Ann Buxie’s story-telling concert series, “Tales by the Sea,” begins the New Year with a theme reflecting the shift in cultural self-identity launched by the recent election of America’s first black president: Who Am I?
Assembling teams of professional storytellers, Buxie has regaled Malibu with the ancient art form for several years now, providing “talk-story” on subjects that cover the human experience, from unrequited love to hard-won citizenship.
The concert this Saturday tackles a basic tenet of human consciousness. In an interview with The Malibu Times, Buxie said her tellers will talk about remembering who we are.
“When there are so many influences challenging our established perceptions of ourselves, it’s a vital question,” Buxie said. “So much is uprooting us now with homeowners losing homes, with job losses and the fraying of society as we know it. It’s being taken away from us. Our leadership in the world has been challenged. So just who are we?”
Buxie and four other tellers will attempt to shed light on that question.
The tellers
Vicki Juditz was an actress living in New York before she came to California to join her husband. Fifteen years ago, a friend took her to a storytelling class and she was hooked.
“I only do original stories based on personal experience,” Juditz said. “And through storytelling, I learned to be a writer.”
Most of Juditz’ current work comes from a profound experience of reading New Yorker journalist Elizabeth Kolbert’s series about climate change. Stunned and depressed by the enormity of what climate change means, Juditz started writing humorously about her own efforts to go green.
“I don’t preach about it,” she said. “But, hopefully, people will see how their own little steps can contribute to changing things. Most importantly, by spurring their legislators to vote for the right policies.”
Riua Akinshegun has performed several times with Buxie’s group, many times talking about her African roots.
“It occurred to me that my ancestors could have been dropped off anywhere,” Akinshegun said. “So I will be talking about my recent journeys to meet with bush people in Suriname (a small, Dutch-colonized nation in northeastern South America). They still speak an African bush language in the rain forest there.”
Akinshegun will also present a digital poem she wrote while in Suriname, with photos she took of her journey.
Antonio Sacre said that he has been asking himself “Who am I?” all his life. The son of a Cuban father and Irish mother from Boston, Sacre said he was often called “Leprechauno” as a boy.
“A large part of my professional career has been spent figuring out who I am,” said Sacre, who attended graduate school for theater arts at Northwestern University. “In Miami, I am the whitest person in my father’s family. In my mother’s big Boston Irish clan, I’m the little Latino. I grew up ashamed of speaking Spanish until my aunt took me aside and said I must honor my Spanish heritage. Now, I like to think I’m a bridge between two cultures.”
Also performing will be storyteller Jaha, who will talk about “reconnecting myself with My Self,” Buxie said.
Buxie, who recently earned a doctorate in mythology with an emphasis in depth psychology, said much of her dissertation was spent on examining the synthesis of man and nature. She believes that Americans have lost any synchronicity with nature, breeding social confusion and loss of identity.
“Verlyn Klinkenborg (a columnist for The New York Times) said, ‘The Other explains my presence much better than I can,'” Buxie said. “These are journeys that we all are on and hearing of another’s journey highlights our shared community, our shared system. Etymologically, ‘system’ means ‘a standing together.'”
“Tales by the Sea” will perform Saturday at Buxie’s home at 6:30 p.m. Reservations and more information can be obtained by calling 310.457.2385