Nationally acclaimed storyteller, narrator and singer Charlotte Blake Alston’s free First Fridays for Families virtual performance will begin streaming today at the Columbus Area Arts Council website at artsincolumbus.org and run through May 21.
Alston breathes life into traditional and contemporary stories from African and African American oral and cultural traditions. She is the host of Sound All Around, the Philadelphia Orchestra’s Preschool concert series and has appeared as host or narrator on the orchestra’s school and family concerts since 1991.
The tradition that Alston borrows from may be the strongest in the West African countries of Senegal, Gambia, Guinea and Mali. Passed-down stories in these nations especially were the way the beliefs, mythology, cultural identity, history, and shared community values of a people were taught and preserved.
