PROGRAMS
Whether or not she accompanies a story with a thumb piano, djembe or 21-string kora, Charlotte Blake Alston’s most powerful instrument is her melodic and mesmerizing voice. It is with that primary instrument that she breathes life into ancient and contemporary tales. In this electronic age, Charlotte does what stories have achieved for thousands of years and engage the imagination, underscore human commonalities and reiterate life lessons gained from centuries of human experience. All programs draw on the rich source of stories, songs, games and rhythmic elements that are hallmarks of the African and African American oral traditions. Program content/story choices are geared to each age group.
School and Public Programs
School Programs are 45 minutes in length, Family Programs are 60 minutes in length. Adult Programs are generally 75-90 minutes with no intermission.
Note: We now offer several presentation formats: In-person, live online, Pre-recorded On-Demand, Live-stream or a Hybrid such as a pre-recorded performance with a live talk back option. Presenters may lease pre-recoded programs of Stories and Songs in the Oral Tradition - for general audiences or for younger children and families – for your venue classroom, school or community for a fixed period of viewing availability. Come Tell With Me is available for live-online performances. Please contact me or contact Siegel Artist Management for further information.
A special presentation of The Story of Bessie Coleman is also available for Upper Elementary and Middle School grades. It’s a short presentation approximately 26 minutes in length and tells the story of the first American woman to earn an international pilot’s license. The pre-recorded story is accompanied by images and short video clips.
Stories and Songs in the Oral Tradition
For hundreds of years throughout the African continent, people gathered and told stories. The tradition may be the strongest in the West African countries of Senegal, Gambia, Guinea and Mali where history was preserved and is still passed down orally through the words and music of the griots or jalis. Stories were the way the beliefs, mythology, cultural identity, history, and shared community values of a people were taught and preserved. The tradition continued when Africans were brought to America. Charlotte selects from her wide repertoire of stories and songs from the African and African American oral traditions.
Adapted to suit Elementary, MS, HS audiences (Length: 45 min)
Family audiences (Length: 60 minutes)
Come Tell With Me!*
This program of stories and songs is geared specifically for my youngest story listeners. All stories and songs include lots of audience participation. Come ready to clap, sing and help tell the stories!
*While toddlers are welcome at public programs, please note that the performance is not geared to children younger than 3 years old.
PreK-2nd Grade (3-7 yr-olds) (Length: 30-40 min)
Ehsoti: Standing on Tradition
Long before the written word the history, traditions and cultural values of African people were passed down orally. When Africans were brought to the Americas, the storytelling tradition continued. These traditional tales and songs are the foundation upon which many of today's African American storytellers stand. The stories continue to strengthen, sustain and bind a community with a shared American experience. But that human experience is woven into the larger story that is the common, shared history of all Americans. Charlotte Blake Alston grew up in the segregated 1950's in a family, neighborhood and church community that valued, maintained and celebrated their unique traditions and legacies. While her community was maligned from the outside, she was spoon-fed its cultural riches from the inside. This backdrop, enhanced by a special relationship between father and daughter, became the soil that produced the storyteller she eventually became.
Charlotte will share an evening of the traditional African and African American stories and songs that have become the hallmark of her repertoire interspersed with glimpses of those childhood influences that shaped her life. Come share this celebration of storytelling and oral tradition. Come share the power of the oral tradition.
This 75 minute program will be performed without and intermission. Stories will be announced from the stage.
