Spring 2022 Virtual Series: Gullah Geechee Culture in Song and Story
Singer/songwriter Melanie DeMore returns to the Living Legacy Project, accompanied by world-renowned storyteller, Diane Ferlatte. Together, they will immerse us in the world of Gullah Geechee culture. Take a journey with us to the southeast US coast and learn the extraordinary role of Gullah Geechee people in embodying their freedom story and engaging in the Civil Rights Movement.
Date and Time
May 11, 2022 -- 4:30 pm PT, 5:30 pm MT, 6:30 pm CT, 7:30 pm ET
If you miss any of the programs in this series, please know that they are available for on-demand viewing on our YouTube channel.
Date and Time
May 11, 2022 -- 4:30 pm PT, 5:30 pm MT, 6:30 pm CT, 7:30 pm ET
If you miss any of the programs in this series, please know that they are available for on-demand viewing on our YouTube channel.
Guests
Melanie DeMore
Melanie DeMore: Vocal Activist is one of the most outstanding vocal artists of today helping to preserve the African American Folk Tradition through song and Gullah stick pounding. She was the subject of Stick and Pound, a documentary which showcases this tradition. Melanie has a career spanning 30 years dedicated to teaching, lecturing, mentoring, conducting, directing, and inspiring children and adults about the power of song as social and political change. Melanie is a popular presenter, conductor, and soloist at national and international choral and music festivals, including Festival 500 in Newfoundland, Canada, and Chorus America.
Melanie is sought after as a song/ prayer facilitator, creating spontaneous choirs for The Trinity Institute, The Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society, and the Powell Foundation, as well as many varied spiritual and faith based organizations.
Melanie is adjunct faculty at the California Institute for Integral Studies, lead teaching artist for Cal Performances at UC Berkeley, a featured presenter for Speak Out!, the Institute for Social and Cultural Change, and the Artistic Conductor of The Oakland Children’s Community Choir with Living Jazz.
She was a founding member of the Grammy nominated, Linda Tillery and the Cultural Heritage Choir, and has had the pleasure of sharing the stage with such varied artists as Odetta, Richey Havens, Pete Seeger, the Trinity Choir, MUSE Cincinnati Women's Chorus, and many others.
Melanie DeMore is a singer/songwriter, composer, conductor, and vocal activist, who believes in the power of voices raised together.
Melanie says, “A song can hold you up when there seems to be no ground beneath you.” Visit melaniedemore.com to learn more about Melanie and her music.
Melanie is sought after as a song/ prayer facilitator, creating spontaneous choirs for The Trinity Institute, The Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society, and the Powell Foundation, as well as many varied spiritual and faith based organizations.
Melanie is adjunct faculty at the California Institute for Integral Studies, lead teaching artist for Cal Performances at UC Berkeley, a featured presenter for Speak Out!, the Institute for Social and Cultural Change, and the Artistic Conductor of The Oakland Children’s Community Choir with Living Jazz.
She was a founding member of the Grammy nominated, Linda Tillery and the Cultural Heritage Choir, and has had the pleasure of sharing the stage with such varied artists as Odetta, Richey Havens, Pete Seeger, the Trinity Choir, MUSE Cincinnati Women's Chorus, and many others.
Melanie DeMore is a singer/songwriter, composer, conductor, and vocal activist, who believes in the power of voices raised together.
Melanie says, “A song can hold you up when there seems to be no ground beneath you.” Visit melaniedemore.com to learn more about Melanie and her music.
Diane Ferlatte
As a youngster Diane Ferlatte was steeped in the oral tradition. Her early childhood years in Louisiana were spent on her grandparent's porch with the family and neighbors swapping stories, lies, and tales. After moving to California as an adolescent, Diane has fond memories of the annual trek back to Louisiana with her family, where she recalls fishing in the bayou, making hoecake bread, singing, and storytelling. Her raconteur father would invariably lead the way with family news and history. As she grew older, Diane played the piano and sang in church choirs, performed in various stage productions, and became proficient in American Sign Language, all of which contributed to a completely unforeseen career in storytelling.
