African Diaspora at Internet Archive: Under the Storyteller's Spell

I'm really excited about today's Caribbean book because it was one that has been added to the Internet Archive recently, back in March of this year. When I first started this Diaspora project back in February, I looked and looked, hoping to find this book edited by Faustin Charles at the Archive... but it was not there. When I just did an update to my inventory recently, I discovered that it is now available! Yay! Here is the book: Under the Storyteller's Spell: Folktales from the Caribbean.

In addition to editing the book, Charles contributed two of the stories: Anancy and Monkey Business, and Pierra and the La Diablesse. You will also find stories by James Berry, Grace Nichols and Petronella Breinburg here (who have been featured in earlier blog posts), along with folktales retold by 10 more Caribbean authors.

The beautiful illustrations are by Rossetta Woolf. Here is her illustration for Charles's Anancy story:

Faustin Charles, born in 1944, is a poet and novelist from Trinidad now based in London. He is best known for his children's "animal" books, which you can also find at the Archive: books by Faustin Charles. The most famous is The Selfish Crocodile. (As you can guess, the crocodile finally learns not to be selfish, and he shares the river with all the other animals.) 

So, thanks to the ongoing digitization of books at the Internet Archive, this wonderful collection of Caribbean folktales is now just a click away with Controlled Digital Lending!

Under the Storyteller's Spell:
Folktales from the Caribbean

by Faustin Charles

African Diaspora at Internet Archive: The Great Snakeskin

After spending yesterday and the day before with the remarkable writer and poet John Agard, I wanted to feature three more of his books today. The first one is a folktale retold in the form of a play: The Great Snakeskin.

The lovely illustrations are by Jill Newton, who was born in Australia and is now based in the U.K. (more at her website):

As Agard explains at the opening of the book, he got the idea for this story from an indigenous legend of the people of Guyana who lived there before the Europeans came, bringing enslaved Africans with them. There has always been a powerful back-and-forth between African and indigenous storytelling traditions throughout the Americas and the Caribbean; I'll have something more to say about that next week with a book about the trickster rabbit stories of African Americans and the native peoples of the southeastern United States. Meanwhile, if you are curious about Agard's source, here it is: W. H. Brett's The Indian Tribes of Guiana, published in 1852.

The next is an AMAZING anthology of Caribbean poetry, with poems about the wind, the sea, the people, and the animals of the Caribbean, co-edited by John Agard and his partner, the poet Grace Nichols: Under the Moon and Over the Sea.

You will find that it is full of folkloric and mythological themes, like this poem about Mama-Wata by Grace Nichols:

And here's Vyanne Samuels writing on Obeah power:

And Charles Faustin with a poem about jumbies:

Those gorgeous illustrations are by Christopher Corr, an artist based in London (more at his website).

Finally, I also wanted to share one final book: it is not a book of folktales or legends, but is instead a book about books. Book's own autobiography! And it's brilliant! My Name Is Book.

The delightful illustrations are by Neil Packer, a British illustrator (more at his website). Here's his illustration for the part of the book about books-as-volumes, rolled up and then unrolled for reading:

This book is recent enough that ebooks are part of the picture too: books have been animal (sheepskin vellum), vegetable (papyrus), and mineral (stone and clay)... and now: digital!

So, if you have not encountered the mind-bending and joyful delight of John Agard and of Grace Nichols also, jump in! The Internet Archive has all these books just waiting for you, only a click away.

Meanwhile, I'll be off for the next week (moving! argh!)... but I hope to be back in action a week from now on Wednesday. See you then!

The Great Snakeskin

by John Agard

Under the Moon and Over the Sea

by John Agard and Grace Nichols

My Name Is Book

by John Agard