(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) - Welcome to Generation Rising.

I'm Anaridis Rodriguez.

Here at Generation Rising, we host conversations that celebrate our diverse communities and also explore solutions to the challenges they face every day.

To honor Black History Month, we have two exciting guests joining us tonight.

Valerie Tutson and Marlon Carey from Rhode Island Black Storytellers.

Not only will they tell us all about their impactful nonprofit, but we also will have a very special performance from them following the interview, so stick around.

Valerie and Marlon, thank you so much for being here with us.

- Oh, thanks for having us.

- Thank you so much.

- Great to be here.

- I learned about you through my son when you visited his school.

- Great.

(laughs) - Tell us about your nonprofit and your education program.

- Sure, the Rhode Island Black Storytellers, otherwise known as RIBS, was born 26 years ago, which is hard to believe.

We were like two years old when it was founded, and it was born because we wanted to bring a Black storytelling festival to Rhode Island.

Ramona Bass Kolobe, who's one of our co-founders and I were sitting together over tea in her kitchen, and money was available through the Rhode Island Foundation to celebrate Black arts and artists in community.

And we said, "We wanna do a festival.

Let's call it the Funda Fest, and let's call ourselves Rhode Island Black Storytellers, RIBS," and we were born specifically because we wanted to bring the diversity of Black storytelling to our community.

So that's what we've been doing.

- And Funda Fest, which you just mentioned, is now in its 26th year.

- Yes.

- Absolutely.

- You kicked off Black History Month with an incredible lineup of creatives and performances and storytelling.

Tell us about this year's experience.

- It was pretty amazing.

We could go backwards first because we finished up with a day of Black History, and that was really wonderful because Sylvia Ann Soars did "Nancy Elizabeth Prophet".

- Elizabeth Prophet.

- Who was a Black Indigenous woman who graduated from the RISD, Rhode Island School of Design, and has her first exhibition at RISD as we speak.

Never before has there, so we were excited to lift her up and celebrate her.

We had two films that were locally done.

One by one of our storytellers, Rochel Garner Coleman, about Black Tennis.

- Absolutely.

Absolutely.

"Fully Ourselves", it's an amazing film.

And then we were a part of it, and we actually were, Val starred in it.

We definitely had... (Valeria laughing) - Oh, right.

Come on.

You were in it too.

- Still though.

- And that was supported by the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities, which was great, and the Black Philanthropy Fund, and a lot of good support for that.

And then we also premiered a Black Baseball in Rhode Island film that was called "The Price of Admission".

And then we celebrated with... - Closing out with a spectacular show by April Armstrong, Bessie Coleman, which is an amazing production of Bessie Coleman- - Two Wings to Heaven.

- Two Wing to Heaven.

- As the Black pilot, yeah.

- Black female pilot is what I was gonna say.

- Yeah, so that was our last day.

I mean, we did everything from hip hop, spoken word, family fun day, kids performed.

In fact, we had performers from five years old to 82 on our lineup.

Over three weekends, yeah.

- That is just beautiful.

Marlon, you took on a new role recently in the festival.

Tell us how you first started performing at the festival and what you're doing now.

(Marlon chuckles) - (laughs) We were talking about that.

- We were talking about that at the kickoff, the opening party that we did at our partnership with Rites and Reasons there at the George Bass performing arts space.

And so we threw our party there, we were able to borrow some fireworks, some water fires, we were doing all this, and we're talking about how long we've been affiliated.

So I'd been working and doing plays at Rites and Reasons since my daughter, who's 16, was three, so first 13 years.

And around the time I became affiliated with Rites and Reasons, I started sort of hanging around and being involved with RIBS.

And I really ended up directing a couple of specific Words and Music productions, and then they trusted me to, "Hey, you want to do this production manager thing?"

And it was the 25th anniversary, let's do three weekends and not just one.

- Right after COVID, after being online.

- Why not?

(laughs) - Like, let's just go wild.

Come on Marlon!

- Thrown into the fire.

And people said, "What are you doing?"

And I said, "Well, no, I think this is something that I could do."

And I had a great, great team, and Val is a very, very patient, wonderful person, and we have just great people around us.

And so we executed the first one.

I brought in some people that I thought were, I knew really, I mean, Adam Brunetti is a great, great sound engineer, James Sloan Morley is a wonderful video producer.

