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Henry Louis Gates Jr. And Maria Tatar Share African-American Folktales

We’re talking to Henry Louis Gates Jr. and folklore scholar Maria Tatar about their groundbreaking new book, “The Annotated African American Folktales.”

Also be sure to check the “Circle Round” podcast, a storytelling show for kids.

This show airs Tuesday at 11 a.m. EST. 

Guests:

Henry Louis Gates Jr., editor of “The Annotated African American Folktales” and Harvard University professor. (@HenryLouisGates)

Maria Tatar, editor of “The Annotated African American Folktales” and Harvard University professor. (@mariamtatar)

From Tom’s Reading List:

Excerpt of foreword from “Annotated African American Folktales.”

Walt Disney got ahold of a white man’s telling of African-American folktales and made them mainstream movie famous with Uncle Remus and more. But that river runs much deeper than Disney ever captured. A huge new collection of tales that leapt from Africa and grew in America is out now from Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Maria Tatar. There are incredible stories here. Wisdom, witches, flying Africans, tricksters. This hour, On Point: we’re going deep on African-American folktales. —Tom Ashbrook

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Henry Louis Gates Jr. participates in the "Finding Your Roots" panel during the PBS portion of the 2017 Summer TCA's at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Monday, July 31, 2017, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)
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Henry Louis Gates Jr. participates in the "Finding Your Roots" panel during the PBS portion of the 2017 Summer TCA's at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Monday, July 31, 2017, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)