Mama We Made It!
(And Mama was there too!)
Dear Friends,
Springtime is rolling in and even as I cringe in anticipation of The Spring Pollening as only Atlanta can deliver it; I can’t help but bloom with the flowers on winter bare trees. Growing up in Cameroon where there is no winter, leafless trees were a rare sight. So, even though winter will always be my least favorite season, the vividly colored flowers on the dark branches of leafless trees will always be a delight. They speak to me of the promise of change, fruitfulness, celebration, and joy, even from within the bleakest of circumstances.
Last week certainly felt like such a flowering from within difficult circumstances. Mythological Africans was featured on an episode of Monstrum, the super awesome award-winning PBS show about monsters and all things scary in world mythology!
This is a huge milestone for me! As some of you may know, I’m a corporate runaway and I have spent the time since I left that life behind building Mythological Africans. It has been an incredible journey but not a cakewalk by any stretch of the imagination. There have been rejections, ghostings, missed opportunities and twists and turns which have left me questioning my decisions and direction on several occasions. This, of course, is expected. I am hardly the first person to strike out to pursue a creative career with its highs and lows. There but for the grace of the wonderful people of the Twitter Mythology and Folklore community go I, and I need to add Danielle Klassen to the list of people whose support has been a literal lifeline for me.
I am still just luxuriating in the joy of it all, blown away by the enthusiasm with which the episode has been received (over 46K views so far…10K of which I’m pretty sure are mine!), and inspired by the attention to detail and thoroughness of Dr. Emily Zarka and the Monstrum team. Thank you all again!
If anything, I am energized to go even harder this year!
The past month was busy! I got to talk about Enfant Terribles in African Folklore with our friends over at Romancing the Gothic. I also had the pleasure of hosting Cameroonian author Susan Nkwentie Nde, who also happens to be my mother, in a Twitter Space. She read “The Mirror”, a story from her collection and, based on the experiences of the main character in the story, our conversation centered on the topic of menstruation and how the experience is approached in African communities. You can listen to that discussion here.
Speaking of Twitter Spaces, the gatherings have been so rich recently. We’ve had poetry readings in Bemba and Yoruba, a deep dive into Fulani romantic lore, explorations of folklore from Zanzibar and the Amazigh and so much more! Join us whenever you can and don’t forget that we now have weekly Mythology and Folklore readings only on Fridays at 6pm ET (US). Do keep an eye out for our soon to start monthly gathering Philosophical Africans.
We also had the usual fun on Twitter with threads about Snakes in African Mythology, Zulu Love Letters and even a #StoryTime thread!
I have even more exciting projects and fun to share with you all this year so stick around!
Thank you, as always, for coming along on this journey with me!
Be well,
Helen