We just have a great team.

And so we said, "Do it again for the 26th," and we were back again doing it for the second year.

- I wanna say something about Marlon because you said, "When did he first?"

So he's talking about Rites and Reason, but I was also remembering Melodie Thompson saying, "You gotta meet this poet.

He's fabulous."

And so Marlon comes in at the end of this thing that we were doing, and he got up there with his Rubik's Cube and he does this piece.

And I was like, "Oh my God, who is this guy?

Who is this?"

And so he's underselling himself.

- Himself.

(chuckles) - He's a poet, he's a painter.

He sings, he produces, he's a dad.

He's just really, so in that way, he kind of embodies what we think about when we think about RIBS and storytelling and how it isn't just one little piece of who you are.

When you really look at how Black storytelling ought to live in who we are, and storytelling coming from a cultural perspective, it's like all of you.

- Yes.

- Right?

- It's all of you.

- It's not just a segment.

- It's all that lived experience.

- Exactly.

- You define Funda Fest as a celebration of Black storytelling.

Talk to us about that.

- Well that's, it's interesting.

Two thoughts go in my head.

One is, wow, what an interesting question to answer in 2024, post 2020 in a way.

And yet it goes on and on, right?

So we've always been really clear that other people are putting our stories out in ways that don't always make us look good.

And oftentimes, we ourselves get caught up in the trauma stories of what it means to be Black in this world.

And those are very important stories.

However, we also, again, wanna show the breadth of our experience, and we wanna celebrate all of who we are.

Like first and foremost, this is a place for us to kind of lay out the table a smorgasbord of our experience and who we are, and that's a celebration.

And for 26 years, that's been the idea.

This is celebrating us.

We want people to always feel uplifted.

We want them to feel inspired.

We want them to learn something.

They might go, "Oo," you know?

And it's for everybody.

- Right.

- And I love that it's through so many different, you tell the story in so many different ways.

- Right.

- You talk about storytelling through films, storytelling through poetry, spoken word, or maybe even just a song or a performance.

- Yes.

- We have dance, we have Miss Melodie Thompson and the Worship Arts, our restoration collaborative coming in.

And they're going to be doing some dancing to sort of, it's a sacred storytelling event.

One of our sort of most sacred events that we get together, and a lot of the elders of the community are coming out to see you bring about and present this idea of the sacredness of stories.

- Yes.

- And the idea of the ritual.

And so we really, again, I have to shout out WaterFire for letting us literally borrow their fires.

(chuckles) (Valerie laughing) - Marlon's like, "This is what storytelling is."

It's like, "Come on, it's we gather at the fire."

- Exactly.

- We've done it from the earliest days.

- And you bring that with you everywhere you go through your education program.

- Yes.

- As I mentioned, through my own experience with my son coming home from school and being so excited that he experienced something different, that he learned something different.

- Oh man.

- Oh yeah.

- And that joy in storytelling got all the way into my living room, which I find to be a privilege.

- Yes.

- Tell us about your education outreach program, and what your goals are as you expand.

- So when we first started our festival, we had three storytelling performances in one school.

This year, between January and February, at this moment, we have 70 performances booked all across the state of Rhode Island.

- That's wonderful.

I used to work on a festival, the Johnny-cake Storytelling Festival, which was a lovely festival in South County at the end of September every year.

And it was always frustrating for me because, you know how Rhode Islanders are, they're not traveling to South County if they live up here in Providence or Pawtucket, they're not going.

- Not unless we're packing a lunch.

(Valeria laughing) - We're packing a lunch.

- Exactly, and even then, why are they gonna go?

So it became really important when we founded our festival, to make sure that we got into the schools in our communities as well.

Many of us work outside of the state of Rhode Island if we wanna get paid.

So this became the opportunity for us to get monies together so that we could support our artists.

- Yes.

- And get into the schools in our community so that Black kids would see themselves and that kids who were not Black would be able to learn something.

- Absolutely.

- So that's been intentional from the beginning.

And for the past couple of years, through the Rhode Island Department of Education and they're All Course Network, we've begun a Funda Story Camp.

So we work with kids during February vacation, during April vacation, and also during the summer vacations.

So they get to come and they get to work with artists, and they learn storytelling, they learn dance, they learn African drumming, they do visual arts, and- - It's wonderful.

