Using African tales to share life lessons
There are always lessons in Alyce Smith-Cooper’s work, whether they’re found in the stories she shares as an ancestral storyteller, or the work she’s done in the community as a registered nurse, chaplain and ordained minister. Today, she’ll relay some of those lessons through her telling of “Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters,” by Caldecott winner John Steptoe.
“I got started many years ago, as a result of being an actress and working ensemble with a director and a regular production crew,” she says of her work as a storyteller and performer. “It was then that I discovered the freedom of storytelling as a solo artist. With that, I was led more deeply into studying the art of storytelling.”
Her performance is from 2 to 3 p.m. today at the David C. Copley Foundation Teen IDEA Lab in the Logan Heights Library, featuring the story of two beautiful sisters with very different personalities — one is very kind and the other is more mean-spirited. The organizers asked for this story because of its portrayal of the ways that values build character and character shapes lives, she says.
Smith-Cooper, who lives in southeastern San Diego, is a teaching artist and family arts program storyteller with the nonprofit Arts Education Connection San Diego and has previously performed at the Old Globe, La Jolla Playhouse and the Lyceum Theatre. She took some time to talk about her performance today, being recognized for her contributions, and what she’s learning in this current season of her life.
Q: How do you approach preparing for an appearance like the one you have today? What are you thinking about in terms of what you want to convey?
A: First, by researching the subject matter in my area of interest. Where African folk tales are concerned, I tend to prefer picture books because I can refer my audience back to them so that they can learn the stories themselves and have a visual image of the emotional impact the characters have on each other and their environment. After finding the appropriate story, I begin to memorize it by picturing the various connections made by the characters in the story. After that, the characters take on their own lives and the story continues. In this story, the emphasis is upon the depth of characteristics shown by both daughters in the community in which they live.
Q: What lesson do you hope guests take from today’s performance?
A: The vital structure of community and the relationships people have with each other and their environment, and with the earth that nurtures them.
Q: We spoke briefly this week about the growth it takes to go from downplaying one’s emotional expression, to more openly embracing the spectrum of human emotion that a person genuinely feels in the moment. What has that process been like for you?
A: For me, the process of emotional expression, be it open or covert, begins with my ability to reverse roles with the character in order to better understand and express what their conflicts and intentions might be. I first started down this road by giving the characters voices and mannerisms that I could express as a storyteller. The result has been increased enjoyment from the audience as they experience various levels of the characters’ personalities. I find that the more engaged I am as a storyteller, the more engaged I find my audience to be. The more engaged the audience, the more deeply they receive the message of the author.
Q: How has this increased emotional openness shown up in your work as an artist? Would you say it’s helped your art? Made it more difficult?
A: Emotional openness is learned by repetition. The more I have engaged in this process, the more easily I am able to understand the characters I am portraying and bring life to their words. This has helped me to be a more expressive artist, and more effectively bring life’s nuances and lessons to the forefront for the
audience. I believe this is making me a better person, which adds to my ability to be a better communicator and a more effective storyteller.
Q: You’ve been recognized for the contributions of your work in significant ways over the years, with inclusion in the San Diego Women’s Hall of Fame, as a Legacy Artist Fellow through the
California Arts Council, and most recently as an honoree in the San Diego African American Museum of Fine Art’s “Keepers of the Culture” event next Friday. What has it meant to you to be recognized in these ways?
A: The abundant recognition from my community is serving to facilitate my growth and development in this senior season of my life. I have always seen myself as a service provider in any role that I have taken in my life. As a result of receiving these honors and being recognized in this way, I now find myself transitioning into one who can also graciously receive.
Q: How do you see your own work within the context of keeping, expanding and uplifting Black culture?
A: As a senior woman in the Black community who has weathered (and continues to weather) monumental life challenges, I find the values that I have learned from my youth, and moving forward, continue to motivate and serve me well. The tools of integrity, curiosity, gratitude, and worship of the creator, continue to light my way. I can only be who I am. I can only be a wayshower for those who are willing to be mentored. My choice of events, creative content and style of presentation are my methods for keeping, expanding and uplifting Black culture.
Q: Why has it been important to you to focus your work in this way?
A: In the era into which I was born, there was an overarching intention to marginalize the African influence upon American culture, to exclude the Afro-centric influence. My style of storytelling is my method of expressing who I am as an African American woman. Everything — from my choice of language, to costume, to music, to the vibrant smile and laughter I express in my storytelling — serves this purpose. These are all important areas of focus in my work.
Q: What’s been challenging artist?about your work as an
A: The most challenging part has been to see myself as productive in my service as an artist. I always volunteered my artistic work while being paid for my profession. The challenge for me in this season is to receive from my service as an artist the support that I need for living.
Q: What’s been rewarding about this work?
A: The reward from my work is the joy that I see expressed in the eyes and reactions of the audience. The bringing together of a community where people can see themselves as one family of human beings and relate to one another in a loving manner.
Q: What has this work taught you about yourself?
A: It has taught me that I have the ability to create a safe space in which people can experience emotions and reactions to situations they might never have imagined prior to this artistic experience. For many people, this is a first.
Q: What is the best advice you’ve ever received?
A: Know yourself and be yourself !
Q: What is one thing people would be surprised to find out about you?
A: That I really am a very shy person.
Q: Please describe your ideal San Diego weekend.
A: A joyful, special event at the beach, with a band, great food, great company, lots of laughter, and beautiful art.