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Memory • Music • Resistance • Liberation
Presented by J.R. Rice
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Post-Read QUESTION:
What stories, words, lines, or ideas stood out to you about this poem?
The Art of Black Storytelling | J.R. Rice
I write, I write, I write because
At fourteen, a friend heard me read
Love poetry about a heart in need,
At the time, his heart was at a loss to breathe,
In his mind was the right thought to proceed
In stealing my lines
And offering them up to she,
He told me, “No suicide to my heart in need,
She’s alive
Because your love poem brought relief,”
So I write, I write, I write because…
~ Affirmations (Why Write) �by J.R. Rice
Synopsis: Writing is a tool of power for survival, healing, and purpose.
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Who is J.R. Rice?
Author
Broken Pencils (Coming-of-age Novel); I Was, Am, Will Be (Poetry Collection)
Poet
National Collegiate Poetry Slam Rookie of the Year (2006) Berkeley Slam Finalist (2024)
Educator
English teacher 16 YEARS+; Los Angeles, Salinas, Castro Valley, Oakland; Canary Islands, Spain
Host/Curator
Get-Hype Open-Mic, Social Saturday Artist Showcase, Rhyme, Rhythm and Restorations Mental Health Open mic,
Organizer
Beast Crawl Festival, College Prep Poetry Fundraiser, Contra Costa Crisis Center Fundraiser,
Mentor
Cael Dunez-Lara, 2025 Oakland Youth Poet Laureate, as well as the local literary community
J.R. Rice
Author, Poet, & Educator,
Born and Raised in Oakland
The Art of Black Storytelling | To learn more, visit www.jrrice.com
What it remembers
How it sounds
Where it lives
What it survives
What freedom it imagines
“Oral history became a means of maintaining identity, surviving, and resisting oppression.”
— Smithsonian Folkways, “Say It Loud”
Essential Question: What Makes a Story Black?
Black stories often discuss the transformation of pain and resistance into freedom by asking:
Objective: By the end of the lecture, you will…
What rhythm does it move
The Art of Black Storytelling | To learn more, visit www.jrrice.com
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Three Black Historical Movements of Storytelling
Spirituals
Slavery
Industrial Revolution
Examples: Songs as prayer, code, grief, and freedom dream
2. Poetry & Jazz
Harlem Renaissance
Civil Rights
Examples: Improvisation, witness, protest, Black beauty
3. Hip-Hop &
Spoken Word
1990s
2000s
Examples: The stage, the cipher, the mic, the block, the body
The Art of Black Storytelling | J.R. Rice
Post-Read Question: What are some Black stories you know from these eras?
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The Art of Black Storytelling | J.R. Rice
Six Key Elements of Black Storytelling
Voice
How does it sound?
Place
Where does it live?
Music
What rhythm moves it?
Conflict
What pressure drives it?
Memory
What past remains?
Liberation
What freedom is imagined?
Black storytelling turns private experience into communal knowledge:
a warning, a song, a prayer,a testimony, a joke, a cipher, a poem.
Black stories are typically shown (but not limited to) 6 Key Elements.
Post-Read Question: How do the stories you know show these elements?
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Historical Movement#1: Church & Spirituals
Library of Congress: the African American spiritual is among the largest and most significant forms of American folksong, closely associated with enslaved Africans in the South.
Connected elements: Voice, Music, Conflict, Liberation
Examples:
The Art of Black Storytelling | J.R. Rice
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Element 1: Voice
Merriam-Webster defines dialect or voice as a regional variety of language distinguished by vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation.
Black storytelling craft:
Voice tells us….
"Oh, Freedom" is a post-Civil War African-American freedom song adapted from an African-American spiritual.
The Art of Black Storytelling | J.R. Rice
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The Art of Black Storytelling | J.R. Rice
Element 2: Place
Britannica defines setting as the location and time frame in which the action of a narrative takes place.
Black storytelling craft:
A location can become an archive where place shapes…
THE POOL PLAYERS. SEVEN AT THE GOLDEN SHOVEL
Gwendolyn Brooks “We Real Cool”
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Poem#2: Ebony & Ivory (The Last Scene to a Romantic-Slave Film)
Synopsis: A film-script poem set in Alabama, 1853. It stages love, pursuit, racial violence, and audience responsibility.
Post-Read Question: When the screen fades to black, what responsibility does the audience still carry?”
The Art of Black Storytelling | J.R. Rice
Close up shot on William and Mary.