- It's, again, yeah, it's very exciting to see how that's been growing over the last couple of years.

- Can you share a reflection with us, both of you, of what's your takeaway after experiencing something like that with a classroom and seeing just the wonder and the joy that you bring when you come home?

What's your reflection?

What brings you back to doing that again?

- I mean, I'll go it first, but I think- - Yeah, go ahead.

- You might be similar.

I mean, it's just, Valerie has become a parent in the last few years, but she's watched me sort of grow into a parent.

So as a parent who becomes, I've been doing poetry and storytelling for a while, but doing it through RIBS and going in with this role of the storyteller, and I'm doing and performing, and you light up the auditorium full of young minds.

And you remember when you were young and the storyteller came and you were lit up and you had to go and shake hands or like some people come and hug your knees.

It's an amazing feeling to be able to bring such good, and when you leave and you come home to your own children, you hope that there's a storyteller at their school that did the same sort of thing.

It's an amazing feeling to feel you just, and you receive it, you really do receive a lot of- - Love.

- Love back.

I mean, absolutely.

People are more and more calling storytellers in to bring back the communities post COVID to reestablish the balance and ground everyone.

But just certainly that the communities are asking for it.

They really, really want us to come in and help.

And it's a important role that I'm, we are all aware of, I believe.

- And we don't know when Len Cabral, for example, has been, he inspired me when I got to Providence.

So he's been doing this, what?

40, more than 40 years probably.

And Ramona Bass Kolobe as well, right?

So for me, one of the, a story that just popped in my head was going to a school last year, and the principal stood up in front of this middle school and said, "I am so excited to have the Rhode Island Black Storytellers here.

Because when I was a kid at the elementary school in Fox Point, this woman came into my school, and it was the first time I saw myself."

And she said, "I knew when I saw her that I could be anyone I dreamed of being."

And she said, "Now I want you all to have this experience."

- [Marlon] Yeah.

- I mean, wow.

- Exactly.

- Wow.

- I think, yeah.

- That is very touching to hear something like that when you're- - I was blown away.

- Yeah.

And sometimes I feel like, 'cause we roll in and out, storytellers, we go in and we go out, sort of like teachers, you don't always know what the impact is until a long time.

But if we're just like planting a seed or the seed's already there, so we're bringing a little water and we're bringing some sunshine - And joy.

- Yeah.

- I love that.

You want to continue this legacy.

- Yes.

- And you need to do so by inspiring not only the children who you are meeting as you travel across the state, but also people who need to tell that story, to continue to tell that story.

And you have a new initiative.

- We do.

- It's really good.

- Hoping to train the next generation of storytellers.

Tell us about that.

- That's right.

We were involved in an innovation lab program last year, and we won the first prize to kick off a training program.

And we're calling it a culturally-based training program, a legacy training.

Because we recognize, when we talk about storytelling, all the things that we've said, like it's poetry, it's dance, it's you bring your whole body, you gotta sing with it.

And storytelling's kind of hot right now, and you can take all these courses and learn about narrative this and narrative that, but it isn't just that, you know?

And what we've been doing for 26 years is trying to just find those voices of folks who can bring it all together.

So we realized that among all of the storytellers, and we're kind of a small-ish group in RIBS itself, but among us we've got well over 200 years of experience.

(Valerie and Marlon laughing) And we wanna just invite folks who think of themselves maybe just as a spoken word artist or a poet or someone who does a... - Plays an instrument.

- An instrument, right?

- Right.

- And say this is all part of the ways that we tell stories.

- So how can people apply if they are watching this- - Excellent.

- And they're like, "That's me, Valerie!"

- Yes.

- I'm so glad you asked that.

- Pick me, pick me, pick me.

- That's it.

Go to our website, ribsfest.org and look for that leadership academy.

It actually should pop right up to say, "Hey, I wanna find out more," 'cause we'll be doing some informational sessions very soon and we hope to launch the program in the Spring.

- And how can audiences also stay in touch?

- Oh, isn't she good?

She's very good, no?

- All the bases covered.

- Ribsfest.org, and you can get on our mailing list.

You can also find us on Facebook and Instagram.

- And your home is at the South Side Cultural Center.

- Yes.

- Which is very accessible, right on Trinity Square, and it's open to the public.

