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Linda Goss

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This article is about the American storyteller. For the American environmental artist, see Linda Gass.

Linda Goss
BornLinda Yvonne McNear
1947 (age 76–77)
Alcoa, Tennessee, U.S.
NicknameMama Linda
OccupationStoryteller, author
Alma materHoward University (B.A.)
Antioch University (M.Ed.)
GenresChildren's literature, storytelling
Years active1973–present
Notable awardsNational Heritage Fellowship (2019)
SpouseClay Goss
Children3

Linda Goss (born 1947), sometimes known professionally as Mama Linda,[1][2] is an American storyteller and performer in the African diasporic oral tradition. She is a co-founder of the National Association of Black Storytellers, which works to preserve folk traditions.

Early life and education

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Linda Yvonne McNear[3][4] was born in Alcoa, Tennessee to Willie and Junior McNear.[2] Her mother was a teacher and her father worked at the Aluminum Company of America (Alcoa).[5] She grew up in a large storytelling family, and often cites tales heard from her Granddaddy Murphy and Uncle Buster as her earliest influences.[1] Her mother was a frequent public speaker at Blount County churches and civic events, and Goss learned speaking techniques from her mother's example. From her father, she learned a love of music, particularly jazz, and an appreciation for the way stories can be told through music.[6] In grade school, her teachers wrote on her report cards that she "talks too much".[7]

Goss's interest in the oral tradition began when she was in high school, working on an assignment to interview the oldest person she knew. After interviewing her grandfather, she realized that old stories like the folklore and personal history he shared with her would be lost if they weren't passed on and collected.[2]

She graduated from Charles M. Hall High School in 1965, and went on to study drama at Howard University,[2] earning her bachelor's degree in 1969.[8] While at Howard, she acted in a play opposite Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis, and participated in the experimental Theater Black troupe, performing the works of Leroi Jones and Norman Jordan. For her senior project, she told stories that had been derived from her childhood in Alcoa.[7] She imbued her performances with elements from folk storytelling and oral tradition, in a collision of styles that was considered unusual at a time when vernacular traditions were kept separate from "fine" arts.[9] She later earned a master's degree in education from Antioch University. She is a member of Zeta Phi Beta sorority.[6]

Career

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Goss was a leader in the resurgence of American storytelling traditions that began in the 1970s.[6] Her first professional stage performance was in Washington, D.C. in 1973.[7] She was a featured storyteller at the 1975 Smithsonian Festival of American Folklife. It was at this festival that she developed her signature style of beginning a storytelling performance by crying out "Well, Oh Well, Oh Well. It’s Storytelling Time!" while ringing bells to gather the crowd and focus its attention. Goss would later trace the lineage of this calling to her grandfather, who had once been responsible for playing a bugle call to wake workers on a plantation in Alabama. She calls it "waking up the people", in honor of and in conversation with this legacy.[9]

Goss's storytelling is influenced by folk tales, poetry, history, and musical forms including jazz, gospel, and country.[2] She sees storytelling as a "tool for social change": a responsive and flexible art form that can be adapted and transformed to fit the immediate context of the teller and the audience.[9]

One of her mentors was the folklorist and art historian Gladys-Marie Fry, a professor at the University of Maryland.[2] Other storytellers, artists, and scholars of folklore were sources of encouragement and community, including Brother Blue, Stephen Henderson, Sonia Sanchez,[6][9] Ella Jenkins, Jackie Torrence, and Mary Carter Smith.[7]

She worked in Philadelphia for over 30 years, and was named by the mayor as that city's official storyteller in 1984.[10]

On February 1, 1984, Goss appeared on the NPR radio show Horizons in an episode titled "Storytelling in the Tradition". She demonstrated the African tradition of storytelling, with examples of tales, chants, and games, as well as describing the technique of her craft.[11] She also appeared on The Today Show and was profiled in several major newspapers including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Philadelphia Inquirer, as well as in Essence magazine.[7]

She has performed at numerous storytelling festivals and events, including the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, Tennessee and has taught classes in the art of storytelling at East Tennessee State University.[12]

