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Voices of Wisdom Program, 2015

PerformerPerformed by Joyce Ashuntangtang (Cameroonian)

PerformerPerformed by Boubacar Diébaté (Senegalese)

PerformerPerformed by Dr. Raouf Mama (Beninese)

PerformerPerformed by Gideon Ampeire (Ugandan)

PerformerPerformed by Won-Ldy Paye (Liberian)

PerformerPerformed by Trudie Lamb Richmond (Schaghticoke, 1931 - 2021)

PerformerPerformed by Yeshi Dorjee (Tibetan, born 1959)

PerformerPerformed by Somaly Hay (Cambodian, 1959 - 2016)

Subject Lynne Williamson

Date2015 September 16

Mediumborn digital video

DimensionsDuration: 37 Minutes, 7 Seconds

ClassificationsGraphics

Credit LineConnecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collections

CopyrightIn Copyright

Object number2015.196.289.3

DescriptionVideo showing participants in the program, Voices of Wisdom: Traditional Narratives from Connecticut Communities, held at the Connecticut Historical Society on September 16, 2015. The program participants were: Joyce Ashuntantang, Boubacar Diébaté, Raouf Mama, Gideon Ampeire, Won Ldy Paye, Trudie Lamb Richmond, Yeshi Dorjee, Somaly Hay, and The Somali Bantu Women’s Chant Group.

NotesSubject Note: CCHAP presented a program on oral narrative at the Connecticut Historical Society on September, 16, 2015, titled "Voices of Wisdom: Traditional Narratives from Connecticut Communities." The program began with a reception to welcome visitors, then participants gathered for an informal presentation by several speakers who have traditional skills in narration and recitation from oral traditions of different cultures. They recited in their native language, and then provided a translation or synopsis. Audience members were invited to ask questions and discuss the presentations with the speakers. Artists and speakers included Trudie Lamb Richmond, a revered Connecticut Indian tradition bearer and educator; Senegalese griot Boubacar Diebaté; Joyce Ashuntantang, a poet from Cameroon who is using traditional knowledge in her writing; and Gideon Ampeire, a young musician from Uganda who collects his grandfather’s traditional stories. Audience members were also invited to present similar traditional narratives.

The event was the first in the Voices of Wisdom series (there were two following events in 2016 and 2018), a project that located and presented some of the state’s artists with special skills in traditional narrative or oral history; “folk poets” who – in their native languages – carry the stories and the history/genealogies/epic poems/lesson stories of their people from a body of narrative that has often existed for generations within communities. Many of these skilled speakers also recite narratives of how their group immigrated to Connecticut.

The Voices of Wisdom project provided a chance to hear oral traditions and cultural narratives important to groups of people who are living in Connecticut now. We don’t often get to hear these voices in our society, but the historical and cultural content can teach us much about resilience, values, wisdom, and humor of our new neighbors or the state’s original peoples and settlers. The project also honors the language diversity and poetry that can be found in the cultural expressions of ordinary people with extraordinary knowledge and gifts of speech. Rather than professional or performance-oriented storytelling, the project presented narratives grounded in the speakers’ personal experience and cultural roots. Project presentations were more conversational, often interactive with the audience, rather than a theatrical performance. The artists spoke in their native languages, with translation provided by them or by translators from their communities.

Biographical Note: Joyce Ashuntantang is Associate Professor of English and African Literature at the University of Hartford. As a native of Cameroon, she recounts everyday stories of her people and those of her family, sometimes translating them into poetry as a way to preserve and share traditional knowledge and folk arts.

Biographical Note: Boubacar Diébaté (Hartford) comes from a family of jalis (griots) in Senegal, tribal oral historians who keep the genealogies of their people while also speaking of current events, sometimes in song and always accompanied by the instrument kora. Boubacar is a popular performer at folk festivals, and is an educator.

Biographical Note: Raouf Mama (Willimantic), Distinguished Professor of English at Eastern Connecticut State University, has built a strong reputation as a storyteller and arts educator. He also has a deep repertoire of traditional narratives from his native Benin and is the author of several books.

Biographical Note: Gideon Ampeire (Storrs) had cultural information, stories, songs, and dances passed on to him by his grandparents in Uganda, and he is committed to activities that carry on this endangered knowledge. Gideon also makes a variety of traditional musical instruments that he plays with his group Echo Uganda.

Biographical Note: Won Ldy Paye (Hartford) is a beloved presenter of traditional Liberian stories and ritual verses across the United States.

Biographical Note: Trudie Lamb Richmond (Kent) is Connecticut’s premier native elder. A member of the Schaghticoke tribe of northwestern Connecticut and a revered storyteller, she has educated generations of children and teachers on native history.

Biographical Note: Yeshi Dorjee (Old Saybrook) is a Tibetan monk who provides spiritual guidance to the growing community in Old Saybrook and Norwich. Yeshi knows, presents, and has written down many traditional narratives of the Tibetan people as well as Buddhist allegories and lesson stories. He is a master of Tibetan thangka painting and butter sculpture as well.

Biographical Note: Somaly Hay was a revered Cambodian court dancer and cultural ambassador who survived the Khmer Rouge genocide and later established a career as an educator in Connecticut.

Biographical Note: The Somali Bantu Women’s Chant Group (Enfield) gather for community events in Connecticut and Massachusetts to recite verses from the Koran and sing spiritual songs, while they move in a rhythmic, circular dance.

Additional materials exist in the CCHAP archive for these artists and this event.

Cataloging Note: This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services MA-245929-OMS-20.

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