- That's right.

- Right?

- That's right.

We are there.

- Absolutely.

Big parking lot.

(Valeria and Anaridis laughing) - We got parking and we got storytelling.

- Exactly.

Exactly.

- You're good.

- Thank you so much for your time today.

We are reserving some of our extra time for your special performance.

- Beautiful.

- Okay.

- So we will do that now, so don't go anywhere.

We will have a special performance by the Rhode Island Black Storytellers right now.

- So this is a story you might be familiar with.

It's got a young man or young person whose father passes away through mysterious circumstances.

And then the uncle comes in and takes over and marries the mother, right?

A little bit of Hamlet.

So I'm gonna tell you a little bit about the story of Hamlet in two 16 bar verses with a call and response hook.

And so when I say "Go Ham," you say, "Go Ham."

And I say, "Go Hamlet," you say, "Go Hamlet."

(brisk classical guitar music) Hamlet's father died that was most peculiar when his uncle Claudius became the new ruler.

He married Gertrude, who was Hamlet's mom.

A dude married his sister-in-law.

Ain't that some drama?

Hamlet's hatin' on it.

Daddy's not even cold, but some guards on duty said they'd seen a ghost.

Ham goes to check it, and yup, it's his daddy.

And what the ghost says starts to drive him batty.

His pop says, "Claudius iced me.

No doubt you know what to do, son.

You gotta ride out."

Subplot, Ophelia's bro said, "Hamlet's just a flirt."

She dies at the end.

Oops.

Spoiler alert.

But moving right along, here comes Fortinbras, a young lad who came to get revenge for the past.

A long time ago, somebody killed his big papa.

He came thugged out to do the thing.

Papa, go Ham.

- Go Ham.

- A go Hamlet.

- Go Hamlet.

- A go Ham.

- Go Ham.

- A go Hamlet.

- Go Hamlet.

- So Fortinbras comes, he is like, "Hamlet, let's fight."

And Hamlet's like, "Yo, I got a much bigger plight.

I'm trying to get the might to kill my uncle with a knife, or poison him, or push him off a cliff to end his life."

Gertrude's higher than a kite thinkin' everything's all right.

While Hamlet's seeing visions and is plagued with sleepless nights.

But he still thinks the ghost might well be the devil.

I'll stage a play to see if he's on the level.

They reenact the murder.

Claudius leaves the room.

Now Hamlet shores time to steal his uncle's doom.

Hamlet ghost ham like Jean-Claude Van Damme, stabs Polonius, Ophelia's dad like, "Aw man."

Laertes, the bro, comes back to get vengeance.

Teams up with Claudius to end Ham's existence.

Mom drinks to poison.

Here's a toast in my son.

Hamlet kills Claudius finally.

Then he dies.

The play's done.

Go Ham!

- Go Ham!

- A go Hamlet!

- Go Hamlet.

- A go Ham!

- Go Ham.

- A go Hamlet.

- Go Hamlet.

Thank you very, very much.

My name's Marlon Carey.

(laughs) - I wanna share with you one of my favorite stories.

It's one of the first ones that I ever learned, and it was collected by Zora Neale Hurston.

And since February's about love, this is kind of about love.

You can make a decision about that.

They say that when the dog and the rabbit were first created, they were the best of friends.

And back in those days, the dog had a beautiful voice.

He liked to play the banjo.

I bet you didn't know that, but he did.

And the two of them being best friends did everything that best friends do, and all was good until they both fell in love with the same woman.

Her name was Miss Zefroni, and she was so beautiful.

(laughs) And one day Br'er Rabbit said he wanted to go and see Miss Zefroni, and he asked Dog if Dog wanted to come along, but Dog was really shy.

So Dog said, "No, thank you.

I'm just gonna go down there underneath that little Chinaberry tree and play my banjo if that's all right?"

And Br'er Rabbit said, "That's fine, but if you change your mind, then you just come along.

And so dog went on down there underneath that tree, and Br'er Rabbit went on up to knock on the door.

And Miss Zefroni came out, and hoo!

She had just made a nice peach cobbler.

It was warm, and she had some vanilla ice cream.

And she said, "Oo-hoo, come on up here, Br'er Rabbit, the cobbler's still warm."

He said, "Don't mind if I do."

