Welcome to SpeakUP! International with Rita Burke and Elton Brown!
Kesha Melissa Christe:Why Ants are found everywhere. One day, Lion, the king of the beasts, ordered all of the animals to come and honor him, and one by one tiger, elephant, snake, lizard, and other animals came to bow before Lion. Even ant made the journey, but it was a long journey for every rock and vine ant had to climb up one side and down the other. By the time ant arrived, he was the last to come and honor Lion. Well, all of the other animals began to laugh and Lion called out. Ha ha. It's about time you arrived. Well, this made ant feel very ashamed of himself, and he went away and reported back to the queen of the ants, telling her how horribly Lion had treated him. Well, the Queen of the ants was so angry. She wanted to teach Lion a lesson, and she called on worm. She said, worm go into Lion's ear and torture him. And that is exactly what worm did. He crawled into Lion's ear and began to wiggle and twist and turn and spin, and oh, oh, oh. Lion cried out in agony. Oh, he was so upset! All of the other animals tried to help, but they were just too big until finally Lion had an idea. He went to the Queen of the ants and asked her to send someone to help. She thought about it and decided that Lion had suffered enough. And she sent one of the ants who had to make the long journey once again, and every rock and every vine climbed up one side and down the other. Finally, ant arrived and climbed into lion's ear and called out. Thank you worm. You can come out. And worm came out and Lion was so relieved, he said, ant, you have done well. And I have decided that from now on, you and your people can live anywhere you want. And well, while some animals live in the desert and others in the forest, Some even in the rainforest to this day, this is why ants live everywhere!
Rita Burke:Keisha Christie, the amazing, the refined, the professional. The entertaining storyteller. Thank you so much. I could just listen to some more of you telling me stories. Now it is obvious that you are a storyteller. Tell us more about Keisha Christie. Who is she?
Kesha Melissa Christe:Thank you so much for having me. I am a storyteller and I wear many hats and some of them I wear very well, and others I interchange them, but becoming a storyteller was a bit of a journey for me. Can I share that with you now? Wonderful!
Rita Burke:Please do.
Kesha Melissa Christe:Becoming a storyteller, I've had all of the pieces but didn't know how they fit together. I was able to hold onto history, had a fascination with architecture. I could hold an audience in conversation, but didn't really see the value in all of that. It wasn't until. I got older when I was younger. I used to listen to stories and love the magic that was spun. I would listen to Rita Cox, Ida Sado, and Sandra Whiting and just listen to the different ways they told stories. Ida had a sing song rhythm that made you wanna rock, and Rita had that soft voice, but whenever there was a punch, never see it coming and Sandra waiting. Just be bold and larger than life in her stories I was fascinated. But again, I got older and life took over. I was still close to stories. I volunteered at the Storytelling festival. I was even the ambassador for Dr. Louise Bennett when she was the ambassador of the Storytelling Festival. I was her volunteer. Could you imagine? Backstage listening and watching, and she was definitely dropping seeds, but I didn't know at the time. Because I was a writer, but I was afraid of audiences. So I made the decision to overcome this fear and join Toastmasters. And when I joined Toastmasters, I saw performers and stories tellers and. Speakers of all kinds, and I really loved what I saw and how it made me feel. And they had a project that was definitely named for me. It was the Storytelling Project. And I thought, oh, I can do this. And the very first project was tell a Folk Tale. Of course, I grew up on folk tales, and so this was a perfect opportunity to share my culture with a mixed audience. And when I told that, Something happened, I realized that I connected with the audience in a different way than when I was doing a speech, and I really loved that feeling. And then from that day, I called myself a storyteller, and I volunteered to do storytelling until. It became a paid gig.
Rita Burke:What a story Kesha, what a story! So I hear a marriage between storytelling and Toastmasters and public speaking, and of course that's included in your bio, which I'll tell or audience now a little bit more about you. What a fantastic story that Keisha Christie is a dynamic storyteller and speaker. During her storytelling, she ignites the audience with all kinds of exciting stories. She entices her listeners with stories that entertain and educate. She connects people to culture, to African, Caribbean folk tales, Aesop's fables, and original stories. Keisha facilitates workshops and performs in schools, libraries, festivals, as well as community and corporate events. Here is our guest today, miss Keisha Christie!
Kesha Melissa Christe:Thank you again for having me.
Elton Brown:Wow! You are absolutely an amazing storyteller. Hands down! What story made you want to become a storyteller? Or should I say the person that maybe you heard give a story, made you want to become a storyteller?
