Our Purpose
The mandate of Natural Born Tellers is to explore the transference of knowledge and culture within the Afro-Canadian diaspora through oral traditions to determine and define identity.
“Storytelling is
very different from story-reading. A storyteller learns and internalizes
the story and then recreates it from memory, using voice and body to
convey their understanding of the story’s meaning and nuances. The
result, when the storyteller is skilled in their craft, is ‘a vibrant re-
creation of the story for both teller and listener…To hear a story is
to be touched in both heart and mind.” – Ottawa Storytellers
We envision a reality where black Canadians embrace oral traditions as the language of resilience.
We build cohesiveness within Black Canadian Communities through storytelling by:
Employing an Afrocentric approach to storytelling for cultural knowledge transfer.
Elevating the status of stories and the role of storytellers as purveyors of culture, values and betterment within the black community.
Providing online resource tools to facilitate storytelling engagement.
Our History
It all began one evening in January 2022 when the idea for Natural Born Tellers came to be. By day, arts administrator, Debra Baptiste served the general storytelling community as Executive Director of Storytelling Toronto. After hours, she often grappled with how storytelling could benefit and meet the needs her own Afro-Canadian community. This was the impetus for the very first co-produced event later that year. Under the umbrella of Storytelling Toronto and along with partners, the Toronto Public Library, the Black Business Professional Association, Diversified Youth Initiative, TD Bank and the City of Toronto, NBT ran the ‘Stories of Little Jamaica’ program on Eglinton West in Toronto. It was a community outreach initiative that used the art form of oral storytelling to foster community participation, awareness, and a source of pride for the residents of Toronto’s ‘Little Jamaica’. Storytelling circles, incentives, and presentations drew out the natural storytellers from the community.
We created a celebration of oral storytelling and featured the work of the late, famed Jamaican storyteller ‘Miss Lou’, Trinidadian-Canadian storytelling icon Dr. Rita Cox (for which North America’s largest collection of African and Caribbean literature is named), Kesha Christie (Talkin’ Tales), and the UK’s Master Storyteller, Jan Blake. A series of storytelling circles were held at the Maria A. Shchuka Library. The project was supported by a youth intern from Diversified Youth Initiative and light snacks and refreshments were provided by local businesses.
The legendary Jamaican-born storyteller, Dr. Louise Bennett-Coverley ‘Miss Lou’ also made her home in Canada.