In 2021, a coalition of national museum and library associations awarded the Peale (Baltimore, Maryland) a Communities for Immunity grant. The goal of the project is for trusted, local institutions to engage their communities in order to boost COVID-19 vaccine confidence. Since being awarded the grant, we've been gathering stories from people about their experiences with COVID and getting the vaccine.

In this short series, the Peale's storyteller-in-residence Mama Linda Goss recites her own versions of classic fables that offer key lessons about our collective survival in the COVID era.

Mama Linda Goss (00:07): My soul is singing. Well, oh, well, well. It's storytelling time. (Bells shaking) Gather around my people. Well, well. Gather around my people. Well, well. Gather around my people. Well, well, well, well, well.

Mama Linda Goss (00:39): It's storytelling time. Well, well. It's storytelling time. Well, well. It's storytelling time. Well, well, well, well, well, and indeed it's storytelling time.

Mama Linda Goss (00:56): So friends gather around and listen to the stories. Mmm. When spiders unite deep in the forest, an enclave of spiders lived in an idyllic paradise, bliss and blissfully bliss. Mm. Until one day a herd of elephants came strolling through Baba, big Baba elephant, big mama, elephants, little big baby elephants came bobbing and bouncing through the idyllic kingdom of spiders, which was idyllic no more. The elephant's weight made the ground shake. They blew their trumpet. They flapped their ears knocking over leaves. They swayed their hips from side to side, knocking the spiders homes, their webs far and wide. Now the elephants weren't trying to be destructive. This is who they were. They were elephants. And the biggest of the Baba elephant said, this looks like a nice place to rest and camp out for a day or two where you think big mama.

Mama Linda Goss (02:45): Oh yes. Big Baba. This will do well. We will be swell. Look at all this rich food we can eat here. Good, healthy grasses to eat. Ooh, we got coconuts, bananas and our favorite and they all shouted out. Jack fruit, Jack fruit. We got lots of Jack fruit to eat Jack fruit, Jack fruit. We got lots of Jack fruit. Ooh, Ooh. One of the baby elephants said, Hey mama, Hey Baba, what are those stringy things hanging down? Oh, it looks like some old vine said, Baba, don't worry about them. Yes, said big mama. We'll just tear them down and wash them out. And with their trucks, they washed the spiders homes away. They broke off tree branches and swept leaves from the forest floor so they could have a nice, smooth spot to rest in the shade. They dug into the earth for roots to eat. They ate bamboo shoots and shrubs and twigs, and they ate strips of bark from the trees. They ate bananas, coconuts act, Jack fruit, Jack fruit. We got it. Eat that Jack fruit. Needless to say the spiders were shocked. Stunned. Flabbergast, dismayed bewildered frightened in less than a few minutes. They had been displaced and their community was in disarray. The spiders hid in the crevices of trees, old logs rocks. The earth itself. Spider families had been separated. Mothers separated from children. Fathers separated from their families. They were in such disbelief. Oh my goodness.

Asset ID: 2022.05.17.c

Find a complete transcription on the Peale website.