She is the author or editor of six books, has recorded several albums, and her stories have been collected in several anthologies[2] and children's reading textbooks.[7]

National Association of Black Storytellers

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After attending a 1982 national storytelling conference at which she was one of only two Black participants, Goss realized there was a need for spaces focused specifically on Black storytelling and folk traditions.[10] She and Mary Carter Smith co-founded the "In The Tradition..." Annual National Black Storytelling Festival and Conference in 1982, followed in 1984 by the creation of the National Association of Black Storytellers.[13] Goss served as the Association's first president, from 1984–1991.[12] At the time of the Association's founding, there were only five African American storytellers invited to national storytelling festivals.[2] Through these organizations, they worked to organize storytellers and provide a platform to increase their visibility, as well as to preserve the oral tradition and ensure stories and folkways were not lost.[9]

Goss is a co-founder of Keepers of the Culture, a Philadelphia storytelling organization affiliated with the National Association of Black Storytellers, and a founding member of Patchwork, a storytelling group in Delaware.[6]

Personal life

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Goss lives in Baltimore, Maryland with her husband Clay, a journalist and playwright,[8] with whom she has co-authored several books. They were married in 1969[7] and have three children: Aisha, Uhuru, and Jamal.[2]

Works

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Books

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  • The Baby Leopard: A "How" and "Why" Story by Linda Goss and Clay Goss (1989)[14]
  • Talk That Talk: an Anthology of African-American Storytelling edited by Linda Goss and Marian E. Barnes (1989)[15]
  • Jump Up and Say! A Collection of Black Storytelling edited by Linda Goss and Clay Goss (1995)[16]
  • It's Kwanzaa Time! by Linda Goss and Clay Goss (1995)[17]
  • The Frog Who Wanted to Be a Singer by Linda Goss (1995)[18]
  • Sayin' Somethin': Stories from the National Association of Black Storytellers edited by Linda Goss, Dylan Pritchett and Caroliese Frink Reed (2006)[19]

Anthologies

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  • "The Traveling Storyteller" is featured in On the Horizon (1989), a third-grade reader.[7][20]
  • Her most well-known story, "The Frog Who Wanted to Be a Singer" appears in Elements of Literature (1989), an eighth grade reader.[7][21]
  • Her adaptation of "The Ghost Hunt" is included in The Ghost & I: Scary Stories for Participatory Telling (1992).[22]
  • Her "Storytelling Rap" is included in the audio anthology A Storytelling Treasury (1993).[23]
  • Her story "The Tree of Love" is included in I Hear a Symphony: African Americans Celebrate Love (1994).[24]
  • "Rabbit at the Waterhole" is included in Joining In: An Anthology of Audience Participation Stories & How to Tell Them (1995).[25]

Sound recordings

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  • Afro-American Folktales and Playsongs by Linda Goss (1980),[26] (re-released 2003)[27]
  • It's Story Telling Time by Linda Goss (1983),[28] (re-released 2001)[29]
  • The Baby Leopard by Linda Goss and Clay Goss (1989)[30]
  • African Tales and Games by Linda Goss (1993)[31]

Awards and honors

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  • Goss is a recipient of a 2019 National Heritage Fellowship awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts, which is the United States government's highest honor in the folk and traditional arts.[32] She is the first African-American fellow honored for storytelling.[2]
  • In October 2019, the American Folklore Society hosted a forum in Baltimore titled Black Storytelling and Cultural Preservation: The Legacy of Mama Linda Goss.[2]
  • In 2018, Goss received the Legacy of Excellence Award from the Alcoa City Schools Foundation.[2][5]
  • In 2017, Goss became the storyteller-in-residence at the Peale Center in Baltimore, Maryland.[33] She is also the storyteller-ambassador for the National Great Blacks in Wax Museum, and has been a storyteller-in-residence at the Rosenbach Museum and Library in Philadelphia.[6][13]
  • In 2016, Goss was one of several honorees for the American Women's Heritage Society "Movers and Shakers" award.[34]
  • In 2013, she received the Kathryn Morgan Award for Folk Arts & Social Justice from the Philadelphia Folklore Project. Morgan was a mentor to Goss.[35]
  • In 2006, she was honored with the Benjamin A. Botkin Scholar Lecturer Award from the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress.[6]
  • She received the 2006 Leeway Transformation Award for women artists.[6]
  • She earned the 2005 Fellowship in Folk and Traditional Art from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.[6]
  • In 2003, Goss received the National Storytelling Network's Oracle lifetime achievement award.[6]
  • In 1995, her book Jump Up and Say! was named as a Literary Guild selection.[7]
  • In 1990, her book Talk That Talk was named as a Book-of-the-Month Club Quality Paperback selection.[7]
  • She became the official storyteller for the city of Philadelphia in 1984, and her image is featured on a mural in that city as "The Traveling Storyteller".[2][6][10]
  • Both Alcoa, Tennessee and Washington, D.C. have celebrated "Linda Goss Day" (dates unknown).[7]

