytelling promoted libraries and literacy at 5 library sponsored events. At the 2 assisted living centers, the community arts center, the storyteller guild meeting, the garden club meeting; and 2 fund raisers all had professional storytellers who focused on the Appalachian region.

Life History Experiences Influence Performance Content Findings Part II presents the professional storytellers and their performance content themes in order of prevalence and answers the central research question of the study: how do urban professional Appalachian storytellers from Greater Cincinnati area express what life experience circumstance influence their professional storytelling performance content?

Professional storytellers’ interview narratives reveal life history experiences and events which influences the content of their performances. Findings reveal that these professional storytellers’ life experiences influence their performance content and raise the performance events and interlinking performance themes of their stories to a celebratory process. Performance content themes, when cross coded to the interview themes, displayed the influence of life history experiences on performance content. Based on Table 4 Frequency Distribution for Performance

Content Themes of Professional Storytellers, these professional storytellers while in performance referred to their life history and spoke of family 116 occurrences (20%), Mountain life 113 occurrences (19%), Identity 105 occurrences (18 %), Folklore 79 occurrences (14%), Living

Means 52 occurrences (8%), Sacred Beliefs 49 occurrences (8%), Community Practices 40 occurrences (7%), and Health 30 occurrences (5%) for a total of 584 occurrences of life history in performances. These occurrences in performance reveal to the audience excerpts from their lives, thus confirming that life history informs performance content. Meanings from these findings are explained in conjunction with the finding that these professional storytellers’ 242 performances integrate with the celebratory atmosphere of the festival or festive event in which they perform.

Festivals as Celebration Festivals in the study are an annual organized celebration of cultural performances, exhibitions, and entertainment to create awareness of Appalachian culture and Shawnee Indian culture. Festivals celebrate “mountain top experiences” in social life. Festival marks the daily life experience or life event with a special festival atmosphere. Festivity and celebration appear to be present whether an event was labeled festival or cultural arts celebration. Festivals ranged from 1 to 4 days in length. Six of the events have “Appalachian” as part of the event title and 6 others focus on Appalachian storytelling, music, and historically significant figures of Greater

Cincinnati as part of the Appalachian region. Celebration of Appalachian culture and storytelling by professional storytellers were important features of the event even though other cultural performers were on the venue. Throughout the festivals there were celebrations of living history and exhibitions of artisans work. Celebration and festivity involved food representative of the

Appalachian culture and the Shawnee culture. Part of the Appalachian region’s history involves

Shawnee among many other Indian nations, but only the Shawnee Indian Culture Festival featured a Shawnee professional storyteller. Celebration in these events and storytelling performances focused around daily events and life experiences. Life experience events connect to the life cycle of birth and death and the seasons of life in between.

Based on the work of Victor Turner (1982), the celebratory process focuses on the meaning behind the forms, in this case, the life history portrayed in the storytellers’ performance content themes and the interlinking of the festival events. Celebratory process refers to “ ‘peak experience’ in social life which mark an occasion or an event with ceremony, ritual or 243

festivity…people in all cultures recognize the need to set aside times and space for celebratory

use” (Turner, p. 11, 1982). Turner continues,

Celebrations…are generally connected with expectable culturally shared events, such as

life experiences (birth, puberty, marriage), work (planting and harvesting of crops,

quilting), seasons of the year, religious beliefs… upward shifts in social status (…feasts

and valuables), and shared community celebrations (Turner, p. 12, 1982).

The performance event is the means to deliver the form, the story. The professional

storyteller’s story carries the celebration of the performance topic, whether it is family, mountain

life, identity, folklore, sacred beliefs, community practices, or health. When the topic is spoken

to the audience in a festival atmosphere, it becomes a celebratory moment of that cultural

experience. Celebration revolved around family, friends, neighbors, and community. Storytellers

celebrated their sense of identity and the sense of belonging to a people as celebrated in the poem

“My People” written by a storyteller and read by her at a performance. Storytellers move

everyday kind of life experiences like gardening and hauling water, dressing for a parade with

black patent shoes, visiting grandma and sleeping under quilts, and sitting on the porch listening

to stories to a level of celebration just by including them in a story during a performance at a festive event.

Turner posits that celebrations… are generally connected with “expectable culturally

shared events, such as life experiences, work, seasons of the year, religious beliefs, upward shifts

in social status, and shared community celebrations” (Turner, p. 12, 1982). In the study life

events spotlighted in performance mark the featured occasions with ceremony and focus around family, mountain life, traditional ways of life, personal identity and identity issues related to survival and freedom. In the festival environment storytellers examine their world, their family 244

history and who influences them and what those people mean in their life. Storytellers place

themselves in stories along with relatives and the lived family experience. Some storytellers construct their own realities from the vantage point of family members and family gatherings at special events such as weddings and funerals. Remembered stories are often from childhood stories about childhood play, work, and family visits.

