Minneapolis, MN \u2014 The thirty third iteration of the Black Master Storytellers Festival continued this year with heavy hearts after losing two master storytellers, including the matriarch of the festival, in 2023. Six months ago in March, Mrs. Beverly Cottman passed while visiting Egypt and in September, Mrs. Nothando Zulu transitioned. <\/p>\n
BSA\u2019s 33rd annual \u201cSignifyin\u2019 & Testifyin’\u201d Black Master Storytellers Festival, was a three-day event spanning Thursday, Sept. 28 until Saturday, Sept. 30. This year\u2019s theme was, \u201cFolklore. Folktales. Folk Wisdom: Stories That Transform.\u201d Each night during the festival at 6:30 p.m. Black master storytellers from across the world shared Black stories to the public for free. Thursday night\u2019s opening ceremony was held at Perpich Center for Arts, Friday\u2019s Liars Content was held at the Capri Theater and Saturday night\u2019s Grand Finale was held at the Hennepin Theatre Trust in downtown Minneapolis. <\/p>\n
Watch the full video<\/a> of the Grand Finale below. Since 2016, Unicorn Riot has covered the festival several times, see our past<\/a> coverage further down in the article.<\/p>\n \u201cAuntie\u201d Beverly Cottman was a teacher, a scientist, an artist, a storyteller, and a pillar in the Northside community along with her husband, Bill, who also recently passed. For the festival events, she would host storytellers from around the world in her house and was routinely the libation giver and pourer at the opening while also taking the role of being a storyteller. <\/p>\n Mrs. Zulu was the President and co-founder of the Black Storytellers Alliance<\/a> (BSA) along with her husband Vusumuzi Zulu. BSA is a 501(c)(3) non-profit that has organized the festival for the last three decades. Mrs. Zulu was a titan for the Northside community and spent her life looking out for her neighbors, teaching youth, sharing Black stories and building an institution of Black storytellers in the Twin Cities and across the world. Watch a recent compilation video of Mrs. Zulu telling stories last year<\/a>. <\/p>\n BSA provides an outlet for master storytellers to preserve stories of traditions, culture, heritage, and history through the art of oral storytelling. This is especially important in Minnesota, whose white population hovers around 81%<\/a>, and access to forms of non-European art is limited.<\/p>\n The offspring of the Cottman\u2019s and Nothando Zulu have already picked up the tradition and are carrying on the legacy of storytelling griots. <\/p>\n The storytellers featured this year were Toni Simmons, Dr. Nokugcin Mhlophe, Mitch \u201cGran\u2019daddy Junebug\u201d Capel, Kunama Mtendajl, Queen Nur, and Valerie Tutson. <\/p>\n Celebrating Black Joy Virtually as Black Storytellers Festival Hits 31 Years<\/a> \u2013 2021<\/strong><\/p>\n 28 Years of Black Storytelling<\/a> \u2013 2019<\/strong><\/p>\n Sharing Black History One Story at a Time: Festival Reaches 27 Years<\/a> \u2013 2018<\/strong><\/p>\n At the end of the festival in 2018, we heard from the festival director, Vusumuzi Zulu and five master storytellers, see below. Mr. Zulu told Unicorn Riot that storytelling is \u201cone of the most powerful ways to transmit culture<\/strong>,\u201d history, and traditions.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve just got to get those stories told we\u2019ve got to get children to see themselves as being people who have power, ability, and capability.<\/strong>\u201d \u2013 Vusumuzi Zulu, \u201cSignifyin\u2019 & Testifyin’\u201d Festival Director<\/p>\n \n<\/p> \u201cMy goal with storytelling is to motivate children to read so when they hear this story orally, oh they want to go and find a book where that story is that they can read it.<\/strong>\u201d \u2013 Toni Simmons, Storyteller, Author, Librarian<\/p>\n \n<\/p> \u201cIf you think that you don\u2019t have a strong background or base to grow up in you feel like there\u2019s something missing in your life. So when our children are told about the history and that they do come from kings and queens\u2026you need to know where you came from.<\/strong>\u201d \u2013 Mother Minter, Storyteller, Author, Librarian<\/p>\n \n<\/p> \u201cFinding a likeness or connection and being able to see yourself in somebody else\u2019s story. And I think when children are able to see themselves in stories that are created for them, created from their ancestors, it just can touch them a little bit more, you know. The more you have in common the more you can connect.<\/strong>\u201d \u2013 Mama Koku, Storyteller, Author<\/p>\n \n<\/p> \u201cKeep it alive, make sure you support local storytellers because they\u2019re out there, for schools, for churches, for communities, they\u2019re out there and we all have something to learn and we all have a story to tell.<\/strong>\u201d \u2013 L\u00c4<\/span>CA Bridges, Storyteller, Teacher<\/p>\n \n<\/p> \u201cSometimes children have their first chance to experience the rhythm of the drums, African dance, and stories told in the African tradition so it\u2019s important that we keep it alive.<\/strong>\u201d \u2013 Oba William King, Storyteller, Founder of JustUs Arts<\/p>\n \n<\/p>\n Black Storytellers Alliance Celebrates its 25th Annual Black Master Storytelling Festival<\/a> \u2013 2016<\/strong><\/p>\n Cover image concocted by Niko Georgiades for Unicorn Riot. Middle pictures of Nothando Zulu and Beverly Cottman are from WE WIN Institute\u2019s Griot Festival in 2016 taken by Patience Zalanga. Left image of Nothando Zulu and right image of Beverly Cottman from social media.<\/em><\/p>\n \nFollow us on X (aka Twitter)<\/a>, Facebook<\/a>, YouTube<\/a>, Vimeo<\/a>, Instagram<\/a>, Mastodon<\/a>, Threads<\/a>, BlueSky<\/a> and Patreon<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n The post Black Storytellers Festival Continues with Heavy Hearts as Matriarch Passes<\/a> appeared first on UNICORN RIOT<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Minneapolis, MN \u2014 The thirty third iteration of the Black Master Storytellers Festival continued this…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":12562,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1973],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-from-unicorn-riot"],"yoast_head":"\nPlease consider a tax-deductible donation to help sustain our horizontally-organized, non-profit media organization:<\/strong><\/h5>\n