References

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  1. ^ a b Abdul-Malik, Karen "Queen Nur" (n.d.). "Linda Goss: African-American Storyteller". www.arts.gov. National Endowment for the Arts. Retrieved February 25, 2021.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Tucker, Melanie (June 25, 2019). "Alcoa native wins prestigious national storytelling fellowship". The Daily Times. Maryville, Tennessee. Retrieved February 26, 2021.
  3. ^ "Linda Goss: A Biographical Sketch of our Co-Founder" (PDF). National Association of Black Storytellers. n.d. Retrieved February 26, 2021.
  4. ^ "Goss, Linda". loc.gov. Library of Congress. August 14, 1992. Retrieved February 26, 2021.
  5. ^ a b Tucker, Melanie (August 17, 2018). "Where I come from: Goss returns to community she holds deep in heart, stories". The Daily Times. Maryville, Tennessee. p. 11A. Retrieved February 26, 2021.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Kelley, Saundra Gerrell, ed. (2011). "Linda Goss". Southern Appalachian Storytellers: Interviews with Sixteen Keepers of the Oral Tradition. McFarland. pp. 120–137. ISBN 9780786447510. OCLC 635492303.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Miller, Corki; Snodgrass, Mary Ellen, eds. (1998). "Linda McNear Goss". Storytellers: A Biographical Directory of 120 English-Speaking Performers Worldwide. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland. pp. 121–125. ISBN 9780786404704. LCCN 97-49075. OCLC 38105260.
  8. ^ a b Wilson, Kendall (February 26, 1980). "It's how she tells the story that makes Linda Goss unique". Philadelphia Tribune. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. p. 9.
  9. ^ a b c d e Kodish, Debora (Fall 2013). "Cultivating Folk Arts and Social Change". The Journal of American Folklore. 126 (502): 434–454. doi:10.5406/jamerfolk.126.502.0434. ISSN 0021-8715. JSTOR 10.5406/jamerfolk.126.502.0434. S2CID 145139238.
  10. ^ a b c "Linda Goss". Philadelphia Folklore Project. Retrieved June 10, 2020.
  11. ^ Goss, Linda (1984). Storytelling in the Tradition. interviewed by Judy Moore Smith. Washington, D.C.: National Public Radio. LCCN 88-740394. OCLC 21678723. HO-840201.
  12. ^ a b Tucker, Melanie (January 18, 2005). "Once upon a time: Alcoa woman returns home to tell her stories". The Daily Times. Maryville, Tennessee.
  13. ^ a b Ferguson, Eve M. (September 11, 2019). "Baltimore Storyteller Among 2019 Class of NEA National Heritage Fellows". The Washington Informer. Retrieved June 6, 2020.
  14. ^ Goss, Linda; Goss, Clay (1989). The Baby Leopard: A 'How' and 'Why' Story. illustrations by Suzanne Bailey-Jones and Michael R. Jones. New York: Bantam. ISBN 9780553346480. LCCN 89-17572. OCLC 20055569.
  15. ^ Goss, Linda; Barnes, Marian E., eds. (1989). Talk That Talk: an Anthology of African-American Storytelling. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 9780684810904. LCCN 95-22008. OCLC 32746142.
  16. ^ Goss, Linda; Goss, Clay, eds. (1995). Jump Up and Say! A Collection of Black Storytelling. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 9780671671686. LCCN 89-10582. OCLC 20056687.
  17. ^ Goss, Linda; Goss, Clay (1995). It's Kwanzaa Time!. illustrations by Ashley Bryan. New York: G.P. Putnam's. ISBN 9780399225055. LCCN 92-30380. OCLC 26542625.
