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): Agnes Ayres • Amalia of Saxony, Duchess of Bavaria • Colin Coates • Doug Lynch (ice hockey) • Geoff Braybrooke • Jim Dymock • JoAnne Carner • Joseph-Nicolas Delisle • Juan Manuel Olivares • Maria II of Portugal • Mike Starr (musician) • Pierre Fresnay • Scott Rolen

Born in the same month (April 1921): Anna Lee Aldred • Feza Gürsey • Jack Rayner • Jake Warren • Jean Richard (actor) • Karel Appel • Katarína Kolníková • Robert Dhéry • Robert Karvelas • Sheb Wooley • Simin Daneshvar • Warren Spahn • Wilbur Thompson • William Bergsma • Yitzhak Navon