Tales from the Forest

Spencer, a well known producer, writer, actor, teacher, and Persad, an actress, director, producer, storyteller, drama teacher and voice over actress for radio and television, spoke with Sunday Newsday about their collaboration, Tales from the Forest.

Persad recalled accompanying a friend to visit local publisher Nigel R. Khan about a book the friend was publishing.

Persad, who had been doing storytelling for years and was an author as well, asked Khan if he would be interested in publishing children’s stories. Khan said he was specifically interested in folk tales as a means of promoting local culture, something that Spencer appreciated.

In May last year Persad asked Spencer if she would be interested in collaborating on a book, and Spencer, who has been doing folk tales for drama and writing scenes for years, agreed. Khan had asked for six stories and they chose tales about the La Diablese, the socouyant, the douen, Papa Bois, the river protector Mama Dlo, and a play featuring various characters -- all of which they believe could help children to distinguish between good and evil.

Spencer and Persad met over a two month period to discuss and reviewed notes before submitting the book, which was then reviewed and edited by Queen Bishop’s Publishing. During the approval stages, the authors had various meetings with Christopher Quammie to get the illustrations done. Once editing was done to two of the stories, they went to the recording studio to do the voice overs for the audio CD that comes with the book.

Persad lamented that children were not reading or writing anymore and preferred playing video games and chatting on social media.

“The stories died, the culture died,” Spencer said, putting some of the blame on the American media. Spencer and Persad have high hopes for their work. “I hope somebody likes (Tales from the Forest) and makes it into a film,” Spencer said, suggesting that the characters could feature on a Saturday show and children could get to see them. She said so many children do not know the culture and this will help them to understand where their parents and grandparents came from.

She recalled her own mother telling a story of an uncle who allegedly received a “twist mouth” from a La Diablese. She explained that because of these folk tales she had the “fear of God” about going out at night, and just the thought that douens were children who were not yet baptised when they died gave her a respect for religion.

Spencer said they hoped to continue doing stories on folklore characters and introduce new ones that need to be highlighted. She also plans to adapt Carnival characters such as the Midnight Robber and the Pierrot Grenade.

“Let Trinidad know we have a history.” Persad said when writing for children you cannot bore them with too much information. Tales from the Forest’s intended audience is for ages eight and up and for “whoever could read”. Spencer said Newtown Girls RC school had purchased more than 25 copies and she has received good feedback from friends. “We hardly have these stories any more. This book awakened interest (in folk tales),” she added.

Persad expressed hope that children would get interested in the characters and write their own stories. She said her own 17-year-old daughter, who prefers Math over reading, sat and read the book and asked questions after.

The book was launched on March 23 at the Falls at West Mall, with actors Nikki Crosby, Raymond Choo Kong, Richard Ragoobarsingh and Cecilia Salazar doing dramatic readings directed by Debra Boucaud-Mason.

Spencer and Persad plan to do a school tour and do readings to market the book.

They also plan to do a book signing in south and in Tobago.

The book, published by Queen Bishop Publishing/ Nigel R. Khan & Kerry Ann Bishop is available exclusively at Nigel R. Khan and also on Amazon.