FOLK TALE TRADITIONS
The story of Nappy Hair began at family back yard picnics in Washington, D.C. At every picnic members of my family tell some of our favorite stories.

There is the story about the goat . . .

My mother tells about how the goat froze to death in the back yard when she was a little girl . . . but he came back to life when they stood him beside the fire inside.

Or she tells how the rain soaked Aunt Edna's report on the way to school.

But the story I love the most is my Uncle Richard's story of my nappy hair, because I have the nappiest hair in my whole family. That is how the book, Nappy Hair, began. You see, Brenda is really me, Carolivia, and Uncle Mordecai is really Uncle Richard.

But Nappy Hair is more than a funny story about my hair.

CALL-AND-RESPONSE PROJECT
If you have seen the book, Nappy Hair you have noticed that it has lines spoken by Uncle Mordecai followed by lines spoken by the audience.

    For example, when Uncle Mordecai calls out,
      Them some willful intentional naps you got all over your head.
    The people sitting around the tables at the picnic respond
      Sure enough.
    Then Uncle Mordecai calls,
      Your hair intended to be nappy.
    And the people respond,
      Indeed it did.
This kind of story telling is called "call and response," and this type of "call and response" was created by African American people. In the Nappy Hair, Uncle Mordecai speaks out the call, and the audience speaks the response. At the real picnic, all the people don't just respond one thing.

    Aunt 'Celle might respond,

      "Brother won't you stop."
    At the same time that my godson AndrŽ is responding,
      "That's the way it was."
    And Baby Doll might be responding,
      "Go away from here!"
    At the same time that Shannon is responding,
      "You have seen the light."
Whenever I tell the story Nappy Hair to people who know African American call and response they respond to my calls with many different responses at the same time. They don't just stick to what it says in the book. They know how it really sounds.

Why don't you try to have a reading of Nappy Hair that is like a real picnic with many responses at the same time?


BLUES PROJECT
A type of music hidden in the story is called "the blues."

On one page of Nappy Hair the words are like this - - -

    Sold your momma for a nickel.
      Yes, Lord, they did it.
    And your Daddy for a dime.
      Yep.
    I say they sold your momma for a buffalo.
      That's the way it was.
    And your daddy, they sold him for one thin dime.
      That's what they did.
There are four calls in this passage, and these calls make up the first two lines of a verse of blues.

Each verse of a classic blues song had three lines. The first line is like the second with just a few changes.

This is how you can write the lines from Nappy Hair like a blues song.

    Sold your momma for a nickel and your Daddy for a dime.
    I say they sold your momma for a buffalo and your daddy, they sold him for one thin dime.
As you can see the second line is like the first line but it adds a few words to make the feelings in first line even stronger.

Can you think of a third line to end this verse of "the blues?"

The third line is usually sadder than the first and second lines - that's why my uncle didn't finish this "blues" verse in Nappy Hair. He wanted to tell a happy story about my hair.
PRAISE SONG PROJECT
Inside the story of Nappy Hair there is music and history from earlier times in United States and in Africa.

The Nappy Hair story is like a praise song from West Africa. In a praise song the poet or "griot" (say 'gree-oh') praises the chief or leader of the people. Although the song is supposed to be all praise, sometimes the griot tries to find a way to tell the chief how to improve.


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Nappy Hair Text © 1999 Carolivia Herron
Nappy Hair Illustrations © 1999 Joe Cepeda

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