Storytellers attribute storytelling experiences as young children to the desire to follow in the tradition as a professional storyteller. Childhood stories occurred with fathers, grandfathers, uncles, mothers, grandmothers, aunts and sometimes siblings. These were the family elders or, in the case of Neeake’s stories, the tribal elders. There are stories told by elders while family members gathered around, listened and worked. People worked on some quiet task, for example an uncle might mend a harness or an aunt would sew and mend clothes and someone else may be breaking beans; all activities that could be done while sitting on a porch and listening or telling a story. Another storyteller told of hoeing beans and listening to her dad tell stories to keep the children motivated and to make the time pass. Family history and kinship connections, responsibility and obligation weave their way through the stories and become poems and books of hope and celebration of life and for healing the losses suffered along life’s way. These family stories are the way the mantle passes from generation to generation.

Turner ascertains that celebrations are generally connected with culturally shared events, life experiences, work, seasons of the year, religious beliefs, and shared community celebrations

(Turner, p. 12, 1982). Storytellers celebrate and describe the beauty and remoteness of the mountains and describe a way of life remembered from childhood and into adulthood. Stephen illustrated generations of family members living in the same hollow and a man’s longing for the mountains. To celebrate the mountain heritage, Stephen wrote a book of poetry, Old Ragged 245

Verse, to celebrate his cultural heritage, and read his poem “Minnow’s Secret” about a mountain

boy stuck on the wrong side of the Ohio River to his audience. Hannah celebrates the history of the people who advanced through the mountains in her performances as she described grooves in the rocks from the wagons as they squeezed through mountain passes, the people’s closeness to the mountains, and roads so bad the mailman delivered mail on horseback in the 1960s.

A family’s military history is celebrated through genealogical research as Don, a professional storyteller tells about those members of the family that served in the American

Revolution as Colonials and a great-great-great-great-great-grandfather moved to North

Carolina, returned to Virginia to join the militia and married the commander’s daughter, later

transferring to the Continental Army. Another great-grandfather fought in the Civil War with the

17th Virginia Volunteers. These incidences from storytelling performances celebrate the families’

military achievements and patriotism.

These excerpts reveal the interconnectedness and web that weaves through the stories of

cultural heritage and migration of ancestors through the Southern region of the United States

north into the Ohio Valley. Neeake described his ancestors of the Shawnee Tribe in Ohio in

earlier times as the tribe migrated northeast from Mexico to eastern United States. His performance story is a celebration of his people and surviving 904 years in the Valley of the

Spaylaywithipi, Ohio. He proclaims to his audience, his people, the Shawnee have been here

since 1101 A.D in an unbroken line ever since that time. Present day Shawnee “will never leave

the bones of their ancestors” and Neeake closes that story with these words, “all of us here today

are descendents of those people and we’re still very much a part of this land” (Neeake, personal

communication, January 30, 2005). 246

These early stories of Neeake’s Shawnee ancestors fleeing for survival sake and

protecting their identity are continued and replicated in other family stories of other professional

storytellers with Cherokee, Creek, and Lakota ancestry under the performance content theme of

Identity. Storytellers portray their identity in story and created drawings to explain their home

place. Stephen described the family landmarks of his story: “There is a road that follows the creek and then crosses it. There is a little bridge where it crosses.” His grandma’s house is shown

in his hand-drawn map where the great-great-grandfather lived and where they were all born.

According to Stephen, “My two aunts, Aunt Mag and Aunt Bess, lived with Uncle Bill right

across Double Creek from Grandma’s house. Uncle Jim and his wife, Aunt Sally, lived across

the creek and down from grandma.” He shows, “They all live within a hundred yards of each

other” (S. Hollen, personal communication, January 28, 2005). These professional storytellers

connect their family history, their sense of place, and their identity with the land and the

mountains and celebrate all of it in performance.

In Turner’s view celebrations are connected with culturally shared events, life

experiences, religious beliefs, and shared community celebrations (Turner, p. 12, 1982).

Identity” links closely with Sacred Beliefs in the stories of Neeake and Kijimanitou, the first true

storyteller. Neeake celebrates his identity that is intertwined in the balance of life and in the stories. Identity is in a name, how you are known interpersonally to the world, identity is also

who you are intrapersonally on the inside, the thoughts and feelings known only by the person

until shared in a story. Identity and survival are celebrated as identity flows like an undercurrent

through Omope’s stories of survival by changing identity and fleeing by night. Hannah tells

about her Cherokee Grandma Hannah protecting her identity. Neeake returns to tell about the

Shawandasse Nishnabe hiding out in remote mountain regions to keep safe and to prevent being 247

removed from Shawnee lands and sent to a reservation in Ohio, Kansas, or Oklahoma. Identity is

believed intertwined to the balance of all life and the stories themselves. Stories are a celebration

of the sacred trust that passes as stories are told and shared. Stories are heard and some fall on

deaf ears and others are valued as sacred.

