You can hear the excitement building in the art classroom at Mt. Vernon Elementary School. It’s 9 am for the third graders on a weekday in January, and Robin Rumsey, their art teacher, has a surprise. For five days Octavia Sexton will lead them in a storytelling workshop.
She describes herself as a teaching artist who travels the state inspiring students in vocal storytelling in her mountain dialect.
The 69-year-old Sexton explains to the students, “I tell my stories in dialect. Your teacher teaches you in what’s called standard English. So, everybody can understand you even if they’re not from here. And it’s important you learn it. But my dialect is a part of who I am, and I’m not ashamed of it. Don’t you ever be ashamed of the way your grandma talks.”