And the two of 'em sat together and they were talking and making goo goo eyes at each other.

When all of a sudden Br'er Dog started to strum on that banjo.

And when Miss Zefroni heard the music, she looked down and she saw, "Br'er Dog, come on up here, the cobbler's still warm."

He said, "No, thank you.

I'm just gonna stay down here and play my banjo if that's all right."

"Oh, okay.

But if you change your mind, there's plenty of room."

And then the dog started to make up a song just for Miss Zefroni, went something like... ♪ If Miss Zefroni were mi-i-ine ♪ ♪ I would love her all the ti-ime ♪ ♪ If Miss Zefroni were mi-i-ine ♪ ♪ She would never have to iron ♪ Oh my goodness.

Miss Zefroni had never had anybody sing a song just for her.

And as soon as the dog stopped and she said, "Oh, Br'er Dog (giggles) that was so nice.

Will you do it again?"

And so of course he did.

And Miss Zefroni eyes got all sparkly and her cheeks got all pink, and her heart was doing like this.

And she forgot all about ol' what's his name sittin' right up there next to her on the porch.

(laughs) And Br'er Rabbit could see this little love connection going on, and he did not like it at all.

And finally, the sun started to go down.

And Br'er Rabbit said, "Well, I'm gonna be takin' my leave."

And Mr. Zefroni said, "Bye."

(laughs) And Br'er Rabbit headed off into the woods and he waited.

And it wasn't long before Br'er Dog came along with that banjo underneath his arm.

And Br'er Rabbit jumped out.

He said, "Hey, Br'er Dog, I heard you singing to Miss Zefroni."

(laughs) Br'er Dog said "Yeah, (chuckles) I was singin'" (chuckles) "You sounded pretty good."

"Well, I sounded all right, but, oh, if only my, my voice were as sweet as, as honey.

Oh, I bet Miss Zefroni would marry me in a minute."

Br'er Rabbit heard that.

He said, "You're probably right about that."

And then Br'er Rabbit said, "Hey, Dog, I got somethin' right here in my pocket that will change your voice forever."

Br'er Dog said, "You do?"

(chuckles) "Yes I do," Rabbit said.

"Well, what is it?

What is it?"

"Oh no, I can't tell you what it is," Rabbit said, "But if you follow my instructions, I promise you, you will have a brand new voice."

The dog said, "All right, all right what I gotta do?

Br'er Rabbit said, "First thing you need to do, Dog, is close your eyes, and so Br'er Dog did."

"Now what do I do?

What do I do now?"

(whimpers) "Okay, now tilt your head way, way back," and so the dog did.

(chuckling) "Wat do I do now?

What do I do?

What do I do?

"Now open your mouth wide, wide, wide," and so Br'er Dog did.

(moaning) "Oh, you look good," Br'er Rabbit said.

"Now hold on a minute."

Now, most folks don't know that Br'er Rabbit was a plumber in his spare time.

You know, it's really important to have a trade 'cause you always need a plumber isn't that right?

So Br'er Rabbit reached into his pocket and he pulled out his handy dandy pocket wrench, and he leaned over that dog.

(moaning) He said, "Oh, Br'er Dog, you got something loose in there, but don't worry."

And he took that wrench and he slipped it right into that dog's mouth.

And he put the wrench right on the vocal cords, and he gave a little twist.

It hurt so bad that dog said, (howling).

And then to get the wrench out of his mouth, he said, (barking).

And then he turned and he looked at the rabbit, and the rabbit looked at the dog and the rabbit could see death was coming his way.

So Br'er Rabbit turned around and he started to hop and hop and hop, and the dog chased that rabbit.

They went over the river, through the woods, all the way to grandma's house, and then the rabbit got away.

But they say ever since then, dogs have been chasing rabbits and sayin' (howling) and (barking) along the way.

And that's a story from African American tradition for you.

- Go Ham.

(Valeria and Marlon laughing) Go Ham.

- Go Hamlet.

(laughs) - Thank you, thank you so much for being here.

- Thank you for having us.

- Thank you for having us.

- Absolute treat.

- Yeah, so good to be with you, Anaridis, thanks.

- I would like to thank Valerie and Marlon from the Rhode Island Black Storytellers.

You can watch this episode and all our past episodes anytime at watch.ripbs.org.

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