All language subtitles for MasterClass LeVar Burton Teaches the Power of Storytelling - 05 The Importance of Oral Storytelling

[MUSIC PLAYING]

The oral tradition
of storytelling

is one of the primary building
blocks of civilization.

In the early days, it was
how all knowledge was passed

from one generation to another.

And that's what brought
the aspect of continuity

to our lives as a
species, the idea

that one generation passes its
knowledge and information down

to the next through
storytelling,

the idea that what I know
about my ancestors comes

from the stories that I've
been told from the time

I was a little boy.

Alex Haley talking about
roots and his journey

of writing the novel "Roots"--

he used to talk about
sitting on his grandmother's

Cynthia's porch in
Henning, Tennessee,

and hearing the
stories in the summer--

all of the old
ladies in the family

would sit, and rock, and
chew, and spit tobacco,

and they would tell the
stories of the family.

And inevitably,
those stories would

get to the original African.

They called him the
old African, Kunta

Kinte, who one day was
looking for wood to make

a drum for his younger brother,
and was never seen or heard

from again.

And the importance of Kunta
maintaining his identity

and maintaining his
contact with who

he was enabled him to pass
that story on to succeeding

generations.

When he came to this
country, he was in chains,

and then he was able to
pass on his personal story

to, first, his daughter Kizzy,
and Kizzy passed that story

along to her son, Chicken
George, and on and on

through the succeeding
generations.

It's a powerful illustration
of the nature of information

as it is passed orally.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

I think what makes the oral
tradition of storytelling

unique to the human
experience is the idea that it

is as old as it
is, and that that's

where our contact and the nature
of our communication with one

another was born.

It was born out of a need
and necessity to communicate.

You can achieve the same thing
through the art of written

storytelling, but
there's an energetic

that is passed through the oral
tradition that isn't present

necessarily in any other medium.

And that energetic
has everything

to do with there being nothing
required in order to enjoy it,

that there is nothing
that one needs

to do to learn to perform
in able to benefit

from the oral
storyteller tradition.

You just have to be present.

You just have to be listening.

You just have to be
paying attention.

So I think it's the nature
of oral storyteller itself

as being something that requires
no additional work on our part

that makes it so important to
us, that makes it so unique.

Take the time, if
you are able, to sit

with the oldest members of your
family, and get their stories.

Have them tell you their stories
so that they don't disappear.

The way this transference
of knowledge,

and information, and lore works
is that it is only at its most

successful when it is shared.

And in order to
share a story, you

have to have contact with it.

You have to know that story.

And they say that a
griot is like a tree,

and that all of the stories that
a griot contains, knows, shares

are like the leaves
of a great tree--

and that, when a
storyteller dies,

that there is a mourning
that we must pay attention

to because of the loss.

The only thing that mitigates
that loss is the idea that we

have extracted as much
as we can of the value

and the benefit of what
that storyteller contained,

of what they embodied--

and that they have
trained a successor, one

that will follow
the griot traditions

and pass on the gifts
of those stories

to the succeeding generations.

For me, a lot of the
purpose of storytelling

is to remind us of who we
are, and why we're here,

and what's important to us.

And that more than
anything else is

what gets communicated in
the sharing and the telling.

It's the idea that,
as an audience member,

I can be the beneficiary of
all of that knowledge, all

of that wisdom, all
of that emotion--

that it is available to me
by the simple act of showing

up and being present.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

The act of listening is active.

One might think that
just sitting in listening

is a passive pursuit,
but it's not.

Listening is an action.

It's an activity
that one engages in,

because it requires--

not necessarily
effort, but awareness.

And I think that's
the difference

between being a lump on a
log and a human being engaged

in a moment.

It's your awareness of where
you are, and what you're doing,

and what the intention is.

Part of the storyteller's
magic is the ability

to capture the attention and
the imagination of the audience.

And we do that through so
many different methods.

It's the ability to
command one's attention,

command the attention
of the other

through inflection, through
movement, through gesture,

through silence.

Silence is an underutilized
tool in communicating.

I've stood in front of
a room full of people

like at a luncheon, where people
were chattering, chattering,

chattering,
chattering, chattering,

and for me, the most
effective way to get

that room to quiet down
is to simply stand still.

Sooner or later,
the awareness begins

to move throughout the room.

Wait a minute.

We should be paying
attention here.

And sure enough, all of
those conversations die down,

and before I know it, I have
the attention of the room.

And it's the stillness that
I bring to that moment that

makes it possible.

So silence is a real powerful
tool for communication.

And it's the journey
of the storyteller

that we learn all of
these tricks of the trade.

We learn all of these
methods and methodologies

of capturing and holding the
attention of the audience

long enough to deliver what
it is we came to deliver.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

For me, being present
has everything

to do with engaging my
filter, filtering out

distraction, filtering out that
which is not necessary for me--

all of the thoughts that
one can bring to a moment.

Did I turn off the
coffee pot this morning?

I wonder-- oh, I didn't
start the load of laundry.

I was supposed to call
my accountant back.

Is it bad news?

Is it good news?

All of these thoughts that,
a million miles a second,

tend to permeate our mind--

the ability to filter
them out and surrender

to any given moment--

that's what being in the moment
looks and feels like to me--

just being able to get
rid of all of the noise

all of the chatter.

Because we are always
bringing something

to every moment,
what I try to do--

I try and bring my
attention to the moment.

And everything else seems
to fade in the background.

It's the attention
that you bring that--

where you find the value
in any present time moment

that you want to engage with.

It's intention,
attention and intention.

And I think that it
is true for most of us

that we have the ability
to focus our energy

and attention in a singular
direction for at least

a few minutes at a time.

And if you can do it for
a few seconds at a time,

you can do it for a
few minutes at a time.

And if you can do it for
a few minutes at a time,

you can do it for longer
periods, through practice.

The key to cultivating
awareness is

as simple as practicing
noticing things.

There's so much that we
are not aware of, that we

don't notice in our lives.

Awareness is the key
to self-knowledge--

going back to those
important qualities

that a good storyteller
possesses, self-knowledge chief

among them.

There is an experience
that we have all

had of standing and
gazing up at the night

sky, and the sense
of majesty that we

experience in that moment.

And by just noticing the
heavens, and how sparkly

and infinite they are
creates an a an awareness

that doesn't go away.

It's only enhanced every time
you look up at the night sky.

So it's the ability.

I believe, to notice
that really introduces us

to the concept of awareness.

That awareness is what we
bring to these moments that

enhance our ability to
be successful as a part

of a storytelling experience.