African Storytelling and Poetry Focus of WFU Programs

The Opoku-Agyemangs will present “African Storytelling Frees Us! A Tale of Human Rights” from 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. in Benson University Center’s Pugh Auditorium. For the free, public event the Opoku-Agyemangs will use storytelling to discuss human rights, slavery and women’s issues.

Also on Jan. 21, the community is invited to join the Opoku-Agyemangs for a “drum circle” from 9:30 p.m. to 11 p.m. in the Scales Fine Arts Center’s Ring Theater. The event is free.

The “drum circle” is an interactive poetry reading that incorporates drum rhythms. Students and community members are invited to listen or bring poetry to read. Kwadwo Opoku-Agyemang will read from his forthcoming novel about the slave experience and “Cape Coast Castle,” a collection of poetry about a slave castle near his home.

The Opoku-Agyemangs are literature professors with the University of Cape Coast in Ghana. Kwadwo Opoku-Agyemang’s expertise focuses on oral history and storytelling with a particular interest in the history of slavery in Ghana. Naana Opoku- Agyemang’s interest includes oral literature by women and women’s economic development in Ghana. She is also the former host of a national radio show in Ghana, where she interviewed prominent individuals including Ghana’s President Jerry John Rawlings.

The campus visit by the Opoku-Agyemangs is sponsored by the Year of Globalization and Diversity, Multicultural Affairs and women’s studies.