Duration: 90 Minutes
Subject: Storytelling & Cultural Studies
Facilitator: Valerie Tutson

Month: January 

Creator: Farah Amanda Bobbitt

Introduction

Storytelling is an ancestral art form. Valerie Tutson is part of the storytelling community. She is a member of RIBS: Rhode Island Black Storytellers. RIBS defines their mission as

Black storytelling as an oral art from African and African descended people from around the world. They share their craft through performances, workshops, cultural, educational, and historical experiences. RIBS does not just tell Black stories; they also aim to help others do the same. They do it not just because they believe it is important for Black communities to know their own history and culture, but for everyone to experience Black culture presented by Black people (RIBS Mission, 2024).

The curation of this storytelling workshop is created in conjunction with the New York Public Library. Valerie is launching the workshop series. There will be a communal introduction, performance, then a reflection. There will be space and time for participants to share their hopes for the workshop series. 

Essential Questions

• Who are the storytellers in your life?

• Whose stories are told? To whom? Where? Why?

• How does storytelling connect to ancestral ways of knowing?

Goals and Objectives

National Art Standards https://www.nationalartsstandards.org/content/national-core-arts-standards 

• The Arts as Communication

• Arts as Culture, History, and Connectors

• Arts as Community Engagement

Goals

These goals connect across the lesson plans as cultural knowledge building. 

• Participants use storytelling as a mode of communication

• Participants connect to cultures

• Participants explore community engagement as an act of narrative performance

Objectives

In this lesson participants will…

• Identify  and experience storytelling practices 

• Experience storytelling practices and engage with story structure

• Examine the inferred and explicit embedded meaning of the story

Outline of Learning Plan

This lesson will include an overarching theme of empowering voices.

Dialogue, 15 minutes : 

Why do we tell stories? 

What brings us here today? Whose stories are being told? By whom? Why?

What from this experience will you take with you?

Performance, 45 minutes: Storytelling with Valerie Tutson. 

Please watch this 16 minute video to get a sample of how the storytelling experience will go:

https://vimeo.com/678983725/0e9e6b1045

Valerie uses many engaging storytelling techniques that include call and response, song, and folktales. She engages the audience with her dynamic performance and genuine candor. 

Reflection, 30 minutes: Storytelling circle, reflective share out

Valerie will lead this circle. She shares the importance of storytelling and why the stories from the African diaspora matters. She will lead the community in creating a story together. 

During this time the archivist may be taking community members aside to ask them about the post workshop survey.

Assessment

Post-Workshop Survey

If the archivist does not have enough time to speak with everyone they can do the survey post workshop on iPads. 

Annotated List of Resources

Arts for Learning Bio of Valerie Tutson: https://artsforlearningma.org/our-programs/valerie-tutson/ This bio shares information about Valerie and her work. 

Background Information (interview) on Valerie Tutson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPITOugLoK4 A podcast interview with Valerie Tutson interviewed by Sarah Campen. Valerie shares about her experiences from childhood to adulthood and how storytelling has been essential to her life. 

Booking Purposes: https://ribsfest.org/performance-requests/ This resource is to be used to book Valerie for the session. There are many storytellers from the RIBS community that we may want to learn more about.

RIBS Mission: https://ribsfest.org/mission/ Valerie is part of many organizations. This website gives more information about RIBS and its mission. 

Valerie Tutson, Teacher’s Showcase, RIBS:

https://vimeo.com/678983725/0e9e6b1045 This video is  a showcase of Valerie during a performance. 

Image credit: Tar Beach by Faith Ringgold