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Eshu changed our lives for the few days he was here. His effect has stayed with us. Children can still be heard singing, "Palm tree dance, dance...All around the market place, dance...He is the best storyteller I have ever heard".
Susan Friend, Cultural Arts Coordinator and Teacher - Green Acres School - Rockville MD

Eshu is a renowned storyteller, and a master at physical characterization.

He captivates his audience by telling a variety of African, African-American and World folktales leavened with music, humor and mystery.

My primary mission is to help raise the level of students' and teachers' confidence with creating, writing and telling stories. I try to do this by developing tools that break the story creation process down into finite, very accessible tasks and into activities that are as enjoyable as they are edifying. My hope with this is to encourage literacy, communication, and forge a strong sense of community with what I see as our most human of activities, storytelling.

Performance

“ ... he held the children and teachers spellbound and totally involved for a full hour, without any signs of lost contact with the audience on a hot and humid spring day.”

Glenn Connor, Principal–Ames, Iowa

Dividing the school into age appropriate groups, (K-3rd and/or 3rd-6th grades) Eshu performs assemblies of African and African American Folktales or Folktales from around the World.

Stories from Africa and Asia

Bring Eshu and Motoko for a wonderful day of Multicultural Tales and Creative Writing and

Storytelling Workshops.

Workshops

I use my storytelling performances of Multicultural or African and African American Folktales as a way of introducing myself to the students and teachers and as a method of modeling principles of originality and non-violence which I insist on in my workshops.

For my workshops, I have developed a collection of instructive materials and games to help the students realize their potential to create excellent stories. Activities are intended to impart tools which will aid the students in being able to draw on knowledge they already have from reading and listening to stories. Enclosed materials that follow may give an idea of my approach.

Following are examples of activities from my workshops. I use story games to teach creative writing in a way that helps students access their ideas in an organized manner. In all my workshops, I insist on two simple rules. Our stories are non-violent and original. The purpose is to encourage creative thinking without plagiarizing and without using violence to solve problems, so please maintain these two rules in these activities.

Interdiction

A Story Opening Sequence

An Interdiction is a ban or prohibition on something. In a story it means that a character is told something they must not do. It is a wonderfully simple and at the same time sophisticated device for writing stories with children. Look to the Interdiction page for several activities that use this device for teaching writing.

Problem Solving Devices

This links to an activity I call, How Did Cinderella Get to the Ball? I use it to teach students that they have many choices when thinking about how to solve a character's problems in a story.

Residencies

“Eshu has a solid understanding of story structure. It is remarkable how quickly he

establishes rapport with children and how skillfully he creates an environment of collegiality among students. The process and product are satisfying both to the children

and their teachers.” Peg O’Sullivan, Literature and Whole Language Consultant - Rowayton, CT

Fun with Stories K-1st

Using group story writing techniques, students begin to learn the rudiments of story structure.

Interdiction Stories 2nd-5th

Students who participate in this workshop will write their own stories. Using a simple story structure based on ideas from Little Red Riding Hood, each student will be introduced to elements of story structure. This will include speaking in front of the class to create paragraphs as well as writing.

Explanatory Tales 3rd-4th

Students will write stories explaining the behaviors and appearances of certain animals

in this four paragraph writing process.

Fables 4th-8th

Students will write fables in which a character who behaves badly will be forced to see things through the eyes of others and learn to treat others better.

Bio

Eshu Bumpus captivates his audience by telling a variety of African, African-American and World folktales leavened with music, humor and mystery.

Eshu is a renowned storyteller, an accomplished jazz vocalist and a master at physical characterization. He has performed on the Exchange Place stage at the National Festival (1998), and performed 36 sold out shows in 13 days at the Smithsonian (1997). After appearing at the 10 Annual Connecticut Storytelling Festival (1991), Eshu was acclaimed as," … a fresh, responsible and knowledgeable voice... distinct and compelling... the hit of the Festival.

Games

The following are games that I use to warm the students up and to help them begin to view the story as a canvas and palette over which we have a great deal of control.

Did you Ever Tell A Lie? An Appalachian Circle Game that’s great for a warm-up.

1. This game uses the following counting rhyme.

As I sat under the Apple tree

All the apples fell on me

Apple pudding, apple pie

Did you ever tell a lie?

2. Use that rhyme to count around the circle. Whoever it ends on has to tell a little story about himself, or herself. It should either be a story that is true, but hard to believe, or a story that is untrue, but sounds believable. The object is to fool as many people as possible.

3. After the teller tells the story, we ask, "How many people believe that story?" Those who believe it raise their hands. Then we ask, "Who doesn't believe that story?" The others raise their hands. Finally, the teller reveals whether the story is true or false.

4. Continue around the circle, skipping those who have had a turn.

5. Sometimes, I have found it necessary to only count those in the circle who want to be counted. Allow students to raise their hands if they want to tell a story. then only count those people with the counting rhyme. After listening for a while, the shy students may decide they also have stories to tell.

6. I stress the idea that the story should be about the teller, not just a story from home. Sometimes a person is tempted to tell a story about a family member who would rather that story not be told.

Fortunately/Unfortunately

1. One person begins a story. Once the main character is created and sent out into the world, something fortunate happens.

2. The second person takes over the story and adds an unfortunate occurrence.

3. The story continues around the circle with each person adding "fortunately" or "unfortunately" to their part of the story. Usually people alternate fortunately and unfortunately.

4. Rather than have the person always say, "fortunately or unfortunately on their turn, another option is to have the person merely present some new circumstance and then have the audience chant, "Oh, that's good!" or "Oh, that's bad!"

Contacts

Eshu Bumpus

75 Lincoln St.

Holyoke, MA 01040-2554

(413) 533-0767

Connecticut Schools

Eileen Carpinella - Young Audiences of CT (203) 230-8101

Virginia

Bluemont Concert Series

(703) 777-6306