Sandy Hook Students

Captivated By Folktales

By Tanjua Damon

Eshu Bumpus knows how to grab the attention of a group of student with his African, African American, and World folktales through his music, humor, and games. Sandy Hook students enjoyed the storyteller April 3 during the presentation sponsored by the school PTA cultural arts committee.

Mr Bumpus had the students laughing almost immediately as he began telling folktales, some realistic and some exaggerated. His program was interactive, allowing students to become a part of the story.

One story he told was about a group of animals that were suffering because of a drought and lack of food. But they stumbled across this tree with lots of fruit on it, but in order for the fruit to come off the tree, the tree’s name had to be used. Mr Bumpus used student’s names in the audience as animals that traveled to ask a special person the name of the tree, which they all inevitably forgot before getting back to the tree because something distracted them.

“For my workshops, I have developed a collection of instructive materials and games to help the students realize their potential to create excellent stories. Activities are intended to impart tools which will aid the students in being able to draw on knowledge they already have from reading and listening to stories,” Mr Bumpus said. “My primary mission is to help raise the level of students’ and teachers’ confidence with creating, writing, and telling stories. I try to do this by developing tools that break the story creation process down into finite, very accessible tasks and into activities that are as enjoyable as they are edifying. My hope with this is to encourage literacy, communication, and forge a strong sense of community with what I see as our most human of activities, storytelling.”

Mr Bumpus began telling stories in his own classroom at an alternative elementary school he taught at in Massachusetts in the 1970s. In the 1980s he operated a school-aged daycare and told stories in the morning and in the afternoon at his after-school program. In the late 80s, Mr Bumpus decided to make a performance out of his stories and travel throughout the country sharing them with students by offering storytelling and writing workshops.

“I hope that children get a sense that stories can be fun and exciting without ever having to use violence to solve problems. These days, violence is often equated with ‘action’ and without action, stories are considered boring or corny or babyish,” Mr Bumpus. “I also hope that they are encouraged to be creative with their own storytelling and writing.”

Mr Bumpus has a website at www.folktales.net.