PCA Grant
In the year of 2017-2018 We received a grant from the Pennsylvania Council On The Arts that enabled us to preserve the power of storytelling, encouraging young people to straighten up & fly right one fable and folktale at a time.
For us, as storytellers and women, the lifeblood of Black storytelling⎯its fables and folktales and images⎯lies not only in its ability to draw on questions and truths for the heart to explore. The interior tones of its rhythms and word meanings have the power to shape the ways that listeners, and in our case, that of young people, might experience their own worlds and shape the world into which they will grow. As a young frog ultimately found his voice among the reeds and doubters, so too did our students reach for new expressions of determination and joy. Their reach succeeded.
⎯Mama Linda Goss and Joann Frasier Dasent
Grant Background
Additional Information
FOLK AND TRADITIONAL ARTS- Folk and Traditional Arts are defined as those artistic traditions that are characteristic of specific ethnic, religious, linguistic, occupational or regional groups. These arts are shaped and shared within families, neighborhoods and communities. They are passed down from one generation to another, learned through ongoing participation in community-based activities as well as through observation, practice or apprenticeships with elders and masters rather than through classes, books or other means of institutional instruction. The PCA has established three ways to provide resources and services to the Folk and Traditional Arts field in Pennsylvania.
APPRENTICESHIPS- Program Coordinator: Sally Van de Water Apprenticeships in Folk and Traditional Arts are grants from the PCA, which support the learning of traditional arts within cultural communities across the state. FolkArtPA at Jump Street in Harrisburg, PA administers these grants. Each grant award provides funding to a partnership between a master traditional artist and a qualified apprentice, enabling them to work together to share and develop advanced techniques or repertoire. Apprenticeships in Traditional Arts grants are offered annually in both performing or craft traditions. Artists who receive the award are also profiled on the statewide.
TITLE BACKGROUND- Straighten Up and Fly Right is more than simply good advice. It is also part of America's national musical history. Nat King Cole wrote the tune and lyrics by that name in the winter of 1943. The song was based on a playful story that Cole’s pastor father would sometimes tell from the pulpit. It is an Aesop’s tale of a monkey who climbs on top of a buzzard for a free flight. In the end, neither species quite gets what they bargained for. The final lessons imparted in the song and the story is two fold. Never expect a free ride and never underestimate the person you are trying to take advantage of. Straighten Up and Fly Right became Cole’s breakthrough hit at the time. While it might tell the humorous story of a bird and a monkey, it was the song’s infectious rhythm, lyrics and instrumental background made it a cross-generational favorite, just as its meaning as a fable enhanced the power of story to influence how children learn to interact with others and respect themselves. This is the preservation of storytelling to shape lives.
DEFINITION OF A FABLE -A fable tale that teaches a moral lesson with animals or inanimate objects as characters.
Stories Written by Student Participants
The Grasshopper & The Ant Retold by Shahied Taylor
During my internship with Philadelphia Youth Network, I gained a lot of experience and knowledge about the art of storytelling. I did a lot of writing and retold an Aesop fable. With the financial support of Pennsylvania Council on The Arts, I was able to have my fable illustrated. I was also inspired to write an adaptation of Linda Goss book “Th
The Lion & The Mouse Retold by Inydia Dennis
My name is Indyia. I’m in the 12th grade and for the past 6 weeks I worked with R.O.O.T.S, Inc. and Auntie JoJo who inspired me to revise an Aesop Fable. I had the pleasure of writing an adaptation of Linda Goss book “The Frog Who Wanted to Be A Singer.” Linda Goss was very pleased with my work. An Aesop fable is a short story usually with animals and
The Tortoise & The Hare Retold by Taylor Black
I’m an 11th grader and I attended a 6-week program with Philadelphia Youth Network from July 2018-August 2018. My worksite was R.O.O.T.S, Inc. I learned how to revised fables. The fable I chose to revise was “The Tortoise and The Hare.” As a child I read this fable, so I was familiar with the story and enjoyed it very much. My friend and coworker, In
African Proverbs & Sayings
Ghana
Rain can wash the leopard’s back, but it cannot wash out its spots.
