During the many summers that Gerald Hausman and his wife Loretta operated The Blue Harbour Creative Writing Program on the north coast of Jamaica, he recorded storytellers, folksingers, drummers, and street talkers of all kinds. Out of these folkloric recordings a world of music and memory, fantastical tales and protest poetry grew into one single recording— a kind of omnibus of the thirteen years of listening and waiting for the right moment. Many of the short stories on this program are interpretations from Gerald, fresh from the fields of St Mary and the streets of Kingston. But many of the voices you hear are storytellers from Port Maria, Jamaica, the place that Zora Neale Hurston said was “the very best place to be in all the world.”

About the Author/Reader

Gerald Hausman, born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1945, grew up in New Jersey and Massachusetts. He graduated from college in New Mexico and continued to live there for two decades. During that time, he had a summer residence on the island of Jamaica where he and his wife, Loretta, founded a school for creative writing. Mr. Hausman has lived in Bokeelia, Florida since 1994. In addition to his many books about Native America, Gerald Hausman has written extensively about animal mythology. His work as a folklorist has earned him many national and international honors. Gerald's most recent award is from the Florida Magazine Association for his column "Pine Island Soundings" about life on a barrier island.

Gerald is a frequent storyteller at college writers programs and at young authors conferences. Recently, he performed at the Young Authors Conference in Kaiserslautern, Germany as a guest of Department of Defense Dependent Schools. His lively presentations, complete with a myriad of sound effects, have earned him praise from storytellers, speakers, writers, and listeners.

Praise for Drum Talk and Gerald Hausman

“Here in the unmistakable skin drums, the old world of Babylon crumbles, beaten down by chant, rhythmic pounding and exultation of the heart, yet even in the affirmation of salvation, the darkness remains.”
—Billboard Magazine

“…unlocks the door to blackness.”
—E. Ethelbert Miller

“…inspirational, informational, melodious stuff.”
—Booklist

“…duppy talk stories, I remember after hearing similar ones as children, nothing would have persuaded any of us to go to bed alone.”
—James Berry author of Ajeemah and His Son