In earlier performance stories of identity and family connect the people to their land. Don

tells of generations of ancestors who lived and fought in the military for America and the land

(D. Drewry, personal communication, April 17, 2005). Family ancestors left their land in

Georgia for survival but changed their identity in Ohio in order to own land based on Omope’s

family stories (O. Daboiku, personal communication, April 17, 2004). Neeake spoke of his

people being on the land for 904 years, and never leaving their ancestors. In the folklore stories

that connect to sacred beliefs, Neeake tells one of his favorite stories of Grandmother Turtle

diving to the bottom of the seas to bring up a piece of earth on her back so the Creator could

fashion the land for the people (Neeake, personal communication, January 30, 2005). Hannah spoke about the importance of owning land in eastern Kentucky near her family’s property (H.

Cooper, personal communication, February 3, 2005). Stephen told of his family all living and dying within a hundred yards of each other on land in eastern Kentucky. Stephen owns land near his Double Creek family home that he hopes to retire to someday (S. Hollen, personal communication, January 28, 2005). Robert Terwillegar and Russ Childers in their interviews and

Russ in performance spoke of purchasing land within the Appalachian region of southern Ohio and northern Kentucky respectively to maintain the connection to the land. Roberts land is a farm in Ohio’s Adams county that he purchased in 1971 (R. Terwillegar, personal communication,

February 21, 2005) and Russ’s land is in northern Kentucky (R. Childers, personal

communications, January 25, 2005). These stories of family, mountain life and identity connect 248 to the importance of land to identity. These stories told by these professional storytellers teach us, in Neeake’s words “how to walk upon this earth” and in Susie’s words how to work and

“inherit the earth” (Neeake & S. Crate, personal communications January 30, 2005 & April 17,

2004). These stories carry forward beliefs that as a people, the Shawnee, and each of the other storytellers spoke of never leaving their ancestors. Stories connect to sacred beliefs of the

Creator, Kijimanitou, and Grandma Turtle providing the piece of earth on which the creator made land for the people. Family, mountain life and identity connect to the importance of land to identity. These stories told by these professional storytellers teach us, in Neeake’s words “how to walk upon this earth” and in Susie’s words how to work and “inherit the earth.” Storytellers through their stories provide a connection to environment that is revealed in the Appalachian stories of people making a living, subsistence at times in their history, but it promotes an understanding of many of these people who lived close to their land. Sacred beliefs reveal stories about the land and the people.

Turner offers that “people in all cultures recognize the need to set aside certain times and spaces for celebratory use… Some of the events are tied to neighborhoods, the village, the city”

(Turner, p. 12, 1982). He continues, that “each kind of festival comes to be coupled with special types of music, dance, food and drink, properties, staging and presentation, physical and cultural environment, and often masks, body paint, head gear, furniture…” (Turner, p. 12, 1982).

Storytellers perform in this festival atmosphere with music, dance, food, staging, and story presentation. The physical and cultural environment promotes the Appalachian culture and the oral traditions. My sketches used to create Figures 4, 5 and 7 convey a sense of a moment in history at interviews and performances, depicting culture, modes of dress, the politics of stage placement, and the social positions of the storytellers in relation to other performers, musicians, 249

food tents, and traffic flows. Three Figures 4, 5 and 7 depict layouts of performance areas and

the traffic flow. Figure 4 Layout of Harpin’n’Pickin Festival held in Martin Luther King Park on

Main Street Oxford, Ohio is representative of the festival environment where the audience

members and attendees could feast and celebrate a day featuring a variety of bluegrass, gospel,

old-tim e music and storytelling. Demonstrations included wood and gourd burning, quilting,

spoon carving, and storytelling. Performances included: professional musicians and storytellers

Russ and Barb Childers, Don Drewry, and Susie Crate. Barb and Russ performed as Bear Foot

playing banjo, fiddle, guitar, and a homemade dulcimer with a music style that predates

bluegrass by a century and told stories on the domed stage with concrete surface and steps. Russ

introduced their music with stories of the time period when the music was written and stories of

humor. Periodically an audience member stepped up to the stage and started clogging or

shuffling in the spirit of the music. Bales of hay were strategically placed for audience members

or they could provide their own folding chairs, or sit on the grass. At the opposite end of the park

were positioned demonstration tents and the other professional storytellers who were single

performers who also used musical instruments along with their storytelling. Figure 4 represents

the layout of the park and activities. Sound systems set up near the main stage blasted music and announcements throughout the block long park. Storytellers’ performances, due to the sound systems, competed to be heard in their own area. 250

Figure 21. (Copy of Figure 4): Layout of Harpin’n’Pickin Festival held in Martin Luther King Park on Main Street Oxford, Ohio

