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Audio Compact Disc recordings of my works can be ordered below via PayPal.
WHAT LITTLE GIRLS ARE MADE OF
Suitable for ages 9 to adult
$15 plus postage & packaging
Little girls navigate the landscape of African folktales with courage. Each story features a girl as the central character. Three of the stories are adaptations of tales from Senegal, Lesotho, and South Africa. Also includes “The Starfish”, an adaptation of Loren Eisely’s “Star Thrower”.
PINE TREES AND FROGS’ LEGS
Suitable for ages 12 to adult
$15 plus postage & packaging
Gather ’round, huddle close and listen to my original adaptations of some rather intensely spooky tales set in the mid-1800’s American South by African American author, Charles Chestnutt. Includes adaptations of “Po’ Sandy,” “Tobe’s Tribulations” (“Frogs’ Legs”) and “The Goophered Grapevine”. Don’t listen alone!
HOLE IN THE SEA
Suitable for ages 9 to adult
$15 plus postage & packaging
This recording features ‘porquoi’ (why) tales from the African, German and African American traditions: “The Hole in the Sea”, “Why Cats Live With Women”, “First Drum”, “Why Dogs Chase Cats”, “The Trombone Queen and the Gingerbread King” and “Hammers of Steel: the Ballad of John Henry” an original rhythmic re-telling of the story of this American folk hero.
COME TELL WITH ME!
Suitable for ages 3 to 7
$15 plus postage & packaging
This is my first recording for pre-K to second graders! The recording features new versions of traditional tales plus new songs and stories to engage my youngest listeners. Enjoy “Jazzy Billy Goats Gruff”, “The Chocolate Cake Girl” and more. All stories include audience participation. So as you listen, be sure to tell with me!
BIT ‘O THIS, BIT ‘o THAT
Suitable for ages 5 and up
$15 plus postage & packaging
Selected stories for general audiences. Fun, upbeat, traditional African and African American stories and songs. Includes some stories and original material presented in school programs such as the popular Martin Luther King Story-poem for children and the oft requested Louis Armstrong Rap.
WADIN’ IN THE WATER
Suitable for ages 9 to adult
$15 plus postage & packaging
“To all water-wading, freedom-seeking people everywhere.” Includes traditional African American freedom stories, the poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar and a heart wrenching account of courage amid the terror of 1960’s Birmingham, Alabama.
THE RACCOON STORY
Suitable for all ages
$15 plus postage & packaging
Charlotte teams up with her brother, jazz violinist John Blake for this Jazzy, hilarious adaptation of a traditional African American southern folktale. Watch out: the trickster wins this time. You may want to discuss this with the kids. Anniko is an original adaptation of a story that celebrates the importance of the gifts we bring to the world. In The Ant and the Crumb, an ant unsuccessfully attempts to enlist the aid of friends in resolving a problem. In the end, quite by accident, he discovers that he had the ability to take care of the situation on his own.
PEARLS AT THE FOOT OF THE BED
Suitable for ages 12 to adult
$15 plus postage & packaging
Pearls…is a tribute to Charlotte’s greatest inspiration; her father, John Blake, Sr. A Praise Song is offered in the tradition of the Jalolu (history tellers) of W. Africa. It is offered in celebration and honor of those who have gone before us; “to all those whose collective toil, tears, struggle, hopes, dreams and prayers beckoned us into existence…” Once In A Dream is a metaphorical story of spiritual separation, loss, reclamation and triumph. The story parallels the separation of African people from their homeland and the ongoing struggle to define themselves on their own terms.
