PRINTBy word of mouth
Author tells tough tales of Missouri blacks
COURTESY OF UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI PRESS
Gladys Caines Coggswell, author of Stories from the Heart
July 29, 2009 | 12:00 p.m. CST
As a child, Gladys Caines Coggswell didn’t like listening to her great-grandmother’s stories one bit. Describing herself as an inquisitive child who was always in everyone’s business, Coggswell says her great-grandmother Marie Wallace Cofer told the stories to discipline Coggswell and her sister.
“She had a story about everything you did wrong, and all the animals and people in the stories came to a bad end,” Coggswell says. “I didn’t want to come to a bad end, so I behaved.”
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Coggswell started reading books to pre-kindergarteners in 1979 as a Reading Is Fundamental coordinator in University City. Now as a master storyteller through the Missouri Folk Arts Program, Coggswell is sharing her own stories as well as the stories of others. After Coggswell spent 12 long years interviewing and editing, her book Stories from the Heart: Missouri’s African American Heritage was published by the University of Missouri Press this year.
Coggswell worked closely with Missouri Heritage Readers Series General Editor Becky Schroeder to collect stories from across the state and compile them into a detailed yet accessible history of Missouri’s black heritage. This is the 27th book in the series, which aims to provide a selection of Missouri heritage and folklore books for new and experienced readers.
Coggswell also worked with Missouri Folk Arts Program Director Lisa Higgins, who wrote the foreword to the book.
Studying Missouri’s folklore “gives us a sense of the diversity and cultural fabric of the state,” Higgins says. “It’s important for us to get to know each other and understand the traditions.”
Coggswell says hearing the older people’s stories makes her more thankful for what she has and grateful to her ancestors.
“No matter where you are in Missouri, if you focus on your goal, you can make a beautiful life for yourself,” Coggswell says. “I found different stories, but the premise is the same: You have to work hard, but you can make it in spite of your circumstances.”
She sees storytelling as a tradition that will stick around for years to come but predicts that it will also change with the Internet.
Coggswell says digital storytelling is sufficient for some people. “For others, they have to see and hear the actual story from the person telling it,” she says.
John Foley, an MU professor of classical studies and English, sees a correlation between Internet networks and the sharing of stories through oral tradition.
“Storytelling and folklore will continue to support societies all over the world, serving as a basis for group identity,” Foley says. He expects to see more interest in oral traditions as Internet use increases.
Folklore wouldn’t exist today if it weren’t for the stories passed down by generations who lived long ago and artists such as Coggswell who take an interest in what they have to say.
“When artists pass away and were fantastic people with amazing artistic skills, it really reminds us why we do what we do,” Higgins says. “It’s the best job in the world, but sometimes the saddest job in the world. Storytellers are everyday citizens with genius.”
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