Main Street Oxford, Ohio

Sound Park

systems Audience benches, Hay bales concrete Musicians sitting on grass, statuary Performing Hay using animals Stage bale folding and play Story area. Area chairs and hay bales Hay bale Sound systems Craft Area Food Tents Crafts Area Sound systems

Street

In Figure 5 the staging area where the storytellers and musicians perform is in the traffic flow of

people audience members going to the food line and to the rest rooms. It is a church community

room so space is limited. Around the perimeter of the room are display tables and food tables. 251

Figure 22. (Copy of Figure 5) Layout of performance area and traffic flow at Mini Appalachian Festival at St. Michael’s Church in Lower Price Hill, Cincinnati

In Figure 7 the entry way is busy with displays of Indian artifacts and jewelry and a separate table for an author’s book display. Food lines are to the side of the auditorium near the stage. The dancing performers had a large circle area in the middle of the floor to dance. The

storyteller was not competing with nearby noise because it was over nearer the doors. In other performance layouts illustrated in Chapter 4 the storytellers and musicians are usually separated and placed at opposite ends of the park. Sound systems are broadcasting the musicians on a stage and the storytellers are further away usually with the artisans and demonstrations. 252

Figure 23. (Copy of Figure 7) Layout of Chief’s Chair, Performance and Exhibit Areas at

Shawnee Indian Culture Festival in New Richmond, Ohio

Chief Pope sat here and Bleachers Exhibits and tribal members went to him for educational audience displays

Dancers and musicians Neeake’s Native performed in this area storytelling Foods area and hot dogs Arrow Bead heads work & display in jewelry Jewelry display books for sale Dark cases display Rain’s Exhibits Entry area book Pay for display admission

Turner addresses face paint specifically in festival and celebratory performance. Neeake

as a storyteller explains his face paint, “I am the blood and spirit of this man and am a storyteller

I wear the gray line like the ashes of the first one so whenever I see or paint it I remember who I am, that I am teacher of life, one who was very evil was made good by the creator.” The curved

row of white dots represents his role as storyteller, he speaks and the audience listens. The story

of the three green lines about a half inch wide painted across his left cheek represents the claw

marks of the bear and the gift of the scar that man and bear are brothers.

Music and oral storytelling are community shared events that contributed to leisure

entertainment in the mountains. In performances Don told about the music of the mountains, his

instruments and how the people migrated to the mountain regions from other countries and

brought their instruments, and modified their instruments creating new instruments, such as the 253 mountain dulcimer. Songs from the region are played on a variety of instruments from banjo, fiddle, Jews harp, guitar, dulcimers and psalteries. With this festival environment if there are presenters, storytellers, musicians, vendors of food and drink, then there is also an audience and participants. Oral traditions in the study focused on folklore from the Appalachian region, the

Shawnee, and European folklore.

Folklore stories represent 14% of the performance themes from the professional storytellers. Based on Turner’s view of celebration, storyteller’s oral narratives integrate aspects of their personal life history and include folklore representative of their cultural traditions.

Folklore is passed from generation to generation (Utley, 1965). Dundes (1965, p. 10), suggests using the term, “folklore to describe both the subject matter” and to explain “the method,” the

“theoretical” aspect of folklore. According to Dundes (1965), folklore is more concerned with the ‘lore,’ than with people who use it. Based on this folklore includes, “myths, legends, folktales, jokes, proverbs, riddles, chants, charms, blessings, curses, oaths, insults, retorts, taunts, teases, toasts, tongue twisters, and greetings folk art, folk belief, folk medicine, folk instrumental music (e.g., fiddle tunes), names). He also includes in his list nursery rhymes, gestures, symbols, prayers, food recipes, quilt and embroidery designs” (Dundes, 1965, p. 3).

Community Practice stories consisted of 7% of the professional storytellers’ performance stories and includes stories of community support of the people for their neighbors and the place of kinship in community. These stories offer glimpses into the Appalachian regional historical stories of community and embrace the Greater Cincinnati regional history. As the people of this region migrated into the Greater Cincinnati area they brought their stories with them, passed them on to future generations that are now shared with audiences across the region by the 254 professional storytellers. Sometimes the stories themselves take place in history somewhere else outside of the region, but are told to audiences inside the region.

Turner posits that celebrations are generally connected with culturally shared events, work…and shared community celebrations (Turner, p. 12, 1982). In the festival environment folklore stories derived from traditional Appalachian regional stories are inclusive of Shawnee folklore and folktales. In this story excerpt by Omope, Possum is taken advantage of by Brer Fox in the same manner that many rural mountain people were taken advantage of by big city swindlers and people who were not kind. The story connects to the time period in Appalachian regional history when work was hard to find and masses of people migrated north to the industrial cities to find employment. The story shares a moral truth and subtly tells the story of some of the Appalachian guised as a folktale. In the performance themes Folklore and nursery rhymes were represented by folklore stories only told in performance. The folklore theme I used did not include the folk medicine, nursery rhymes, food recipes and preparation, and stories of family quilting. Folk medicine was grouped under the Health and Medicine folk remedies theme.

