How Titi and I met to begin our project is quite the story. It makes it seem to each of us as if there was a bit of Destiny at work…
I had decided that the best way to promote my storytelling school would be through a podcast. My format was to invite an accomplished storyteller to tell a story, be interviewed by me, tell my own story, and then comment. (The podcast, Storytelling Matters, lasted a year and is currently on long-term hold).
In order to do this, I needed transcriptions of my interviews, as I edit them carefully. So I headed over to fiverr to find a good, affordable transcriptionist. Fate sent me to Titi.
After completing several transcriptions, she reached out to me directly. “These stories are wonderful! They remind me of my grandmother’s stories and how she told them; it’s so sad that they’re being lost…”
Of course, you couldn’t have said anything more enticing to me. I suggested that she tell them herself; she demurred, saying she wasn’t a storyteller. I encouraged her, and had her send me a recording of her trying a story. She did so, and I knew I had encountered a gifted storyteller “in the rough.”
I hired her to tell some stories for the podcast, and offered to take her on as a student. She was thrilled – she had wanted to be a storyteller! I asked her about her dreams, and she said to gather stories from Yoruba and share them with families here and in her own country.
And so the Yoruba Project was born…
Please support the Yoruba Project here!