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A Discussion Group of the
National Storytelling Network
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Events: Story Tsunami, Atlanta, GA, Jan. 22, 2005
Storytellers Unite for Tsunami Relief
Interfaith, intercultural event blending stories, music and dance raises
$4,000 for CARE
Mae Gentry - Staff, Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Thursday, January 27, 2005
As stories of despair spill from southeast Asia, storytellers around the
world are offering their gifts in an effort to help victims of the Dec. 26
tsunami that killed an estimated 225,000 people, many of them children swept
from their parents' arms by the giant wave.
Last weekend, local entertainers gathered at a DeKalb County church for a
"Story and Song Tsunami" that featured music, dance and storytelling. It was
one of many events planned in coming months to benefit tsunami victims.
Donations from audience members raised more than $4,000 for the
Atlanta-based international relief agency
CARE.
Similar events in Canada, Japan, Singapore and throughout the United States
will benefit the Mercy Corps, Oxfam, Save the Children and the American Red
Cross.
"We happen to be the first," said storyteller
Audrey Galex, organizer and
emcee of the interfaith and intercultural gathering that brought nearly 300
people to Central Congregational United Church of Christ on a cold Saturday
night.
"I really believe that storytelling is a way that people from diverse
communities --- people who don't know each other's cultures or rituals or
beliefs or practices --- can come to know each other and begin to see each
other as human beings," said Galex, whose Bet Haverim synagogue holds
Saturday services at Central Congregational.
Besides Galex, who specializes in Jewish storytelling, among the performers
were
Elise Witt, who led the audience in signing and song; a troupe of
colorfully dressed Korean children drummers; Martha Tate, who offered a
Chippewa tale;
Tersi Bendiburg, who told her story "Media Manta" ("Half
Blanket") in Spanish and English; and
Celeste Anthony, whose vibrant African
dancing caused the audience to clap to the accompanying drumbeat.
Thai storyteller Tip Weniger began the evening by striking a small gong.
During the program, she recited "The Birth of Ramayana," an ancient Indian
epic about a prince and a deity who fall in love with the same woman.
"I chose this story as a tribute to the children of southeast Asia," she
said during an interview at her north DeKalb home.
Weniger, who was born in northeast Thailand and moved to the United States
in the mid-1980s, visited her native land for three weeks last summer with
students from the Atlanta International School, where her daughter is a
junior.
That trip occurred months before the tsunami destroyed the beaches of
Thailand's Phuket island far to the south.
On Saturday night, Weniger was visibly moved by the spirit of generosity
that filled the church. Her voice quavered as she thanked the audience and
sounded the gong during a closing ceremony that brought all the participants
to the stage.
Galex, also a member of the
Southern Order of Storytellers, is philosophical
about the tsunami, its aftereffects and the global outpouring of compassion
that followed in its wake, including Saturday's benefit.
"It's bringing together people who may not ordinarily come together," she
said. "And I think maybe that's really the blessing in this."
For more information:
Audrey Galex,
Roots & Wings Life Stories,
Audrey@RootsWings.com,
404-486-7377