Episode 45 - Soulful Storytelling with Deborah Hunter

Hi Friend! Episode 45 of Sally’s Performing Arts Lab Podcast features poet, spoken word artist and actor and past winner of the prestigious Jingle Feldman Artist Award, Deborah J. Hunter. I’m your SallyPAL podcast host, Sally Adams. I talk to people about creating original work for a live audience. Send an email anytime to Sally@sallypal.com.

Thanks to everyone who joined me at New York’s Town Stages for my live feed Wednesday, August 8. My daughter, writer Emile Adams, joined me as well as several fellows from the Sokoloff Arts Fellowship program at Town Stages in New York City.

Nimrod, Curbside Review, This Land, and Another Sun in the UK have all published Deborah Hunter’s essays and poems. Deborah has made a lasting impact on her community in Tulsa, Oklahoma through her work as a certified behavioral health case manager and as an artist. Her impact is felt throughout the state. This year Deborah was honored with a Woman of the Year Pinnacle Award for women creating real, sustainable change in Oklahoma.

Over the summer Deborah worked with playwright Tara Brooke Watkins developing ideas through something called 'story circles'. Using the Mary E. Jones Parrish collection of photographs, Tara created a new work about the 1921 Greenwood Massacre in the Tulsa Greenwood District. Tara asked my guest, Deborah Hunter, to build a poem around the phrase “Dig It” or “So You Wanna Dig?” for the piece. Two poems by Deborah Hunter appear in the work, Tulsa ’21: Black Wall Street.

Deborah also worked this summer with Portico Dance Theatre on their SummerStage production simply titled, Wo. Her poetry is very much in demand these days. As a performing poet, she brings her formidable energy to the stage creating stories and characters of substance.

Deborah Hunter's life is filled with stories of struggle. Her grandmother was a survivor of the massacre on Greenwood. And her adult daughter is mentally ill. When Deborah’s daughter was diagnosed with schizophrenia, Deborah began a long journey relating to people with mental health diagnoses. She’s a mental health advocate, a voice for women of color, a caseworker with a deep understanding of homelessness, and a soulful storyteller.

During the interview, Deb and I cover a lot of ground in our shared hometown including OneOk Ball Park, Guthrie Green, the Mental Health Association of Oklahoma, NAMI (the National Alliance on Mental Illness), and the Greenwood Cultural Center. We talked about Pablo Neruda, Henry Louis Gates, Hannibal Johnson, David Blakely and his play about the Osage Murders called Four Ways to Die.  Blakely based his play on David Grann’s book about the Murders, Killers of the Flower Moon. I also mentioned a book about race relations I read as a teacher at Holland Hall Preparatory School, titled Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? by Beverly Daniel Tatum. I can recommend both books enthusiastically.

There is so much depth to Deborah’s way of looking at the world. She is strong and kind, formidable and nuanced, deep and funny. I know you’ll enjoy hearing Deborah’s point of view as both an activist and an artist. Be sure and listen until the end of the interview for Concise Advice from the Interview, and Words of Wisdom from George. 

Concise Advice from the Interview: 5 bits of advice from Poet-Activist, Deborah J. Hunter:
5 To perform a poem in 1^st person that is not your personal story, become a character telling that story.
4 Nobody’s better than you are and you are no better than anyone else.
3 Racism is about education.
2 Speak out against micro aggressions.
1 Tell the truth.

Check out the blog, SallyPAL.com, for articles and podcast episodes. You, too, can be a SallyPAL. SallyPAL now has a YouTube channel. Check it out at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfL9LzVbidtRqCCZsOk-imw. When I get some subscribers, YouTube promised me I could have a more memorable link. So go ahead and subscribe while I figure out how to be a good YouTuber. Also, look for short bits of advice, past podcasts, and the edited version of the live feed. Right now you can watch the recorded live show uncut. But that won’t last long. I'll edit soon because my mom says the pants I’m wearing don’t work for TV. Until I figure out how to look like Cindy Crawford on my channel, you can catch 3 unedited hours of great interviews at Town Stages!

Thank you for following, sharing, subscribing, reviewing, joining, & thank you for listening. If you’re downloading and listening on your drive to work, or commenting and reviewing like my sister does, let me know you’re out there.

Storytelling through performance is the most important thing we do as a culture. That’s why I encourage you to share your stories because you’re the only one with your particular point of view. And SallyPAL is here with resources, encouragement, and a growing community of storytellers. All the stories ever expressed once lived only in someone’s imagination… Now… Tell your truth!