Stories Passed Down

by Jonathan Samuel Eddie

level: Intermediate

60 minutes

The Harlem Renaissance, Afrofuturism

Message from the creator Begin lesson

Lesson Tool Kit

Materials Needed

projector

pencil and paper

Folktale Qualities

Folktale Organizer

Folktale Types/Vocabulary

Prework

Students should be familiar with basic story elements including characters, plot, setting, and dialogue.

Objectives

Students will develop a definition of oral histories, folktales, folklore.

Students will be able to articulate the important distinction between oral and written histories.

Students will create their own written/oral histories.

Essential Questions

What is folklore?

What can it tell us about our history and ourselves?

Why do people hold these stories dear, and why do they keep retelling them?

American folklorist and writer Zora Neale Hurston was an important figure of the Harlem Renaissance. Hurston’s works focused on African American culture and the rural south. Black folklore has been a huge inspiration of my work as a performance and teaching artist. This oral tradition has allowed me to use art to demonstrate decision making, reinforce lessons on plot/plotlines, and shared values and morals. It’s been through the stories of my community that have helped me to reach across time and space to reach the young people I have been blessed to work with.

Through the gaze of Zora Neale Hurston, students will explore African American folktales of the South.