A Poet And An Artist Revive Forgotten Tale of African Mermaid

- April 29, 2022 -

On today’s show we’re going to revisit a live event Citizen Vinyl put on in August 2021. We invited a poet and a painter to talk about their creative efforts to revive an epic African folktale.

Glenis Redmond, the “Afro-Carolinian poet” teamed up with British painter Julyan Davis  to produce a spoken word album called, “Cymbee.” It’s named after an African mermaid. Her legend traveled along with enslaved Congolese people who were brought to the shores of South Carolina. 

In this episode we’ll hear how Julyan first encountered the folktale and how Glenis weaves her own ancestry and identity in its retelling.