Food gathering, preservation stories were grouped in family work and community practices.

Stories of a mother’s quilt blocks were reflected in community practices and as that daily items can be made a focus of a story and used as a prop to illustrate a story.

Folklore of different storytellers from different cultures represents the diversity found in the professional storytellers from the Greater Cincinnati region. In a further analysis, Dundes presented keys words regarding folklore, which he felt might be part of a common definition of folklore: “oral, transmission, tradition, survival, and communal” (Dundes, 1965, p. 8). Folklore is a form of cultural expression. Folklore is orally transmitted, but not all that is orally transmitted is folklore such as daily conversations. 255

Storytellers as First Interpreters Professional storytellers indicate reasons for telling stories are more than preservation of oral storytelling traditions. Preservation of stories implies maintaining and keeping alive or intact

the oral traditions. Preservation implies static and nonmoving. Based on these storytellers’

perspectives of story, stories are not static but are dynamic and ever-changing with each telling,

with each interpretation, and transmitted to new listeners and new generations with each telling.

Through the lens of the story, storytellers’ personal interpretations are transmitted to audience.

The performance content themes generated from the professional storytellers’ performances become the interpretations of each storyteller. Generations of stories are interpreted through the storyteller’s personal life history and generational lens. Storytellers are the “first interpreters of the stories they tell” in constructing their own realities (Atkinson, 2001). The vantage point of a life story provides a platform with which to reflect on personal experiences, to identify and link experiences, to tell others about life, and to keep memories and collective values shared.

Customs, traditions, and institutions of living peoples, is most closely associated with folklore. Culture describes the social heritage and the interaction with the environment.

According to Susie Crate (May 2004) oral history is the key to contemporary Vilyuy Sakha

survival. Susie’s recent field research in the Suntar region of the Sakha Republic, Russia shows

that post-Soviet survival is dependent on household-level systems involving cows and kin. As

she explained in her interview, the foundational concept of cultural ecology is dependence on

local household-based subsistence strategies in times of change. Susie conducted life history

interviews with 56 Sakha elders who had gone from subsistence horse and cattle husbandry

within immediate clan groupings, to working class wage earning for the agro-industrial state

farm and back to contemporary dependence on household-level production through cows and 256

kin. Susie believes these elders and their life experiences hold invaluable traditional knowledge,

but no one, until she started her research, is recording their stories.

Platform for Reflection In this study, urban Appalachian professional storytellers, when observed in performance,

develop an image of the beliefs and practices of their community through the narrative stories.

They are knowledgeable about their own culture and communicate this through their storytelling

narratives. Professional storytellers construct their own realities from their stories. A life story

provides a platform with which to reflect on personal experiences through the lens of the story.

The professional storytellers situate family histories for the audience through the performance.

Storytellers mediate their action to narrate and perform their stories throughout their

communities at various events to make aware and to entertain, at festivals, in educational settings

and libraries to create diverse and varied social contexts. Their narratives serve as cultural tools

for representing their past and sharing stories with future generations.

Celebratory Symbols In this study I used the concept of celebration theory and narrative theory to explain how these all impact the storytelling and the audience. In investigation I discovered the storytellers’ ability to tell and shape stories affects the contexts of the audience learning. In this study, the narrator has the power to shape and tell a story and controls the various narrative elements.

Professional storytellers narrate their stories incorporating their lens of childhood and family history, both influenced through the cultural mediation of the language and of the narrative.

Storytelling is a relational activity that encourages others to listen, to share, and to empathize. It is a collaborative practice and assumes that tellers and listeners/interviewers interact in a cultural and historical context (Riessman, 2001). Narratives serve as a socializing tool when traditional 257

stories and myths embody the collective sociocultural and wisdom of a people and become an

instrument of cultural preservation. In summary, the findings revealed that storytellers are the first lens in interpreting and constructing their own realities because a vantage point of a life

story provides a platform with which to reflect on personal experiences through the lens of the

story and to situate family histories. Storytellers use the mediated action to narrate and perform their stories throughout their communities demonstrating that narratives are symbolic tools that mediate community and individual shared experiences. These diverse storytellers perform throughout their communities at various events so there are diverse and varied social contexts.

Story succeeds because it reaches people in so many levels because as one storyteller phrased it,

“People form all these networks like little satellites in their brains,” she continued succinctly,

“because, you have to have an audience, no matter how much you want to tell stories, it’s not so good if nobody’s listening.”