Kesha Melissa Christe:Oh wow. It's hard to pick just one story, and I've been influenced by a number of storytellers. But I have to say, it was a conversation I had with Miss Lou and she was just talking about the feeling and when she spoke about the feeling that you, that an audience has when you're delivering a story, I thought, wow, that's fascinating. And then I thought about a quote that Maya Angelou has where she said that,"People don't remember what you do for them, and they often don't remember what you said, but they always remember how you feel." And every time I share a story, I want to recreate a feeling, the excitement, the childlike curiosity. And so I love to share folk tales and um, personal stories because. Take a bit of our culture and infuse it into a conversation, changing the way people think about who they are and challenge themselves and their thoughts on life.
Rita Burke:I like your Maya Angelou quote. People benefit from or are enriched by how you make them feel. I also like the fact that you threw Miss Lou's name out there because I owned the books through in Toronto and I used to sell Miss Lou's books, and I used to go to her place to pick up those books, and I would sit, literally sit on the floor and she would talk and she would tell stories, and it was such a natural flow. And in those days, of course, in those days you didn't tape. Oh I just wished I'd taped some of our conversations. So Mr. Lou obviously influenced you and you dropped a few more names of people that I know as well. I knew Sandra Whitey, Rita Cox. Those are all people that I've had lots of interactions with over, time. Tell us if you've got a favorite story Kesha.
Kesha Melissa Christe:When you ask a storyteller that question, they will tell you that it is the story that they are currently telling There's so much, so many stories to love, and I have to say that I can tell you the stories. I have the most fun telling, and those are tricks to tales like a Nancy Stories. But to tell you just one I can't right now, there's just too many to love.
Rita Burke:Well, I'll tell you, I like the one that you told about the ants. I really think that's, and my ears are tickling as a result of the ants climbing.
Elton Brown:Have you ever thought about writing a story whether it's specifically for adults or children?
Kesha Melissa Christe:Yes, I am a writer and I have a children's book out right now called Why Tortoise Doesn't Fly, and that's a retelling of a Caribbean folk tale. I also have a few projects that I've, I've, um, written about and we'll see what happens in the next year and how they, uh, come to public.
Elton Brown:Well, when you decide to release, uh, your treasures to the world, please let us know because we would certainly love to talk to you again in this forum about your accomplishments, because if there are anything like the story you told at the beginning of this conversation, they must be wonderful!.
Kesha Melissa Christe:Thank you. Thank you very much. I'm happy to come and share.
Rita Burke:So, miss Keisha, you are a storyteller. You're a speaker. You have a traveling caravan that you walk. You walk all over the city and a province telling stories. So tell us then, what do you do when you're not storytelling?
Kesha Melissa Christe:I wear many hats when I'm not storytelling. I am an insurance broker. I am a mom of two. I'm a volunteer or community, uh, leader, I guess, where I go out and I just wanna serve my community and that's what I do when I'm not storytelling.
Rita Burke:Have you taught to your children to do storytelling?
Kesha Melissa Christe:Oh yes. I have a 20 year old who's not very interested and a five year old who just loves the magic of stories.
Elton Brown:Have you ever thought about entertaining individuals groups, I should say, using the spoken word?
Kesha Melissa Christe:Yes, I do that sometimes, but I like to leave it to those young folks who are passionate about, um, spoken word alone. And so I created a platform where once a year we hold an event, a storytelling event, where we combined everything storytelling, so it's spoken word, drumming, dancing, and really reminding everyone that all of these things, all of these arts are storytelling.
Elton Brown:When you talk about drumming, can you kinda explain what that is? What that means?
Kesha Melissa Christe:Sure. African drumming is something that is in our culture, in our blood, and with each beat it tells us story. And I do have a few stories about how we build a drum and how we communicate through drums. And so it's so important to have it added as a part of the program to remind everyone that this beat has a story.
Rita Burke:African drumming. Are you a drummer?
Kesha Melissa Christe:Of sorts. I have a collection of drums and I do, when I go to schools, I introduce the students to drumming, but again, I leave that to the experts so I can focus on the stories.
Rita Burke:Wonderful! So more than likely you have plans for storytelling for Black history wound?
Kesha Melissa Christe:Yes, I do.
Rita Burke:Where and earth do you find the time to do your storytelling, to be a mother, to be a broker, to do this, to do that?
Kesha Melissa Christe:When you love something? The time just comes naturally. And I love storytelling. So the performance, the research, the studying, sharing and perfecting in practice, all find its time in my life.
