About This Blog

In the square you will experience centers of my heart. My daughter Sarai, with my grandson and her nephew, Sultan Ali Wilkerson scattin'. Thus, the acronym SCATTS was born. Let me tell you a little story!

SCATTS - All in the Family

My grandfather Harold Boyer, passed down stories from the blocks of old North Philadelphia - scrubbed white stone steps leading to vestibules, packed baskets carried to Chicken Bone Beach, and rides in the pick up, over the bridge to Lawnside, NJ for Saturday night soirees. The stories are not as black and white as the photos we hold in our hands from his 1927 Polaroid, now a family heirloom. These photographic tales are kept in an ancestral place, his Grandmother Vezy's trunk, now over 150 years old. As my dad passed down the snapshots of an urban African-American way of life from 'dem days, he increased our family traditions. My brothers, sister, and I were flourished with my father's childhood stories of creative entrepreneurship, steeped in the importance of knowing our history, and ritualized with Sunday jazz. As I continue to sustain the legacy, the storytelling tradition is deepened once again. My children were raised in a lifestyle of stories told beyond Sunday's kitchen table. My daughter Sarai, a storyteller, poet, jazz vocalist, and stilt dancer, adds yet another dimension as she passes our heritage, to the youngest of our family, my 2-year old grandson. They be scattin' like that!

Thus, the name of my groundwork project, SCATTS (Sustaining Culture and Traditions Through Storytelling), a project which is a natural continuum of my work as an African-American jalimouso.

I invite you to follow my blog for more on my proposal to implement a SCATTS community model, a program designed to foster collaborations between folk culture and storytelling. Here you will experience stories, videos and photos of SCATTS events. Join the conversations and blog with me as we create a prototype to sustain and pass on our traditions. Be sure to visit the Organizations and In Practice Links, and follow my academic journey as I upload to the MACS and Bibliography Links.

I am looking forward to this adventure and reading about your SCATTS experiences in response to my blogposts.

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