Imagination was all the fuel young Diane needed to learn a little more of her heritage and appreciate her African-American culture.
With a star, she was whisked to Africa where she was told stories of African legends by a tribe’s storyteller, experienced the Middle Passage, lived in slavery in early America, traveled the Underground Railroad with Harriet Tubman, and sat in the back of the bus in the early ’50s.
Diane’s journey through African-American history gave her the hunger for more knowledge of her heritage.
This was the story told by storyteller Allison Smith as she sprinkled facts of African and African-American history while she told of Diane’s journey Feb. 19 in the Culp Center Auditorium as part of the ongoing celebration of Black History Month at ETSU.
Esop’s fable, The Tortoise and the Hare, was told to Diane by a tribe’s storyteller in Africa. Smith, a graduate of Ohio State University, delighted the audience with impressions of both the tortoise and the hare.
“Esop had so many stories the people of the village heard at least one story a day,” Smith said.
All the while, Diane, still not getting the point, worried more about her nail and sitting on the ground in her designer jeans.
The journey would soon be more treacherous as her imagination guided by a star placed her in chains and threw her on a boat. Diane experienced the Middle Passage in horror as she watched Africans being thrown overboard to die.
She then woke to find herself in a small hut on Mr. Smith’s plantation. There Diane picked cotton with everyone else and heard an elder’s tale about slaves that flew over trees to escape slavery. Diane was now in America for the remainder of her journey.
On the plantation, she heard the story of Briar Rabbit. The audience chuckled as smith patted her belly impersonating Briar Rabbit after he had stolen the Bear’s churn of butter.
Smith also sang slave songs to illustrate her stories with the accompaniment of bongo drums.
“Pick a bale of cotton, pick a bale of hay,” she sang as she danced around the stage.
Diane then traveled the Underground Railroad with Harriet Tubman. Once again Diane complained but she pushed on hoping this nightmare would be over soon. Tubman led them to the North and Diane’s imagination took her to Montgomery, Ala., in the midst of the 1950’s bus boycott.
“Can’t you read?” the bus driver asked Diane. “This is the whites only section. You have to sit in the back.”
Smith then told the story of an elderly lady who wanted to take a drink of the “whites only” water fountain.
Diane participated too after the old woman found out the water was exactly the same as that she drank out of the colored fountain.
Smith also told stories of famous black Americans like Bill Puckett, a cowboy.
Diane finally woke up in her room, nails still intact, safe and sound. She became so excited about her journey she learned more and more of African-American history. Her eyes had been opened to her heritage.
“Diane now knows she can fly over an obstacle just as the old slave had told her on the Southern plantation,” Smith said as she ended the story.
Smith delighted the audience and brought to the surface facts about African-American culture some might not have known.
Her motions throughout the presentation entertained and informed.
Smith is working on her master’s degree at ETSU. She is also a member of the Cleveland Association of Black Storytellers and a member of the National Black Storytellers. She is an artist, a quilter, a vivid storyteller and entertainer.

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