FAQ

Who performs the music on your Home Page and what is the instrument?

The music on my home page is a rendition of one of the earliest songs I learned to play on the Kora. I rarely play it anymore in concerts or during storytelling sessions. I keep it around as a reminder of how far I’ve come over the years in my continuing education as a musician and storyteller. The instrument is a 21 string, traditional West African Harp. You can click here on “Kora” to go to a page on my site to learn a little more about it.

What’s the language you’re singing in when you perform? Are you fluent? Do you speak any other languages?

The language you usually hear me singing in when I’m performing is known as Bamana or Bamanakan. It’s primarily spoken in Mali, West Africa but is closely aligned with other West African Languages (Mandinka, Maninka, Malinké, and Dyula are a few). I speak at about at about an intermediate level. I am fluent in French, Spanish and English.

Where do you find your stories?

Stories find me. I practice listening in order to be more receptive to the images and stories that float about us all the time. I encounter most of the stories I use through my travels. A large number of tales are traditional African Tales passed down for generations, some never written. I also spend an inordinate amount of time searching to discover topics, tales and themes for conversation through research (reading, reading and then, when I’m exhausted from reading, I read some more)

Why is storytelling important to you?

The interactivity of the listener/speaker relationship is fascinating to me. If you actually pause a moment to think about it, we take so much in our lives for granted that we often fail to realize what miracles we human beings really are. The art of captivating the eyes, ears, mind and spirit through word play and sound is a discipline that appears so simple to the passive observer, yet it is a task exceptionally complex and difficult for anyone to master. Storytelling has the power to transform the way we think, communicate and interact. Through storytelling, whether you partake by way of reading, watching movies/television, conversing, etc., you become engaged in an activity that is affecting your mind, your outlook on life, how you see the world and your relationships.

Do the robes you wear have any meaning?

I wear the traditional robes because of their innate beauty. Most of us are only accustomed to seeing what are termed “primitive” forms of other cultures. There are many very refined and classical traditions extant throughout the continent of Africa. The robes are formal attire worn by both men and women during festive occasions. Their meaning is not only aesthetic but richly symbolic, as well.

What is a typical performance like?

There is no such thing. An audience dictates the type of performance I will do, the type of story I will tell or the repertoire of music I will perform. It is sometimes difficult to convey how involved the training of the craft is and how performances are defined. The Western concept is audience is nonexistent and each person present is an active participant in the performance and its direction.