Soucouyants, Ezili Freda & other Caribbean Tales

Caribbean folklore is intriguing as I know little of this culture or of the supernatural figures that abound in it.

European, African, and many North American stories (excluding Caribbean) are commonly found in the repertoire of most of the storytellers I know, to include myself.

I absorbed what several professors shared at the "Metamorphoses: An International Colloquium on Narrative and Folklore"on the University of Utah campus held from October 2-5, 2008.

However, my hand and wrist seemed unable to capture all the notes desired from the paper "Caribbean Animal-Human Metamorphosis and (Post) Colonial Agency" presented by Aliyah Khan, Professor of Caribbean Literature and Postcolonial Theory from University of California--Santa Cruz. My unfamiliarity with the culture crippled my speed.

I approached Khan and asked if she had recommendations of Caribbean folklore to research that related to the "Family Famine: Hunger for Love" narrative production. She was kind to share a couple ideas. She was also willing to confirm authenticity of Caribbean culture in relation to any story I decided to tell.

Two supernatural figures require more research:

• Soucouyant--Old woman, mainly from Trinidad/Tobago areas, who transforms into a ball of fire by night to suck the blood of animals and humans, especially babies.

The Soucouyant often targets babies who are born a few nights previous. If the mother does not watch, then the baby may die. Some ways to protect are to wrap the baby in blue (references to water) or to scatter rice as the Soucouyant cannot leave until all the grains are counted. If she still is in her ball of fire form after sunrise, then she is destroyed. This could be a mother/child relationship piece for "Family Famine: Hunger for Love".

• Ezili Freda--A light-skinned Creole woman, from Haiti area, that is the Vodou goddess of love and luxury. She is doomed to unrequited love and she is often pictured with her heart pierced with a knife.

As the embodiment of femininity, there is the potential of finding stories that talk of fertility and barrenness and from there leads to motherhood.


To explore more about Caribbean tales, here are some sites:

• Bibliography from American Museum of Natural History
  
• The Franklin H. Williams Caribbean Cultural Center (no stories, though place to make connections)
• Wikipedia Caribbean folklore
  

Until we tell again,

Rachel Hedman

Professional Storyteller

Co-Chair of Youth, Educators, and Storytellers Alliance

Tel: (801) 870-5799
Email: info@rachelhedman.com

URL: http://www.rachelhedman.com

How-To Blog: http://storytellingadventures.blogspot.com

Performance Blog: http://familyfamine.blogspot.com
Other places to find me: Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, Professional Storyteller

"Economy of Language": From Character's View

The previous post was also on "Economy of Language". Now for another view.

On September 10, 2008 I finally created an account with Twitter, a social online tool. This could be an exercise for storytellers to test their skills in being concise. You are limited to 140 characters (notice characters and NOT words) per post.

How would each story in my repertoire look if it was condensed to 140 characters? This may be a little longer than the one-liner found inside the cover of books above the ISBN number.

Telling the story aloud and condensing within a five-minute, three-minute, or one-minute frame seems easy compared to only having 140 characters to write that same piece.

President Thomas S. Monson, 16th President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, shared how in the 1960s during the Vietnam war, Jay Hess became captured in Hanoi after his plane was shot down. Brother Hess had not seen his family for over two years and was uncertain when he'd see his family again.

He had only 25 words to send a message and this is what he chose to write--
"These things are important: temple marriage, mission, college, press on, set goals, write history, take pictures twice a year."

What would you write to your family?

Now, what if you only had two characters?

This question is easy for me: 88.

My parents are both ham radio operators and "88" was something they could tell each other over the airwaves as "88" meant "hugs and kisses". Another way to express "I love you". These characters look a lot like the "xo" that many people place on birthday cards to wish the same thing. It's easy to see why "88" came to equal "xo".

Here's a clip hosted by Walter Cronkite on ham radio:


Can you sense a story? Perhaps one of my personal reflection moments within "Family Famine: Hunger for Love" could share the importance of the characters "88" to me.

That is love within the "Economy of Language".

Until we tell again,

Rachel Hedman

Professional Storyteller

Co-Chair of Youth, Educators, and Storytellers Alliance

Tel: (801) 870-5799
Email: info@rachelhedman.com

URL: http://www.rachelhedman.com

How-To Blog: http://storytellingadventures.blogspot.com

Performance Blog: http://familyfamine.blogspot.com
Other places to find me: Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, Professional Storyteller

"Economy of Language": From Teller's View

Sometimes people ask me to summarize a story. Often, the summary is longer than the story itself.

At one point, Don Doyle challenged me to take a 55-minute story and tell it as a 5-minute story. He knew that whatever I shared in that condensed time would demonstrate what was most important to me.

I made a couple attempts to do as Don asked. I was over in time each time though every practice brought me closer to the 5-minute goal.

Such an exercise is needed for any story that I share for "Family Famine: Hunger for Love", though perhaps the 5-minute goal could change to 3-minute or 1-minute challenges based on the average telling length of the story.

Elizabeth Ellis encouraged the "economy of language" for the storyteller while I was at East Tennessee State University working on my Masters in Storytelling. She continued that there were "millions upon millions of choices" for a storyteller to make into how a story is presented.

Is there a stronger--and perhaps shorter--way to tell the story or to form images in the heads of your listeners?

Until we tell again,

Rachel Hedman

Professional Storyteller

Co-Chair of Youth, Educators, and Storytellers Alliance

Tel: (801) 870-5799
Email: info@rachelhedman.com

URL: http://www.rachelhedman.com

How-To Blog: http://storytellingadventures.blogspot.com

Performance Blog: http://familyfamine.blogspot.com
Other places to find me: Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, Professional Storyteller