National Association of Black Storytellers Festival & Conference, Hampton VA -- The Workshops

Although this was a storytelling event, three of the workshops I attended spoke to the genealogist in me: 

 "Walking and Talking with the Ancestors" presented by Ilene Evans   

          Storytellers often tell the stories of historical figures --  Ilene spoke to our obligation to do the research!  Just as in genealogy, we must verify our sources.  We should also stay true to the person we are telling the story about and make sure that our stories make sense in historical context.

"Native Americans & African Americans" presented by Linda Cousins-Newton

          Oh the history I learned!  Linda certainly knows her stuff  --  the workshop started a little late because she couldn't find her notes but when she did, she never referred to them.  She has clearly walked in the shoes of those she has researched.  Her concentration is on the Seminoles in the American South/Southwest and the Bahamas.

 "Blog, Vlog, Tweet, Pin & Storify the Culture" presented by Jos Duncan

          Jos stressed that African Americans need to make our presence known on social media to tell our own stories and to education/guide our youth.  Social media is another venue to build our cultural community.  Not only do we need to tell our stories, we also need to put up positive images of ourselves.  As a librarian I wholeheartedly agree with her; too often I have helped patrons that have "goggled" terms like "African American women". "African American family", etc and the results are stereotypical and/or offensive.  We need to flood social media with our positive stories and images!  To that end I started this blog thanks to the encouragement of Luckie Daniels and the African American Genealogy & Slave Ancestry Research facebook page.

Next year (November 2014) NABS will be held in Chicago & I will definitely be there!