BIOGRAPHY
Charlotte
Blake Alston is a Philadelphia-based storyteller,
narrator and singer
whose interest in literature, the oral tradition and the arts began
in childhood when her father read to her the work of writers and poets
and encouraged her to learn and recite the dialect poems of African
American poet Paul Lawrence Dunbar. After 21 years of teaching from
the preschool through graduate levels, Charlotte chose to devote more
time to touring and performing.
Today, Charlotte breathes
life into traditional and contemporary stories from the African and
African American oral and cultural traditions. Her solo performances
are often enhanced with traditional instruments such as djembe, berimbau,
nkoning, mbira, shekere or the 21-stringed kora. In 1999, Charlotte
began studying the kora and the West African history-telling traditions
of Senegal, Mali, Guinea and Guinea Bissau. Her teacher is the highly
respected Senegalese griot (jali), Djimo Kouyate. Her repertoire
is wide and programs are adapted to any age audience or grade level.
She brings her stories and
songs to national and regional festivals, schools, universities, museums,
libraries and performing arts centers throughout the United States and
Canada, as well as local and national radio and television. Charlotte
is the first storyteller to perform with the Philadelphia
Orchestra on both their Children's and Youth concert series.
Since 1994, she has been the host of "Sound All Around";
the orchestra's pre-school concert series and continues to appear as
a guest host and narrator on family concerts. Charlotte also hosts "Carnegie
Kids", Carnegie Hall's Preschool concert series and has been
a featured artist on the Carnegie Hall Family
Concert Series in NY since 1996. She has been a featured teller at
The National Storytelling Festival, The National Festival of Black Storytelling,
and at regional festivals throughout North America. She has been a featured
artist at both the Presidential Inaugural Festivities in Washington,
DC and the Pennsylvania Gubernatorial Children's Inaugural Celebrations
in Harrisburg, PA.
In addition to her solo performances,
Charlotte performs with her brother, world-renowned jazz violinist,
John Blake, Jr. and his band in
Tellin' On The Downbeat:
A Program Of Storytelling And Jazz. In Fiddlin' With Stories,
Charlotte and John perform as a duo featuring violin and kora, in a
program that celebrates the role of stringed instruments in African
and African American culture. Charlotte also performs in American
Storyfeast with nationally known storytellers
Gayle Ross (Native American) and Jon
Spelman (European American). This unique concert celebrates
each teller's respective cultures through traditional and contemporary
stories. She has collaborated with numerous instrumental ensembles as
well as dance companies. She has been a featured
narrator for several orchestras and conductors including
The Philadelphia Orchestra, The Orchestra
of St. Luke's, The Cleveland Orchestra, the Saint
Louis Symphony, Orpheus Chamber
Ensemble and the Carnegie Hall Jazz
Band.
Charlotte's narrative voice
can be heard on documentaries including Plenty
Of Good Women Dancers, The Peddie
School, and Crosstown.
She herself was featured in the award-winning documentary Family
Name that aired around the country on PBS. Kinocraft Media
Productions converted her "Martin Luther King Storypoem" to
video format for educational distribution. The video is entitled
A Closer Look: Martin Luther King.
She is a regular guest reader on WNYC New York's Prime
time with PJ.
Charlotte has received numerous
honors including the prestigious Pew Fellowship In The Arts in 1994.
She was selected as Philadelphia Magazine's
"Best Of Philly"® 1995. She is the recipient of
the 1997 Commonwealth Of Pennsylvania Artist
Of The Year Award (The Hazlett Memorial Award). The award
recognizes individual artists "for...excellence in the Commonwealth."
She holds two honorary PhD's from Seton Hill and LaRoche colleges respectively
and was one of four Americans selected to perform and present at the
first International Storytelling Field Conference in Ghana in
August of 1999. She was the Director
of "In the Tradition…" 14th National Festival Of Black
Storytelling in 1996
