From 1970 to 1973 I worked full time as a Library I staff person for Carnegie Library [Pittsburgh, Penn]. My position as an African storyteller was newly created after the Martin Luther King, Jr. assassination 'riots' in Pittsburgh. This position was a part of a library division called "Inner City Services". Inner City Services was initiated some years before 1969. That program worked closely with the Bookmobile, a traveling library in large specially modeled vans that traveled to hard to reach economically deprived neighborhoods without nearby library branches.

As an African storyteller, I facilitated after-school, summer, and special programming programs that centered around my telling African stories that I had adapted. In that position, I traveled [largely by bus-it amazes me when I think about it!] to various neighborhood branches of that large library system. In addition, I held classroom sessions, and conducted auditorium programs on African culture at numerous {mostly elementary} schools within the Pittsburgh area. An integral part of my presentation was sharingexamples & information about various African musical instrumeents and inviting children on-stage {or in front of the classroom} to demonstrate these instuments. Eventually, I was joined at some of these programs by a man who played djembe African drums and who really knew how to play the sekere, the agogo, and other musical instruments I had collected.

The majority of these schools we visited and the library branches where I was stationed were in predominately African American communities and the primary goal of that African storytelling position was to increase African American children's use of the library. I'm not sure how successful I was in reaching that goal, but as a result of that position,I believe taht I succeeded in introducing quite a few children, youth, and adults to the richness of West African cultures.

I count that among one of the best jobs I ever had. One of the things that I loved about that job was the fact that when I had no scheduled programs, I could read books. The only thing I didn't like about working at the library was that, in my opinion, it was too quiet.

For about 3 years after I left that position, Pittsburgh's Carnegie Library system hired a woman from Nigeria, West Africa as an African storyteller. Unfortunately, I believe that due to reduced budgets, after that time that system has had no full [or part] time "African storyteller" on staff. And at some point, the Inner City Services program ended.

What a shame.