User:Oceanflynn/sandbox/Orunamamu

Orunamamu (4 April 1921 – 4 September 2014) was an American/Canadian storyteller, raconteur and griot. Following her retirement in the 1970s as Master School Teacher in the Berkeley school district, Orunamamu started storytelling, following in the footsteps of her grandmother and father. Orunamamu traveled extensively, often by train, to "storytelling festivals across North America when she is not on her porch in her home in Oakland, California passing the time with strangers or visiting her son in Calgary."

Even as a teacher in the public school system, ""Mary Beth Washington did almost everything contrary to the rules: she took the kids out walking in the rain; she slept with them during naptime; she came to school dressed like a circus performer. She was in love with birds, dancing, poetry and people. The School Board, more than once, voted to fire her, but the parents came to her defense again and again and won the day. She was about 30 years ahead of her time, a Flower Child before the era of flower children, with a genius for teaching kids. Once my own were in high school, the School Board finally had its way and kicked her out.""

- North 2014

"Raconteur Orunamamu was well-known for her "hat-i-tude," her walking sticks and her impromptu dancing." She continued storytelling until her death in Calgary in 2014. In 2004 she was described by Niesar in The Rockridge News as "Rockridge's very own world-class storyteller." When Niesar met her she was "green velvet chapeau, quilted jacket, yellow stockings her trademark, necklaces and bangles, numerous bags and a sturdy walking stick, the mark of the griot." According to Greg Young who produced a documentary about her,

"Her house in Oakland, California, called Yellowlegs, provides the main stage for her storytelling today, and is also a refuge for her abundant supply of storytelling parafinalia. Currently in her 80s, Orunamamu travels extensively, telling stories to everyone who will listen, and continues to work toward organizing her storytelling museum."

Her house in Oakland was described as,

"...a house that is turned inside out and you most likely won't find her there, because to find a feather, as everyone knows, you must go out to where the feathers are. And so her house on Ocean View, just off College, is not so much a house as it is a public private museum, a repository of all the adventures and stories she brings home with her each day. If you are lucky you will find Orunamamu meaning morning star in Yoruba sitting on her front steps among a panoply of colorful objects, handing out stories or inviting you to tell one."