To: <puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org>
Date: Sun, 29 Jul 2007 17:07:20 -0500
Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] puppetry and racial problems


This a bit long, but I think addresses, in part, the question of using 
pieces of cross cultural heritage. At bottom, Aesop was a slave and lived in 
Greece in 2500 years ago, yet his tales are as relevant today, to any 
culture, as then, and are retold in cultures world-wide. Thus,

From: "Christopher Hudert" <heyhoot-AT-mindspring.com>

"when we have used puppets and/or stories from other cultures/races. . . 
there are occasional objections that we are stealing their culture . . . 
another case of the white man [oppression}. . . My take is that if the story 
speaks to me and/or something I want
to address, and I can do it well, it should not matter what background I 
come from."

Julius Lester, author, teacher, and extraordinary storyteller, in the 
foreword to the first of his "The Tales of Uncle Remus: The Adventures of 
Brer Rabbit", concurs saying, "I have been asked many times whether it is 
all right for a white person to tell black folktales. 'I can't tell them the 
way you do,' is the inevitable plaint. Of course not, buy why should that be 
a consideration? Undoubtedly, a black person with roots in the southern 
black tradition will bring an added dimension to the telling of these tales 
to which most whites will not have access. That does not bar whites from 
telling them.

"The most important element in telling these tales, or any folktale, is, do 
you love the tale? [Folktales, he notes earlier, are not cultural artifacts, 
but "we are the tale and folktales are a mirror in which we can see our 
particular story."] After all, what is a tale except a means of expressing 
live for this experience we call being human. If you love the tale, and tell 
it with love, the tale will communicate. If the language you speak is 
different from the language I speak, tell the tale in  your language. Tell 
the tale as you would, not I, and believe in the tale. . .

"The tales will live only if they flow through your voice. The suffering of 
those slaves who created the tales will be redeemed (to a degree at least) 
if you receive their offering and make it a part of your life."

Empathy for the only race--the human race--trumps all.

Wayne Krefting 

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