Another aspect of the performance themes from the professional storytellers is the place

of these performance themes in culture. These stories are symbolic and represent the events that occurred at some point in the ancestry and heritage of the storyteller. The story as a spoken story told in performance is a symbol of the culture. Turner would say, “Celebratory symbols usually stand for many things and thoughts at once”… “Being multivocal (many voiced)...” “Speaking in many ways at once…” multivalent, having various meanings or values….” (Turner, p.16, 1982).

In this way, when a social group, in these performance stories a family, a clan, a tribe, or a village member “celebrates a particular event or occasion such as a survival, a birth, a harvest, or national independence it also celebrates itself”, by manifesting in symbolic story form “what is conceives to be essentials of life” (Turner, p. 16, 1982). This shared purpose and common values displayed in the professional storytellers’ narrative stories generates “what Durkheim termed, 258

effervescence” (Turner cited, p.16, 1982). When these storytellers gather at events along with the

artisans such as weavers, and potters, woodworkers, musicians, craftsmen, vendors of food drink and souvenirs collectively they create the festive environment. Professional storytellers create and tell stories. Everyone creates something for the celebration whether it is a story, a woven

blanket, a pot, a carved bowl, a song, a traditional pastry, lemonade or a trinket and this “making

of something” is informed by memories. The constructed items, focusing on story, become the

celebratory story. From the festive environment and the story the audience, society as viewers

and listeners formulate a conception of the culture and its philosophy. Celebration in these events

and storytelling performances focused around daily events and life experiences. Some of these

life experience events connect to the life cycle of birth and death and the seasons of life in

between. Celebration revolved around family, friends, neighbors, and community. Storytellers

celebrated their sense of identity and “my people.” Storytellers move everyday kind of life

experiences like gardening and hauling water, dressing for a parade, visiting grandma, and listening to stories, survival and identity change to a level of celebration just by including it in a

story in a performance. Storytellers transmit to their audiences their view of culture. Storytellers’ personal interpretations are transmitted to audiences through the lens of the story. Performance content themes generated from the storytellers’ performances become the interpretations of each storyteller. Personal life history and generational history are transmitted for generations through this interpretational lens. In this way, storytellers are the “first interpreters of the stories they tell.” Life story provides a platform, a vantage point, with which to reflect on personal experiences, to identify and link experiences, to tell others about life, and to keep memories and collective values shared. This shared view and personal interpretation fuel the multifaceted view of the storytellers’ culture. 259

Storytelling as Relational Activity Storytelling is a relational activity that encourages listeners and interaction. In this discussion the celebratory aspect of storytelling and the festive environment crosses into the

realm of mediated action, the action between the storytellers and the audience. Professional storytellers perform their stories in a rich and diverse variety of social and environmental settings both inside and outdoors which in itself enhances audience interaction and the level of formality of the performances. Based on these storytellers’ perspectives, stories accomplish more than preservation of cultural values. Storytelling is a relational activity that encourages others to listen, to share, and to empathize; it is a collaborative practice and assumes that tellers and listeners/interviewers interact in a cultural and historical context (Riessman, 2001). Wertsch

(1998) calls this action between storyteller narrator and the act of storytelling, mediated action.

The use of narrative as a socializing tool is evident when traditional stories and myths embody

the collective sociocultural and wisdom of a people, therefore, narratives serve as a “culture- preserving instrument” (Sapir, 1933; 1949 and Wertsch, 1998). An example of this use of story as a culture preserving instrument is in the collection of folklore. The “bulk of folktales is authentically collected in a genuine cultural context” (Utley in Dundes, 1965, 15). Folklore and stories told by Neeake serve as authentic references to identity as Reverend Fred Shaw, known as

Neeake, the Olammapise, Truth Teller of the Shawandasse Nishnabe, Shawnee Nation United

Remnant Band. Since 1971 Neeake shares stories of his people and elected as the Principal

Storyteller by the Tribal Council in 1986. The stories Neeake “holds as a sacred trust are the balance of all life and the gift that each life is to the other. Stories are “bibadinsawawchitah” the proper way to walk upon the earth (Neeake, personal communication, January 2005). He maintains the gift of the storyteller and conveys the stories handed down through generations and

hundreds of years or oral telling. 260

Application to Practice Application of this research into the educational setting takes several forms. Communities

have storytellers through the library system and storytelling guilds. Four librarian storytellers in the study travel to areas throughout their communities to tell stories to children in schools, in day camps and in the library setting. The Greater Cincinnati area has many festivals to see and hear professional storytellers. Since the completion of this study I’ve moved from the Cincinnati area to the Cave Run area of eastern Kentucky where there is the annual Cave Run Storytelling

Festival. As a professor I made arrangements with the founder of the Cave Run Festival and took

my own undergraduate language arts classes from Morehead State University to see the professional storytellers. Although this is a regional annual festival focusing on storytelling,

many of the 49 students had never heard a professional storyteller. This one day excursion led to

discussion in class and on Blackboard® (an e-Education software application, see

www.blackboard.com) regarding the place of storytelling in the classroom, methods of

introducing stories, elements of story, comparisons between reading a story and seeing the

professional storyteller in performance and follow up questions to promote reflection on the

experience. Children, as was discovered in Hannah’s performance, drew pictures and wrote

stories forming a book that was later sent to her. Educators and those interested in professional storytellers can use the websites of these professional storytellers in the study which in turn link to other resources. There are scores of books on storytelling and its use in the classroom.

