Orunamamu

Orunamamu was an American/Canadian professional storyteller, raconteur and griot. Her peripatetic storytelling led her on extensive, demanding and often impromptu journeys across the United States including Alaska, overseas to the United Kingdom and Egypt and finally to Canada. She is included in a number of books, journals, articles and two documentaries. Her performance medium was the spoken voice in performances to audiences. For Orunamamu storytelling became her cause as well as her art form, because "[s]torytelling demonstrates the humanity in every culture." Orunamamu died in Calgary, Alberta on 4 September 2014 at the age of 93. She was booked to perform at the Calgary Spoken Word Festival in the summer of 2014. Orunamamu has been the subject of countless portraits over many decades and in many countries, including photographers such as Arthur Koch (Oakland), Kenneth Locke (Calgary) and Jim Hair. Many of these are shared through social media.

4 April 1921

Born on the same birth date (4 April 1921): Elizabeth Wilson

Born on the same birth day (4 April): Alexander Tettey • Chris Banks (American football) • Dorothea Dix • Emerson (footballer, born 1976) • Gaspar Sanz • Graeme Kelling • Keith Bulluck • Martín Pérez (baseball) • Natalie Pike • Pat Burns • Richard Parsons (businessman) • Ricky Dillon • Shing-Tung Yau • Tris Speaker • Yelena Yelesina

Born in the same month (April 1921): Angelo DiGeorge • Christopher Hewett • Chuck Connors • Jake Warren • Jean Richard (actor) • Jim Hearn • Judy Agnew • Karel Appel • Katarína Kolníková • Mary Jackson (engineer) • Robert Dhéry • Roberto Tucci • Thomas Schelling • Warren Spahn • Wolfgang Leonhard