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February 19-23, 2001
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The Story of Brother Blue
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He dresses in blue, from his socks to his beret to the butterflies painted on his palms. He spends a lot of his time in prisons and on street corners. Why would you want to listen to Brother Blue? "I think I was anointed to be a storyteller—I mean touched by the fire," says Brother Blue. "I can tell stories in my sleep and blow the world away!" A blue banner across his chest reads "Brother Blue, Storyteller." Brother Blue is also known as Hugh Morgan Hill, Ph.D. For the past 30 years, he's been telling his stories in public. He is the official storyteller of Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts.
He's earned a Harvard degree with honors and a master's degree in playwriting from Yale University. He's an ordained minister who transmits his far-reaching education to his audience.
"I bring Homer to the streets. I bring Sophocles," Brother Blue says. "To tell stories, you should know Chaucer. You should know Shakespeare. You should know Keats. You have to be constantly reading. You read, you think, you create. You have to know the new moves: You must be able to rap and be able to sing the blues!" Brother Blue transforms the classics into a modern setting. He places his version of Romeo and Juliet in the inner city. He has updated the plight of King Lear—Shakespeare's aged, battered royal hero—to talk about the homeless people of today.
But his career as a storyteller did not start until the late 1960s. He had returned to Harvard to study for a doctorate of divinity, and he also began visiting local prisons. "I wanted to take the most liberating transforming works of literature and break it down for the brother or sister who can't read or write," Brother Blue explains. When his professors rejected the idea, Blue left Harvard and earned his Ph.D. from an alternative university in Ohio. His doctoral thesis consisted of stories delivered at a jail and backed musically by a band of prisoners. Nowadays, Brother Blue's venues range from street corners in Cambridge to the Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee, to a radio show in Japan. Brother Blue tells American folktales, stories of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy, and his own personal experiences growing up. He even has stories for expectant mothers and their unborn babies, whom he calls "little sailors on the sea."
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The Storyteller in Others |
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For almost 10 years, Brother Blue has been encouraging others to tell their tales at a "storytelling night". Blue began this tradition at a local Cambridge bookstore. It has moved to a larger space on the Harvard campus. Every week a faithful following shows up to take turns telling stories in public. Brother Blue compares the occasion to musical "jam sessions": "We should have a place where storytellers can just jam and try new ideas and new things," he says. Newcomers to storytelling find a safe space to open themselves up. For veterans, it's a chance to try out new material. Along the way, Brother Blue offers encouragement, tips for improvement, and the solemn reminder of the power storytellers can have.
"Storytelling is a sacred art," Brother Blue emphasizes. "And the irony of it is that most people—if you say that—back away. They want to be amused mostly, or have a way of passing a little time. Not Blue. Even when I'm trying to be funny, I'm trying to give you my soul. That's strong." To pursue his storytelling ideals, Brother Blue goes without a regular salary, and he gets his share of odd looks from passersby when he takes to the streets. But that's all part of his investment in keeping storytelling alive and well.
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Listen to an excerpt from Brother Blue's serenade for these babies. (Requires QuickTime.
