A Season's Griot

Airing on WHQR 91.3fm on Friday, December 26 at 8pm

This year on A Season's Griot, we're telling “Stories from the Neighborhood”

With folktale, song and poetry, Madafo Lloyd Wilson and friends recall the wonderful days of growing up in his home town of Wilmington, NC, during the 1940s, 50s and 60s – a time when growing up was fun. In this edition of the Kwanzaa program "A Season's Griot," Madafo presents traditional and original works of poetry, music and prose that speak to the institution of Family, the security of Community, and the unspoken and spoken principles and values of the Black Community.

Familiar and favorite elements of Griot will also return, with plenty of music, and original compositions by the show’s poet laureate, Beverly Fields Burnette.

A Season's Griot is hosted by storyteller and musician Madafo Lloyd Wilson.

HOST:

Madafo Lloyd Wilson

Madafo Lloyd Wilson has worked as a storyteller and musician for 25 years. Following in the footsteps of the griot (a West African word for storyteller) Wilson shares the vibrant traditions of African and African American folklore. To the delight of audiences throughout the U.S., East and West Africa, and Europe, he combines traditional and contemporary tales with original music that is also mixture of styles and periods.

Whether performing in schools, libraries, or churches, at cultural festivals, weddings, or funerals, whether in concert halls, studios, nightclubs, or under shade trees, Wilson shares tales that are ageless and that speak to all cultures and ethnicities.

Featured Guests:

Beverly Fields Burnette:
Beverly Fields Burnette is a storyteller, published poet and writer. Professionally, she is a recently retired School Social Worker with Wake Co. Public Schools in Raleigh, NC. Born in Rocky Mount, NC, Burnette is an alumna of Livingstone College, Salisbury, NC. She has done freelance writing for a local children's television program and has edited a weekly advice column for kids, entitled “Ask Miz Bee.” Published in several poetry anthologies and national newspapers, Burnette is a founding member of both the Carolina African American Writers’ Collective and the NC Association of Black Storytellers (NCABS), an affiliate of the National Association of Black Storytellers, Inc. She serves as current president of NCABS, and often collaborates and performs with other storytellers, drummers, musicians and poets.

Ms. Burnette enjoys telling folktales in the guise of Harlem Renaissance folklorist/anthopologist Zora Neale Hurston, and in 2007-08, she performed ZORA stories in conjunction with local "Big Read' programs, an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts, designed to restore reading to the center of American culture. In 2001, Burnette began writing and performing her original poetry for A Season's Griot..

Joyce Grear:
Joyce Grear served as artist in residence (1980-1987) for the City of Wilmington Parks and Recreation Department. She founded and co-founded: The Wilmington's Children's Theatre, The Senior Players, Art Camp, and The Annual Youth Storytelling Festival; Grear has also toured North Carolina as a Living History Character and storyteller.
A graduate of Williston Senior High School in Wilmington, NC, Grear also has toured throughout the Southeast, New England, and to South Korea and Japan for the Department of Defense Dependent Schools. She has appeared as a featured teller in many storytelling festivals, including the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesbourgh, Tennessee and the National Black Storytelling Festival in Oakland, California.
Presently, Joyce is once again serving as artist in residence, for The Family and Neighborhood Institute of North Carolina, Inc (FNI). In addition to her own performances, Grear teaches drama, writes plays, and directs the children of FNI. She uses stories as a teaching tool. Joyce is the "griot" of Wilmington. She is a storyteller of her village, for she knows that storytelling is the oldest form of the village school.

Maxwell Page:
Maxwell Page is an actor and storyteller with a lifetime of experience. In 1989 Page joined the Tapestry Theatre Co. where he received invaluable training from Margaret Freeman and Defoy Glenn. His first show was “Raisin in the Sun” and from that show on, he has been in many productions as either an actor or director. Page has also acted in motion pictures and commercials filmed in the Wilmington, NC area.

Page served as the vice president of the Black Arts Alliance. Page says that “storytelling just sort of happened and writing stories that have been part of my real life is just the greatest.” Being a member of the North Carolina Association of Black Storytellers has allowed him to work with other yarn spinners to watch and learn.

Purchase CDs:

CDs of A Season's Griot 2008 (and other past years) are available for $15. You can send a check or money order made out to WHQR to:

A Season's Griot
WHQR
254 N. Front St.
Wilmington, NC 28401

Please include your return address and specify that this is for A Season's Griot 2008. Allow four to five weeks for delivery. CDs of some past years are also available. Please send in inquiries to the email address below.

If you have questions or comments about the program, please email the producer, Mary Bradley, at mary@whqr.org .

Support for this year's program comes from a grant from The Landfall Foundation of Wilmington, NC.

Further Resources: