History was created on Wednesday evening June 1st as renowned storytellers graced the outdoor lawns of St. Stephen’s church yard to delight the very attentive street crowd to an evening of nostalgia. Oswald Bobb from “Bob O Vision” made this quite clear in his choice selection of folk songs during the preamble. Passersby and the seated sidewalk attendees alike joined in the sing-along process to songs such as “Sitira Gal,” “Jane Engage” and “Mommy Gone to Cove En John.”

The Director of the Brooklyn Arts Council Dr. Kay Turners’ introduction stimulated the crowd and promised a splendid evening by the experts in the field of cultural storytelling experience and energy. She Thanked the Guyana Cultural Association for joining with her in that venture.

It was the Director of the Caribbean Cultural Theatre E. Wayne Mc Donald who set the tone for the evening by his eloquent explanation of what storytelling was all about.

This was followed by a series of professional Guyanese Storytellers that delighted the rain threatened evening.

Folklorist Grace Chapman, in her presentation made it clear that storytelling would be incomplete if the name Wordsworth Mc Andrew was not mentioned. She basically electrified the audience throughout her performance. George Davidson’s folktales simply thrilled the audience. Winston ‘Jeggae” Hoppie introduced a well chartered ‘Baccoo” story utilizing the names of Goring, Edgar and Rose as characters. That was hilarious. Rajiv Mohabir from his “na bad eye me” fame displayed a different Indian perspective portraying his cultural insightful masterpiece. They all surely “turned back the hands of time” in demonstrating how it used to be in Guyana on a moonlight night in bygone days.

We were fortunate to hear from two special guest artists. Storyteller Robin Bady a Russian Rumanian, Jewish American, New Yorker as she loves to be called, who created an engaging rapport with the audience. Her storey telling skill connects us to each other and to other cross cultures. It was Tammy Hall, the other guest artist, and arguably Brooklyn’s best known storyteller expertly demanded audience interaction which was well received by both young and old during her stimulating story.

It was so heartening to see families come out with their children and the participation of members of the audience as they shared their stories.

The Theme “Once Upon A Time” was certainly in Brooklyn where these specialist artists belted out jumbie stories, folk tales, ole higue tales, nancy story, drum poetry, and storytelling of all sorts.

“Gaff” is a word peculiar to Guyanese, just as the word “Chat,” is peculiar to a Jamaican or “Ole Talk” is peculiar to Trinidadians which simply means “Talk.” Somehow “Gaff” has a deeper meaning than mere “Talk.” it signifies a communication process and the Gaff contents may not necessarily have to be factual.

The patrons were enthused by the “Storytelling Gaff” as they reminisced on familiar old time folk lore phrases. Laughter was more than therapeutic as they listened attentively throughout the evening. In the finale of the evening, everyone was moving with rhythm to the beat of the drums of ‘Jeggae.’

This event was yet another first for GCA, the previous being the Mother’s day Dinner Theatre and of course this Newsletter. Thanks to all the participants, our special thanks to Dr. Kay Turner and the Brooklyn Arts Council for collaborating with us on this event and also to the Parish Council and members of St Stephen’s Church for providing the necessaries in making that evening a remarkable success.