The seed for this career was planted in 1980, after Diane and her husband Tom adopted their second child. Four-year-old Joey was a boy who had been raised in a series of foster homes in front of a TV set. Diane soon realized that the nightly reading of stories that was eagerly anticipated by her daughter Cicely was absolutely of no interest to Joey. Committed to breaking him from TV and increasing his readiness for school, Diane started to story read/tell in the style for which she is so well known today, i.e., dynamic characterization with animation, expression, and interaction. Some time later her church was giving a Christmas party for foster and homeless kids and Diane was program committee chair. She told some Christmas stories and lo and behold, a career was born. She started to receive requests to tell at parties, schools, and libraries. Eventually she had to choose between her office job of seventeen years and the ever-increasing requests to tell stories. She decided that the opportunity to make a living at something that one loves and finds so rewarding was definitely worth the risk. Happily she has never looked back.
Diane has wowed audiences across the globe from Graz, Austria, to Auckland, New Zealand. She has toured and performed internationally many times over, including Holland, France, Bermuda, Sweden, Canada, Australia, Singapore, and Malaysia. Diane has visited almost every state in the U.S., including Hawaii and Alaska, to perform at major festivals, theaters, conferences, universities, schools, libraries, senior centers, detention facilities, churches---you name it. Providing workshops for other tellers, ministers, and teachers, as well as serving as keynote speaker/storyteller at professional conferences and conventions has become a rewarding part of her work. Diane continues to focus on schools and libraries as much as possible however, because she believes this is where the tradition of storytelling is to be nurtured and the lessons of the stories most need to be heard. In fact, she was honored to be featured in Language of Literature, McDougal Littell's latest textbook series for middle school grades.
Diane continues to be very busy, but now that her children are grown, (at least they think so), she hopes to find some time to do more recording and perhaps publish a book or two.
For more information, visit dianeferlatte.com.
The seed for this career was planted in 1980, after Diane and her husband Tom adopted their second child. Four-year-old Joey was a boy who had been raised in a series of foster homes in front of a TV set. Diane soon realized that the nightly reading of stories that was eagerly anticipated by her daughter Cicely was absolutely of no interest to Joey. Committed to breaking him from TV and increasing his readiness for school, Diane started to story read/tell in the style for which she is so well known today, i.e., dynamic characterization with animation, expression, and interaction. Some time later her church was giving a Christmas party for foster and homeless kids and Diane was program committee chair. She told some Christmas stories and lo and behold, a career was born. She started to receive requests to tell at parties, schools, and libraries. Eventually she had to choose between her office job of seventeen years and the ever-increasing requests to tell stories. She decided that the opportunity to make a living at something that one loves and finds so rewarding was definitely worth the risk. Happily she has never looked back.
Diane has wowed audiences across the globe from Graz, Austria, to Auckland, New Zealand. She has toured and performed internationally many times over, including Holland, France, Bermuda, Sweden, Canada, Australia, Singapore, and Malaysia. Diane has visited almost every state in the U.S., including Hawaii and Alaska, to perform at major festivals, theaters, conferences, universities, schools, libraries, senior centers, detention facilities, churches---you name it. Providing workshops for other tellers, ministers, and teachers, as well as serving as keynote speaker/storyteller at professional conferences and conventions has become a rewarding part of her work. Diane continues to focus on schools and libraries as much as possible however, because she believes this is where the tradition of storytelling is to be nurtured and the lessons of the stories most need to be heard. In fact, she was honored to be featured in Language of Literature, McDougal Littell's latest textbook series for middle school grades.
Diane continues to be very busy, but now that her children are grown, (at least they think so), she hopes to find some time to do more recording and perhaps publish a book or two.
For more information, visit dianeferlatte.com.