The Griot Storytelling Program

Sister Girl 

           Griots are traditional African storytellers – keepers of history, passing down unwritten information orally from one generation to the next by means of stories and song.  It is said that when a griot dies, a library is burned down.

            Sister Girl is an African-American griot (pronounced GREE- oh) – a living mystical character, born in the 1600’s and still alive today, who is the personification of all the griot spirits who came before her.  She tells stories of personal experiences.  Experiences which include capture by slave traders, being on the auction block, living as a slave, escaping north to freedom on the Underground Railroad, living through the Jim Crow era, the Civil Rights movement, and present day racial injustices in America.

            Sister Girl was a child raised by the whole village, who now raises the whole village through her storytelling tradition.

 Excerpts from Sister Girl's original poetry:

Excerpt from “Slave Ship”

… I thought I heard a slave ship go by the other day.

I heard the moans, groans and travails of my people.

Sounds so harsh, it made me want to twist and shout

To hear it; sent horror and chills up and down my spine.

Hush, listen, can’t you hear the songs of Freedom,

Africa’s Children humming to the hum drum of the engine

Africa’s Children, singing to the chug-a-luggin’ of the engine

Dey says; dey sings;

Before I be a slave, I be buried in my grave.

Hush, hush, shh; Do you hear what I hear?

Why it songs of Freedom, my dubious dear…

Excerpt from “Yesterday”

…Yesterday:

I stood on Baltimore, and Virginia’s dock

My eyes flew open, oh Lord, I’se was back on the auctioning block

I could hear them as “my plight” they began to mock

I wanted to knock their silly behinds out with the Plymouth Rock

But all I could do was stand there as time flew by

Hell, I was in shock, I was in shock.

I was back in Bondage

I had on my neck, ankle, wrist, chains and stocks…

Excerpt from “Sister Harriet Tubman: Conductress Extraordinaire”

Move aside; Let the Lady step up

She moves with the utmost of ease

And she peeps in and out of the corn fields

The Underground Railroad had just pulled in

She’d lay low, she was never above ground

She’d pull into Carolina about 10pm

She’d sing “Steal Away, Steal Away, Lord”

I ain’t got time to stay here…