It is often impossible to pinpoint the exact origin or creator of a folk song. This makes folk songs, unlike pop songs, belong to no one person, but rather have a group ownership by the people who keep them alive. It’s like a family inside joke where nobody can quite remember which aunt, uncle, or grandparent was the first to say it, but it still belongs to all of you. This program combines storytelling and folk music to present both the concept of folksongs as a vessel that carries on your culture’s tradition and values, as well as those specifically from Haiti.

Young audiences will be invited to sing along to simple and engaging call-and-response song and storytelling moments, with most of the music coming from Haiti to present the story of this nearby country that has long historical ties to the United States, and songs from the Black American tradition. This show features Talie on vocals and guitar, with music primarily from Haiti, Senegal, and the USA in collaboration with Senegalese kora player and singer, Youba Cissokho.

The interactive show culminates when young people are invited to complete a song with words of their own that reflect their personal folklore, demonstrating how culture is made and preserved. As far as oral tradition goes, the tradition of song holds so much. It’s no wonder that certain founders of western music education philosophy were of the mind that folk song is where a child’s musical education should begin, the songs that feel most intrinsically like home for the child. This show will feature themes of home, family, spirituality, as well as Black history.