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SNEAP Year 3: Abigail Jefferson Storytelling Demo Tape

Date2000-2001

Mediumreformatted digital file from VHS tape

DimensionsDuration: 9 Minutes, 10 Seconds

ClassificationsGraphics

Credit LineConnecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collections

DescriptionVHS demo tape recording of Abigail Jefferson singing the stories "Juba" and "Abiyoyo." "Juba" is a song about African American food during slavery. "Abiyoyo" is a story about the power of dance and music. The demo tape was submitted for the Year 3 Southern New England Apprenticeship team in West African storytelling.

Object number2015.196.801a-b

CopyrightIn Copyright

NotesSubject Note: Year 3 (2000-2001) Apprenticeship in West African Storytelling - A collector and teller of folk tales from Benin, his native country, Raouf Mama became a master teaching artist for the Connecticut Commission on the Arts roster and is a beloved storyteller. Abigail Jefferson is also a skilled storyteller who presented at libraries and festivals throughout New England when she lived there. Their apprenticeship brought Abigail a number of new songs and stories from Benin, such as the Naming Song, the Welcoming Dance, and “How Chameleon Became a Teacher.” The team concentrated on the integration of movement, song, and narrative, as well as ways to increase audience participation through call and response. Abigail welcomed the opportunity to tap into Raouf’s knowledge of the African stories and songs he has known since childhood. They presented West African stories to students at the University of Rhode Island and at Eastern Connecticut State University in Willimantic.

Subject Note: The Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program is a CCHAP initiative since 1997 that fosters the sharing of community-based traditional (folk) artistic skills through the apprenticeship learning model of regular, intensive, one-on-one teaching by a skilled mentor artist to a student/apprentice. The program pairs master artists from Rhode Island, Massachusetts, or Connecticut with apprentices from one of the other states, as a way to knit together members of the same community or group across state lines. Teaching and learning traditional arts help to sustain cultural expressions that are central to a community, while also strengthening festivals, arts activities, and events when master/apprentice artists perform or demonstrate results of their cooperative learning to public audiences. The Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program at the Connecticut Historical Society manages the program in collaboration with the Folk Arts Program at the Massachusetts Cultural Council and independent folklorist Winifred Lambrecht who has a deep knowledge of the folk arts landscape of Rhode Island. Primary funding for the program comes from the National Endowment for the Arts, with support also from the Connecticut Commission on the Arts, the Institute for Community Research, and the Connecticut Historical Society.

Biographical Note: Abigail Ifatola Jefferson founded the Rhode Island Black Storytellers Association, and is a renowned educator, storyteller, yoga instructor, ordained interfaith minister, and leader in the healing arts. She has worked with and taught at Lifetime Arts, NYPL’s Schomburg Center for Research and Black Culture’s Teen Curators, Lesley University’s (MA) Creative Arts in Learning Program, and Brown University’s Arts Literacy Program. Abigail graduated from Howard University and earned a Masters of Education from Lesley University in Integrated Teaching Through the Arts. Abigail has conducted workshops and performed in schools, hospitals, churches, prisons, group homes, shelters, theatres, libraries and festivals. She has performed with the Nubian League at the Smithsonian Institute, Lincoln Center’’s Outdoors Series and the National Black Storytelling Festival. In addition, she has conducted programs at Fleet Bank, Hasbro Children’s Hospital, the Society for Arts in Health Care Conference 2000, Brown University, Rhode Island School of Design Museum, the Rowe Conference Center, and Kripalu’s Retreat for Women of Color. Abigail served as Artistic Manager for the CityKids Repertory in New York City, Associate Director of Everyday Theatre/Commision on Social Services in Washington, D.C., and held a staff position with Children's Television Workshop as a Writers’ Assistant and Researcher for the PBS television series Ghostwriter. Abigail is a graduate of Howard University with a B.F.A. in theatre, and holds an M.Ed. in Creative Arts in Learning from Lesley University. Currently, she is the co-director of Celebration of Culture, a program designed to increase students’ and educators’ appreciation of diversity. She has traveled to Ghana, Nigeria, and Cuba to study cultural traditions. Abigail participated in CCHAP’s Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program, working with Connecticut-based storyteller Raouf Mama from Benin..

Additional materials exist in the CCHAP archive for these artists.

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