Implications for Future Research My ideas for future research would use my existing performance stories and interviews.

Most major narrative research studies since Labov and Waletzky’s study cite their narrative theory of linguistic structural analysis. Of the 16 narrative studies used in the literature review, 261

ten studies cite some relevant portion of Labov and Waletzky’s narrative theory. They cite either

one or a combination of the six stages of linguistic narrative analysis: (a) abstract stage, (b) orientation stage, (c) complication of actions, (d) evaluation stage, (e) resolution stage, and (f) coda stage (Labov and Waletzky, 1967/1997). I suggest for further research to reanalyze the life history data from the professional storytellers, their performance content, and story by story from the performances to discern if they contain the six stages of linguistic narrative analysis as posited by Labov and Waletzky (1967/1997). In the literature review, studies focused on one stage, but not on all six stages. Part of a future study would be to take the transcribed performances, reanalyze the data to discern if they align with each stage. Another future study that I see deriving from this study of professional storytellers’ performances would be with the work of Keesing. These multifaceted views can be partially explained by culture theory.

According to Keesing interpretation, culture theory (1974, 1976), has three broad approaches to the study of culture 1) adaptive cultural systems, 2) ideational cultural systems, and 3) social cultural systems. Adaptive cultural systems have four broad assumptions; first, cultures have socially transmitted behavior patterns which include technologies, economic organizations, community settlement or community patterns and ways of life, ways of social grouping, political organization, religious beliefs and practices. I would reanalyze these performance stories from a culture theory perspective 1) adaptive cultural systems, 2) ideational cultural systems, and 3) social cultural systems. Keesing’s second assumption of culture theory of adaptive cultural systems is that cultural change is a process of adaptation in which humans adapt to their surroundings (Keesing, 1974, 1976). The third assumption is connected to adaptable ways of production such as technology, subsistence economy, and elements of social organization

(Walton, 2004a). I would explore the connection that takes place at these festivals, events, and 262

family gatherings, as the storytellers perform and audience members listen. Certainly, at an event

such as a festival or community event, adults, children and young adults are instructed in, observe, and hear what is considered acceptable within the family and community environment.

And finally, I would further explore the work of Turner (1982), Myerhoff (Turner, 1982) and van Gennep (Turner, 1982; van Gennep, 1909) to analyze the construction of rituals, celebration and the connection of life crises to the celebratory moment. Their related work and thoughts on construction of performance and the cultural meaning connect to liminality. Van

Gennep (1907) wrote Les Rites de Passage explaining the stages of the “rites of passage” that

“mark the passage of individuals through various stages in the life cycle” (Turner, p. 115, 1982).

Van Gennep linked ritual and the “transition from one situation to another and from one cosmic or social world to another” (Turner, p. 202, 1982). These transitional passages occurred in three phases: separation, margin or liminal, and reaggregation (Turner, p. 202, 1982). Separation signifies an individual’s “detachment from an earlier fixed place in the social structure or from cultural conditions.” At the point of separation, the liminal, threshold phase begins in which the individual is in a state of limbo, no longer part of the previous place in life and not yet part of the new place in life, the reaggregation phase. Turner cites that Myerhoff “lamented the absence of reliable data of subjective experience of those undergoing passage… related to occasions of personal crisis” (Turner, p. 25, 1982).It is this liminal phase that I would explore further in relation to the professional storytellers and changes that occurred in some stories told in

performance.

Turner wrote of peak experiences in social life and the ritual of event. Certainly some of

the identity changes for survival sake in which family members were separated or detached from

family or tribal lands leaving behind all that was familiar to move to a new location placed them 263

in the liminal state. Liminal space I believe also occurs between storyteller and audience in that

storytelling space of the ritual or ceremonial event. I would explore further public liminality and what happens when the professional storyteller and the audience for the moments of the story experience the same space, the same environment. The storyteller puts a story forth, the story is in limbo and then received or rejected by the audience. The audience is in limbo, the moments before the story, during the story, and after the story, an awareness occur. I would further explore these moments of liminal space and place.

