February 3, 2023- Hope Academy kicked off Black History Month with a presentation of African Folk stories by Black storyteller, Oba William King.
King is a member of the National Association of Black Storytellers, and has been honored for his work. King is an Illinois Humanities Council Road Scholar, a 2009 recipient of the National Association of Black Storytellers Liars Contest Award, and is a recipient for the Illinois Arts Council Fellowship Award.
King performed a series of African folk stories through call and response, poetry, drumming, song, and dance. He performed for Hope Academy students, ranging from kindergarten to eighth grade.
“During the month of celebration in February, we get to dip in a little further into the history of my people, of our people,” King said. “We begin to understand that on the continent of Africa is where the beginning of mankind started.”
Through a grant from the Community Foundation of Macon County, in partnership with the Decatur Area Arts Council and the African-American Cultural & Genealogical Society Museum Of Illinois, King was able to come to Decatur to perform at Hope Academy.
“We wanted to get a storyteller into the schools because we know that the African culture has a rich tradition of storytelling as an art form,” Jami Fawley, Gallery Coordinator at the Decatur Area Arts Council said. “It’s not something that kids necessarily get exposed to, a lot. So we saw a lot of value in them being exposed to that art form and participating in it through a call and response like how Oba performs.”
Following the presentation of Hope Academy, King will be performing at the Decatur Area Arts Council at 6 p.m. for the First Friday Gallery Walk, to kick off the February exhibit, Storytellers: a Celebration of Black Artists. Artwork from six Black artists from the Central Illinois region will be featured. The exhibit is co-curated by Jami Fawley and Decatur artist Antonio L. Burton, aka Toni Picasso.
“We believe very strongly that art is a form of communication and through their arts whether it is music or visual arts, artists are all just telling a story,” Fawley said.”We allowed our artists to go ahead and tell their story on the wall of the gallery. So they have a visual piece and then they have the written word as well.”