Kenya
When spiders unite, they can tie up a lion.
Wisdom enclosed in the heart is like a light in a jug.
Haiti
Eggs have no business dancing with rocks.
Remember the rain that made your corn grow.
Liberia
Don’t look where you fell, but where you slipped
Gambia (adapted by Mama Linda)
To know is good, to learn is better, but to share what you know and have learned is best of all.
Zambia
The trees that are growing are tomorrow’s forest
Zaire
Little by little grows the banana
Sierra Leone
Proverbs are the daughters of experience.
African-American Sayings
• You can’t chase a rabbit through the woods; you gotta catch him at his home.
• You don’t miss your water until your well runs dry.
• If you make your bed then you have to lay in it.
• Every shuteye ain’t sleep and every goodbye ain’t gone.
• Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.
• The tree of love gives shade to all.
• Fair to midlin.
• If you can’t say anything good about someone, then don’t say anything at all.
• The squeaky wheel gets the oil.
• When the neck is gone the head is struggling.
• Be the change you want to see.
• The pot calling the kettle black.
• What you don’t know won’t hurt you.
Biographies
Master Artist: Mama Linda Goss.
Apprentice Artist: Joann Frasier Dasent (Auntie JoJo)
Apprentice Artist: Joann Frasier Dasent (Auntie JoJo)
Mama Linda Goss is currently Storyteller Ambassador for The National Great Blacks In Wax Museum. She created a 60 page curriculum guide entitled “I Dream A World,” using storytelling in developing stories, activities, games and songs for children from ages four through fourteen. In 1982, she created a festival in partnership with the Griot of Maryland, Mother Mary Carter Smith called “In The Tradition National Black Festival and Conference.” Designed to wake up the Baltimore community and the world about the value of the Black storytelling tradition. The first festival was held in Baltimore, MD in 1983 at Morgan State University. In 1984, she and Mother Mary founded the Association of Black Storytellers (now referred to as the National Association of Black Storytellers – NABS). For the last thirty-five years, NABS has sponsored a national festival throughout the country, thus fostering the living traditions of Black Storytellers. Every ten years the festival comes back HOME to Baltimore. NABS now has fifteen affiliates of which one is in Baltimore, The Griot Circle of Maryland. Mama Linda is one of its honorary life members. The Griot Circle has also developed the Growing Griots, which trains and teaches young people about the values of Black storytelling. NABS also has created an Adopt-A-Teller Program (AATP) which is designed to send storytellers throughout the community throughout the country.
Apprentice Artist: Joann Frasier Dasent (Auntie JoJo)
Apprentice Artist: Joann Frasier Dasent (Auntie JoJo)
Apprentice Artist: Joann Frasier Dasent (Auntie JoJo)
Joann Dasent is the founder of Regenerating Our Offspring Through Stories, Inc. a 501 (c) 3 nonprofit organization. Its mission is to use the art of storytelling to promote literacy as a means of reaching various types of learners in a multicultural society. She has been a member of NABS for more than twenty years. In 2018, Auntie JoJo established a six weeks program at Arcadia University titled Preserving The Oral Tradition One Story at A Time. In partnership with the Urban Affairs Coalition (UAC) Summer Youth Work Study Program, Auntie JoJo’s focus was to structure effective ways of passing on fables, sayings and stories to the next generation with the hope they will do the same for the generation after them. Auntie JoJo has received numerous grants for her storytelling work within the Philadelphia area, among them a foundation allocation to partner with Master Storyteller Mama Linda Goss in a collaborative project, “Straighten Up and Fly Right.” The project focused on the importance of fables, folktales and storytelling as fostering guidelines intrinsically woven into African-American culture, encouraging young people to “straighten up and fly right.” Auntie Jo Jo's retold fable, "A Farmer, His Son and Their Mule,” exemplifies this deeply held heritage through 20th century language and imagery. Her newest retold folktale, “One Cool Windy Day on Table Mountain,” was inspired by her reading of Diane Wolkstein’s The Cool Ride In The Sky.
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