Vivacity: Discovering Zora Through Her Words

In its simplest form, storytelling is the passing of information from one person to the next. When storytelling illuminates time, place and purpose, it is then able to entertain, comfort and transport any listener. As the keeper of the imagination, the storyteller has inspired me as a performer. After reading Zora Neale Hurston‘s Every Tongue Got to Confess, I found my single-defining connection to the art of storytelling. Halimuhfack ultimately became my thesis performance piece inspired by the folk tales from Every Tongue Got To Confess. The new theatre piece shares Hurston‘s folk tale the way it may have once been told; in its natural dialect, with the same active physical involvement as if sharing stories with friends. Together, the research of the folk tale, Hurston‘s anthropological studies, folk songs and narrative from her autobiography aided in the development of the performance piece. In developing this work, I discovered that Hurston‘s tales were extremely action-oriented and were ideally suited to use in my making of Halimuhfack

MEN’S SEXUAL TRAUMA RESISTANCE IN BLACK AMERICAN FOLKLORE: A POSTCOLONIAL CRITICISM OF NEGRO “WOMAN TALES”

The purpose of this paper “Men’s Sexual Trauma Resistance in Black American Folklore: A Postcolonial Criticism of Negro “Woman Tales” from the Gulf States” was to discuss the reflection of postcolonial sexual trauma and resistance to it through storytelling among African Americans in the Gulf States. The study was concerned with 3 folktales classified under the cycle “Woman Tales”. The folktales were selected from the collection made by Zora Neale Hurston in the southern states of Alabama, Florida, and Louisiana from 1927 to 1930 and compiled in the book Every Tongue Got to confess: Negro Folktales from the Gulf States (2001). The postcolonial approach and trauma theory based on the interpretative qualitative method and library research was used in the discussion of the selected folktales. It was found that the performance of the “Woman Tales” is informed by the black men’s traumatic memories of slavery and post-slavery emasculation. Black male narrators imitate trauma narratives in which they reflect male sexual trauma and recreate black woman identity to contain it. Through this imitation and reflection, the folktales challenge the legacy of the plantation patriarchy by reconstructing a woman's identity that is docile to black masculinity

TARLING MUSIC AS A MEANS OF MAINTAINING INDIGENOUS JAVANESE LANGUAGE AT NORTHERN COAST (

This paper aims to investigate the existence of traditional music like “tarling” as a means of maintaining indigenous Javanese language at Northern Coast areas (“Pantai Utara” or “Pantura” for short)in the Provinces of West Java and Central Java. The word ‘tarling’ itself stands for guitar and suling—a traditional flute made of bamboo. This kind of music is commonly heard by communities who live in Indramayu and Cirebon (located in the Province of West Java) and those ones in Brebes, Tegal and Slawi (located in the Province of Central Java)People living in those areas get used to communicating in Javanese language with typically strong accent or dialect which other Javanese speakers at the Eastern area—such as: in Semarang, Solo, and Yogyakarta—call it basa ngapak. The way they communicate in Javanese with basa ngapak is assumed rather rude and impolite even though the assumption cannot be truly generalized. In addition, speaking Javanese with basa ngapak has formed the people of the communities to be proud of their self identity because their Javanese language speaking is unique. While listening to the music and trying to understand the lyrics of the songs, there are some moral values that show how to well behave and interact in social life. It proves that tarling maintains and supports local wisdom through music since music has become a universal means to deliver someone’s intention

“Ooh, it was all so awful”

This narrative illustrates how patient post-operative pain experiences can be influenced by worry, catastrophizing, previous learning experiences, and expectations about what will happen and how they will cope. It also demonstrates that a sympathetic dentist can help shape these expectations to the benefit of patients

Torch, Fall 1994

https://digitalcommons.cedarville.edu/torch/1041/thumbnail.jp