They stare with like eyes—
His dark brown, her’s light blue,
Gazing at a sunset of indifference.
They share four panting lungs,
Two beating hearts,
One undeniable love uncrushed.
Long shot of two hands held together.
William: “Hey suga, jus stay here a sec.
Not sure if we lost dem. Gotta check.
I’ll be right back, honest, I promise.”
Ebony & Ivory
(The Last Scene to a Romantic-Slave Film)
by J.R. Rice
Before Read Question: How are the elements of voice and place shown in this poem? Do you recognize any others?
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History Movement#2: Poetry & Jazz
The Harlem Renaissance was a period of musical, literary, and cultural proliferation that developed new Black identity and aesthetics.
Connected elements: Voice, Place, Music, Memory
Examples:
The Art of Black Storytelling | J.R. Rice
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Element 3: Music
The Library of Congress traces African American song from field hollers, spirituals, and gospel to blues, soul, and hip-hop.
Craft: Even when no song is playing, Black stories often move like music -
“Lift every voice and sing.”
— James Weldon Johnson
“We gon’ be alright.”
— Kendrick Lamar
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Element 4: Conflict
Oregon State’s literary guide defines conflict as “thwarted, endangered, or opposing desire”: a character wants something, but something gets in the way.
Black storytelling craft: conflict may be
“The problem of the twentieth entury is the problem of the color line.”
— W.E.B. Du Bois
Attack on Apalachicola River. The fort had provided home and safety to more than 300 African and Choctaw families. Painting by Jackson Walker, Museum of Florida Art.
The Art of Black Storytelling | J.R. Rice
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Synopsis: A family story of pregnancy, birth, medical crisis, and a father’s devastating grief, framed through the Biblical story, Book of Job.
Poem craft: the repeated phrase “I remember” becomes a drumbeat. Memory organizes trauma into testimony.
The Art of Black Storytelling | J.R. Rice
Before Read Question:
I remember happiness
And when the feeling became true,
When she gave me the news:
I'd be a father soon.
My face lit up in shock like
When you get a hick up and stop.
We were having our first child,
And I never felt more proud.
~ My Parents’ Story (Modern-Job)�by J.R. Rice
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Element 5: Memory
NMAAHC describes oral history or memory as gathering, preserving, and interpreting the voices and memories of people, communities, and participants in past events.
Black storytelling craft: memory can be…
“I am the dream and the hope of the slave.”
— Maya Angelou
“This is not a story to pass on.”
— Toni Morrison
The Art of Black Storytelling | J.R. Rice
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Element 6: Liberation
Dr. James H. Cone (Theologian & Founder of Black Liberation Theology) defined Black liberation as “the "affirmation of Black humanity that emancipates Black people from racism and confronts issues that are part of the reality of Black oppression"
Black storytelling craft: liberation may mean…
“Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery.”
— Bob Marley
“Freedom is no fear.”
— Nina Simone
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Synopsis: A son writes to his father, confronting illness, memory loss, family inheritance, and the fear of forgetting.
Poem craft: the letter becomes a bridge between the living and the ancestor. Memory fights death.
Post-Read Question: Who lives on because we keep telling their story?”
The Art of Black Storytelling | J.R. Rice
Somehow, some way,
You predicted this day,
When I would study a blank face,
tracing signs for a future
path painted gray.
You’d say,
“My boy, don’t look so sad
because back in my day,
things were so, so bad.”
~ Last Letter (Ode Dad)
by J.R. Rice
Before Read Question:
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Directions: Feel free to participate and on your phone or paper
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Choose one seed: a saying, song, corner, food, elder warning, person, place, or freedom you still want.
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Select two elements you will use: Voice, Place, Music, Conflict, Memory, Liberation.
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Write one sensory detail: sound, smell, color, object, gesture, or line of dialogue.
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Begin: “The story starts with...” and write five short lines.
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End with a turn: What does the memory teach, heal, demand, or free?
Share option: read one line aloud or underline the strongest image to keep for later.
The Art of Black Storytelling | J.R. Rice
Rice Example:
The story starts with my father saying, “Back in my day...”
It starts in a kitchen where the radio hums like church.
It starts with a pen I was afraid to use.
I carry the old pain like a folded letter.
I write because someone I love is still listening.
Mini-Activity: Build your OWN Story from One Detail
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Thank you for your time and opened mind
Contact Information:
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