Summary Professional storytellers’ narratives are an attempt to preserve their stories through social cultural events. Personal narratives are privileged stories which allow different cultures to maintain their stock of narratives to communicate and conserve shared meanings. Narratives provide a language to explore culture. Unlike the studies of Labov and Waletzky (1967/1997)

this study valued the rich narrative that speakers from oral traditions possess. Stories constitute a

powerful tool for building social organization. Personal narratives with all of their diversity

provide a window into the personal experiences and life events which should be shared in

educational settings to create diverse social contexts. Findings eventually would be posted to a

website to support use by educators and those interested in narratives.

One storyteller summed up the importance of storytelling, the importance of word play,

to expresses her love of words, “I’ve always liked the sound of words. I like the way they fit in

my mouth…I like to experiment with words, play with words” (Barb, 2004). Her words weave

both story and song to make the past and present comprehensible. These personal narratives or

privileged stories take place in social and educational contexts, and people attend to listen, but as

audience members, normally no one is taking notes. These social cultural events and the 264

storytellers’ narratives are an attempt to preserve their stories. Personal narratives or privileged

stories allow different cultures to maintain their stock of narratives to communicate and conserve

shared meanings. I selected relevant segments and identified critical incidents from storyteller

interviews and performances and incorporated that data into the study. Through narratives we learn to pass on cultural heritage and preserve stories through social cultural events for future generations. Through stories people draw strength and wisdom from stories and songs.

Narratives serve as a “culture-preserving instrument”, demonstrating their integral place in mountain life and allowing for shared memories. Storytellers are first interpreters of the stories told and focus on positive contributions of Appalachian culture. Story succeeds because it reaches people in so many levels and you have to have an audience. Stories…somebody needs to listen. Tell stories, so you can “Play with words”. 265

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Appendix A Face-to-Face Interview Questions

These questions are intended to guide the interview and to invite you to reflect on your life and storytelling.

Interview One

1. How do you describe who you are?

2. What special projects are you currently involved in?

3. What influenced your decision to become a storyteller?

4. What is your favorite story to tell?

5. How do you express the major themes of your stories?

6. Where do you get your inspiration for your stories?

7. In relation to storyteller’s voice, whose voice is expressed when you tell a story?

8. What was your first exposure to narrative storytelling?

9. How old were you when you started telling stories?

10. Would you be willing to tell me a story now or on our next interview?

Interview Two

11. How do you select the content of your stories?

12. Does your past inform the stories you tell?

13. Explore themes expressed in stories from Interview One

14. Explain; is there a relationship between the story content and the audience?

15. Does the listener influence your story as you are telling it?

16. Did your education contribute to your ability to tell narratives?

17. When you tell stories, do you attempt to educate the audience? IF YES, explain.

18. Describe the rules or structure of storytelling? 273

19. Is there etiquette or agreed upon code of what is acceptable when telling a story?

20. In your opinion, do you feel technology influences the practice of storytelling?

274

Appendix B Survey Questions

Urban Appalachian Storytellers’ Narratives: What influences and informs the content?

Before you start, I wish to express my appreciation for your time and thought in completing this survey and returning it to me. If you need more space for your response, please use the back of the form and number the extended answer.

1. How old were you when you told your first story? ______

2. To whom did you tell your first story? ______

3. How old were you when you became a professional storyteller? ______

4. Have you had training to become a storyteller?

______YES (IF YES, PLEASE DESCRIBE)

______NO

5. What influenced your decision to become a storyteller?

6. Are your stories based on your life in any way?

______YES (IF YES, PLEASE DESCRIBE)

______NO

7. H ow do you develop the content of your stories?

8. H ow does your past inform the story?

9. I n w hat way does the listener or audience influence your performance?

10. W ha t do you perceive as your major contributions to the field of storytelling?

11. A re you a member of any storytelling organizations?

______YES (IF YES, PLEASE DESCRIBE)

______NO

Demographic Variables: (CIRCLE) 275

12. Gder:en Male Female

13. A ge : ______

14. Place of birth (City or County, State) ______

15. W ere you born in a county designated Appalachian by the US government?

______YES

______NO

16. Race/ethnicity:

White Black Asian Hispanic Native American Other

17. Employment:

Executive, Administrative, and Managerial

Administrative support

Labor

Service

Sales

Clerical

Other

18. Education:

College graduate with Masters or higher

College Graduate with BS/ BA

College graduate with an associate

Some college or technical school

High school

Less than high school 276

Other

19. Monthly income:

Less than $1000

$1,000

$2,500

$10,000 or above

20. How would you describe who you are? If more space is needed, please use the back.

21. In your opinion, what function do narrative stories have?

22. Please feel free to add any thoughts you have on narrative storytelling that you believe

would contribute to and enrich the depth of this study.

23. Would you be willing to be contacted in order to verify or probe further into any of your

answers?

______YES (IF YES, PLEASE PROVIDE A PHONE NUMBER & EMAIL)

______NO Phone & Email: ______

All information regarding your identity will be protected.