Elton Brown:Do you find yourself maybe giving stories to children in a group? You know, collecting them in one place and saying, okay, I'm gonna tell a story of Aesop's Fables, one of those to kids. They kinda like those things as opposed to telling a story to a group of adults, whether they're young or middle-aged adults.
Kesha Melissa Christe:I tell story to a wide range of audiences. Uh, I find that children love stories about tricksters and they love scary stories, and I find that seniors love stories that are, remind them of their childhood as well as historical stories so they can tell you where they were when certain things had happened. And so it's very interesting to hear how stories affect the audiences differently.
Rita Burke:We didn't have this on our program. It's not something that we plan to ask you, but I will be presumptuous and bold and bodacious enough to ask you this question. If you had an opportunity to have a huge billboard and you could put whatever you want on that billboard, tell our audience what that would be, please.
Kesha Melissa Christe:If I had a large billboard, what would I put on it? Huh. That's a very interesting question, I would say something along the lines of a stories are the key to life. They connect us all on various levels, so why not put those words on a billboard and see what happens?
Rita Burke:Say that again for me stories...
Kesha Melissa Christe:are the key to life.
Rita Burke:That is so profound. That is so true, because we all have a story to tell, don't we? We all have stories to tell and it's interesting that most of our stories are familiar or similar. I like that. Thank you very much. Elton do you have anything you wanna say to Kesha before we wrap up?
Elton Brown:I am so impressed with the style you use to tell your stories. It's very light, very airy. Alluring. I want to know more about your upcoming stories. As soon as you release them, you must come back so that we can have another conversation with you because this one was more or less, Hmm. I'll call it an introductory session for us to get to know a little bit about you. But we want to learn more about you through your storytelling, and I thank you so much for this afternoon. I certainly appreciate it, Rita?
Rita Burke:I more than appreciate it. I appreciate it so much that I want to cheat and ask her to close with the story. She started with Is that fair? It's unfair, but let's give it another goal, why Ants are found everywhere. One day, Lion, the king of all the beasts, declared that each animal must come and honor him, and one by one tiger. elephant, snake, lizard and other animals came to bow before Lion even the ant made the journey. And when ant traveled, it was such a long way and for every rock and every vine, ant had to climb up one side and down the other. And so by the time that ant arrived, ant was the last to come. All of the animals laughed, including Lion. And he said, well, it's about time that you arrived and this made ant feel very ashamed. And he went back to the queen of the ants and reported on how Lion had made him feel. This made the Queen angry and she wanted to teach Lion a lesson. So she called on Worm and asked Worm to climb into Lion's ear and torture him, and that he did. Worm went into Lion's ear and began to wiggle and twist and roll and jiggle and Lion roar, roar, roared in pain. All of the animals tried to help, but they were just too big. The, lion had an idea. He went to the queen of the ants and begged her to send an ant to help. She thought about it and decided that loin had suffered enough, and so she sent an ant, and of course we know it was a very long journey and for every rock and every vine, ant climbed up one side and down the other.
Kesha Melissa Christe:And it took some time, but ant finally arrived and ant climbed up into Lion's ear and called out, thank you, worm. You can come out now. And Worm came out and Lion was so relieved, he said, well done, ant. You have done a great job and I have decided to reward you. You and your people can live anywhere. Well, to this day, some animals live in the forest, some in the jungle. Some even in the desert, but ants, they live everywhere!
Rita Burke:Ladies and gentlemen, Keisha Christie, the master, the mizz of storytelling. We thank you. We thank you. We thank you.
Kesha Melissa Christe:Thank you for having me.
Elton Brown:Thank you for listening to SpeakUP! International! Kesha Christie has just released a book called Why Tortoise Doesn't Fly. This book is a Caribbean folktale retold by Keisha Christie. When all the animals try to figure out what sounds they should make and how they should move to unlikely friends. A tortoise and a crow try to fly. Find out how this story ends. If you have questions for Kesha or we'd like to purchase the book. Please send your inquiries to K m_christie@yahoo.ca. Would you like to be interviewed on our podcast channel? Please send your contact information, your name, email address and the name of the company to info@speakuppodcast.ca. To listen to more of our podcasts, you can go to www.speakuppodcast.ca or wherever you listen to your podcasts and look for. SpeakUP! International. Our logo has the woman with her hand pointing up mouth open, Speaking UP! Please return to our podcast channel to hear more exciting conversations!