Dr. Johnson-Ross Presentation

In class on Thursday, Dr. Johnson-Ross presented on the African American Storytelling tradition but much of her focus landed on The Brownies Book, which I had never heard of before.  The concept of it reminded me of my beloved Highlights Magazine that I grew up with, and still look at whenever I go to a doctor's office and they are there. The concept of the book was intriguing to me as it not only incorporated African American pieces. It attempted to teach about a wide variety of cultures and people, bringing the world together.


By far, what I most enjoyed about The Brownies Book was that it contained a piece in each publication in which they highlighted a child in the community who achieved something great.  What I loved about this was that, in the reading Dr. Johnson-Ross gave us, it described that this achievement could have been something as simple as doing well in school or being polite to others.  I thought this was a great thing as I thought the editors brought achievement down to an attainable level and did not promote achievements that many of the readers could not achieve or are of monetary value.  For example, they did not highlight someone in the community that became independently wealthy and went on to buy great things but, they promoted average kids who did great things for themselves, even if it is something as simple as doing well on a test in school.


The stories that the professor had us read were interesting as well and I especially enjoyed the input of animals as opposed to people.  Something funny happened after class though... 


I was watching The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and ironically, he had a 'folk tale' type author on his program.  The author, David Sedaris said he decided to write his book after hearing South African orally told folk tales and thinking, 'I can do better.' Unfortunately, I have not been able to read his book but I doubt he told the stories better, but rather in a different manner. He most likely created more relevant stories for his audience and made them humorous. I think maybe he said he could do better more as a joke for the comedic news program, it is on Comedy Central anyway.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-november-4-2010/david-sedaris

(Interview Clip)

Back to Dr. Johnson-Ross' presentation... I genuinely enjoyed all she had to say. My favorite aspect was by far her description of the story "The People Could Fly" in which the moral is: If you believe, you can achieve.  I absolutely love this idea that anything is attainable, as it also goes along with the meaning behind The Brownie Book. 

http://www.audiobooksonline.com/The_People_Could_Fly_American_Black_Folktales_Virginia_Hamilton_unabridged_cassettes.html

The images from that story had so much expression as well, and this is another reason why I enjoyed the African American folk tales. Many of the written versions we read contained images, and these images expressed more than the written word ever could.  Generally, I learn visually and through images and therefore the images presented during the class left a strong impact on me making me enjoy the presentation that much more.