  18. ^ Goss, Linda (1995). The Frog Who Wanted to be a Singer. illustrations by Cynthia Jabar. New York: Orchard Books. ISBN 9780531068953. LCCN 94-48803. OCLC 31938588.
  19. ^ Goss, Linda; Pritchett, Dylan; Reed, Caroliese Frink, eds. (2006). Sayin' Somethin': Stories from the National Association of Black Storytellers. Baltimore, Maryland: National Association of Black Storytellers. ISBN 9780977936618. OCLC 76789524.
  20. ^ Pearson, P. David (1989). On the Horizon. consulting authors, Carl Grant, Jeanne Paratore. Needham, Massachusetts: Silver Burdett & Ginn. ISBN 9780663461219. OCLC 20487532.
  21. ^ Anderson, Robert (1989). Elements of Literature. Austin, Texas: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. ISBN 9780157175202. OCLC 18784049.
  22. ^ Justice, Jennifer, ed. (1992). The Ghost & I: Scary Stories for Participatory Telling. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Yellow Moon Press. pp. 13–18. ISBN 9780938756378. LCCN 98-151851. OCLC 26937779.
  23. ^ Selected and arranged by Carol Birch (1993). A Storytelling Treasury (CD). Vol. 3. Jonesborough, Tennessee: National Storytelling Press. ISBN 9781879991255. OCLC 54019420. NAPPS 10.
  24. ^ Woods, Paula L.; Liddell, Felix H., eds. (1994). I Hear a Symphony: African Americans Celebrate Love (1st Anchor Books ed.). New York: Anchor Books. pp. 230–234. ISBN 9780385475020. LCCN 94-6742. OCLC 29909384.
  25. ^ Livo, Norma, ed. (1995). Joining In: An Anthology of Audience Participation Stories & How to Tell Them. compiled by Teresa Miller with assistance from Anne Pellowski. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Yellow Moon Press. pp. 9–18. ISBN 9780938756217. LCCN 98-207900. OCLC 18895434.
  26. ^ Goss, Linda (1980). Afro-American Folktales and Playsongs (LP). New York: Folkways. OCLC 7429064. FCS 77865.
  27. ^ Goss, Linda (2003). Afro-American Folktales & Playsongs (CD). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Folkways. OCLC 465186642. FCS 77865.
  28. ^ Goss, Linda (1983). It's Story Telling Time (LP). New York: Folkways. LCCN 85-750602. OCLC 12917233. FC 77861.
  29. ^ Goss, Linda (2001). It's Story Telling Time (CD). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Folkways. OCLC 48714467. FCS 77861.
  30. ^ Goss, Linda; Goss, Clay (1989). The Baby Leopard (cassette tape). New York: Bantam Audio. ISBN 9780553459111. OCLC 20791957. 45911.
  31. ^ Goss, Linda (1993). African Tales and Games (cassette tape). Washington, D.C.: Folkways. OCLC 156038670. 77865.
  32. ^ "NEA National Heritage Fellowships 2019". www.arts.gov. National Endowment for the Arts. n.d. Retrieved February 25, 2021.
  33. ^ "Mama Linda's Chapbook: Songs and Poems from the Peale's Storyteller-in-Residence". The Peale Center. n.d. Retrieved February 26, 2021.
  34. ^ Edmonds, Arlene (April 29, 2016). "'Movers and Shakers' among women of faith honored at ceremony". The Review. Roxborough, Pennsylvania. Retrieved February 28, 2021.
  35. ^ Shamlin III, Wilfrid (June 9, 2013). "Master storyteller recognized for lifetime work". Philadelphia Tribune. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. p. 3A. Retrieved February 28, 2021.
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