Storytelling Traditions in Acadiana, Part 2 — Exploring Personal Stories

Friday, April 4th
9:30-10:15
Sliman Theater, 129 East Main Street

Storytelling is the interactive art of using words and actions to reveal the elements and images of a story while encouraging the listener’s imagination. It is a social and cultural activity of sharing stories, sometimes with improvisation, theatrics, or embellishment. Storytelling is a unique method of connecting both people and their ideas, conveying the culture, history, and values that unite us. They offer a way to understand the world, process experiences, and make sense of complex emotions.

In Part 2 of the storytelling series, the presenters (Mr. Barry Ancelet and Ms. Sherry Broussard) will showcase how each of us has stories to tell, highlighting often humorous stories from the lives of everyday people.

Barry Ancelet, Professor Emeritus at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette, is a native Louisiana French-speaking Cajun and has been both the Director of the Center for Acadian and Creole Folklore and a Professor of Francophone Studies and Folklore in the Department of Modern Languages. He is a renowned author, having published numerous articles and several books on various aspects of Louisiana’s Cajun and Creole cultures and languages. Under his psuedonym, Jean Arceneaux, he has given poetry readings, as well as storytelling and musical performances throughout Francophone North America and in France, and he was the second Poet Laureate of Francophone Louisiana. And, in 1994, he published Cajun and Creole Folktales: The French Oral Tradition of South Louisiana. He co-founded the predecessor to Lafayette’s Festivals Acadiens et Créoles in1974 and continues to serve the Festival on its board. He has served as a consultant and fieldworker for several documentary films including for Pat Mire’s “Against the Tide: The Story of the Cajun People of Louisiana,” a production of Louisiana Public Broadcasting and Louisiana’s Department of Cultural, Recreation and Tourism. 

Sherry T. Broussard, of Lafayette, has been performing and storytelling for almost three decades. As an educator, former academic librarian, storyteller, and community activist, she has an avid interest in black history and culture. She was the first African American to attend the Storytelling Program at East Tennessee State, and she has continued to build alliances locally and nationally in the decades since. She has served Louisiana as its state liaison to the National Storytelling Network and as President of the statewide storytelling guild . Author of African Americans in Lafayette and Southwest Louisiana and Louisiana’s Zydeco, she is passionate about maintaining cultural traditions in the African American community, often using her storytelling talents to teach children and adults the importance of observing Black History Month. Her performances have been showcased throughout Louisiana, often reaching traditionally underserved audiences.