Heliconia serenade: Rootical folklore workshop

Heliconia Serenade is the title of an interactive reading by Natty Mark Samuels, author of The Encyclopedia of Rootical Folklore: Plant Tales from Africa and the Diaspora. It will include participatory chanting, poetry, dialogues, riddles and other brain teasers. Rootical Folklore is the neologism for his celebration of African and Caribbean Folklore through flora. Rootical, because of the first syllable and its obvious connection to plants; and the whole word, meaning seed or root of an idea. The reading will include pieces about soursop, mango, breadfruit, baobab, pineapple and ackee, among others. Heliconias grow in the back garden of his father, in the village of Cambridge near Montego Bay, Jamaica, generating visits from the Mango Hummingbird.

Due to the dearth of provision in Oxford, Natty Mark Samuels, writer and folklorist, set up African School in 2009, offering African Studies to the general public. He is the founder of Rootical Folklore: celebrating African and Caribbean Orality through flora; and Birago Day: African and Caribbean Folklore Day. The Encyclopedia of Rootical Folklore: Plant Tales from Africa and the Diaspora, written by him, was published May 2024, by Scorched Earth Press.