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Saturday, April 19, 2014

Q is for Queen Blue, Royal Blue, and Brother Blue

There is not a single color that starts with Q, other than Queen Blue, a medium tone of Royal Blue. But since I have already used up all my Blue stories for the letter B, I'll take the opportunity today and remember Brother Blue.

Blue is definitely royalty, at least to the storytellers of the world. He is one of the most incredible people I have ever met. He is one of those people who were born not only to tell stories, but to live them. People walking the streets of Boston would run into him, dressed all in blue, telling stories in an engaging voice and style, a mix of song, rap, recital, and everyday street speak. If you ever so him, you would never walk past him.
Here is an excerpt from his telling of King Lear, to give you a taste:


I am not going to give you the entire amazing biography of Brother Blue. You can find it here. I personally only met him once, at a storytelling conference in 2008, a year before he passed away. I was presenting a workshop on Hungarian stories, one of the first ones I have ever done, and I was super nervous. People pointed Blue out to me in the crowd, and I knew he was a storytelling superstar of some sort, but I was too preoccupied with getting ready for my workshop to walk up and talk to him. But then, I walked into the classroom assigned to me, and there he was, together with his wife Ruth, sitting in the first row with a big grin on his face. And at that point I found out another amazing thing about Blue: He was the greatest audience ever. He came right into every story with me, he enjoyed them with a spark in his eyes, he was engaged body and soul in everything I said on stage. His attention was undivided, inspiring, and made me forget anything I had ever been nervous about. Listening like that, if you ask me, is an even rarer gift than telling well.
(I still have the feedback sheet he wrote for my workshop. It is covered in little blue stars.)

If you search for Blue on YouTube, you can find quite a few videos. Take a moment and enjoy them :)
I'll see you all on Monday for the next color!

12 comments:

  1. Such a great A to Z theme! Thank you for stopping by my blog the other day. I hope your month is wonderful!

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  2. He sounds like he lived and breathed both the story telling art and that of audience - a rare man indeed.
    Sophie
    Sophie's Thoughts & Fumbles - A to Z Ghosts
    Fantasy Boys XXX - A to Z Drabblerotic

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  3. Quinacridone magenta is a color made from quinacridone dye. I found that out today and got lost in a net surf for a while so thank you, I always enjoy net surfing and you triggered a run. I am going to watch a few videos of brother blue. Thank you again.

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  4. With Brother Blue, it always seemed to me like storytelling came second after loving life and people. He had his priorities down pat!

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  5. Such a wonderful sounding man, a storyteller who was a great listener as well.
    Tasha
    Tasha's Thinkings - AtoZ (Vampires)
    FB3X - AtoZ (Erotic Drabbles)

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  6. Thank you for introducing me to this amazing storyteller! You are very creative to have come up with a color for Q. Much luck with the rest of the challenge!

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  7. God I wish Blue had made a full-on recording of his Shakespeare versions. He so rocked them. They were the first things I heard him doing on Fisherman's Wharf in '76. "That cat could BLOW!"

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  8. He's fantastic - really made the story come alive! I wish I'd had the opportunity to see him.

    Eileen @ In My Playroom (also doing the A to Z Challenge)

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  9. colors can be descriptions for so many things more than just a color - i love that you are giving us more than a rainbow to choose from. esp loved nadeshiko pink! (hope i spelled that right!)
    happy a to z-ing!

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  10. I'm so happy to discover your blog! I love fairy tales and folktales. Can't wait to read more of your posts.

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  11. Visiting on the 21st day of the #challenge and happy to find a good fairy tale to take on with me. Congratulations on your blog with interesting theme.

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  12. Blue sounds like an incredible character!
    Seems like he made quite an impression on you!

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