By ANNA GILGOFF

Special to The Press

Right after she was introduced to the audience assembled in Alumnae Hall at Cedar Crest College on March 30, presenter Vanessa Johnson broke into a song summarizing the plight of enslaved people.

Her voice soared, bringing life to renowned author Alice Walker’s words, and taking the audience back to the past.

“She was outstanding,” New Tripoli resident Mary Warfel said.

“I thought she was going to show us a slide-show about the topic, but she became the slideshow when she started singing the ancestor song by Alice Walker and then dramatizing the lives of the slaves. Very moving!”

For the next hour and a half, Johnson delivered story after story, bringing history to life by animating the lives of the abolitionists and of those who suffered.

Johnson wore a Kente cloth traditional Ghanaian dress.

“I practice as a griot, (a storyteller) and I don’t have children, so I pass these stories on to you.”

The Kente cloth originated from the Ashanti region of Ghana.

“I love Ghana. It is my second home,” she said.

In her presentation, Johnson referred to specific historical times.

“I really like the way she drew you into the story in first person,” Orefield resident Jan Pavelco said. “It just touched you in a different way and made it much more effective.”

Johnson told a story of Sarah Logan, who was a child on the Underground Railroad and later became a doctor, marrying a man from the Dominican Republic where she moved to practice medicine.

She re-enacted a story about a new mother and her newborn.

“We ran to Philadelphia,” she said in character. “There were Quakers there and they would help us. They helped us get to a place called New York City.”

Johnson then stepped out of character.

“This was a hotbed area for aiding and rescuing endangered people,” Johnson said. “Everyone has an individual story.”

Johnson who originates from Syracuse, N.Y., grew up in a middle-class family, raised by college educated parents who were part of the middle class.

“My father was one of those interventionists in the neighborhood who walked girls who didn’t have a dad down the aisle and drove kids to college,” she explained. “My parents were big followers of the Martin Luther King movement.”

Fundraising and education are two key activities that occupy Johnson’s time.

In 1989, she founded Syracuse Africa Bound, which provided youth from 10- to 18-years-old the opportunity to learn about the diverse history and culture of Africa.

The program sponsored some seven trips to West Africa, primarily to Ghana.

“The only way you can know things is if you experience it yourself,” she said. “Taking kids from Syracuse to Africa is going to the next step.”

JoJo Muir of Allentown commented on the presentation.

“Vanessa was a very dynamic, engaging speaker with a lovely voice,” Muir said. “Her emotional characterizations brought the tragic tale of slavery alive.

“Her stories about her recent experiences were an unfortunate picture of the problems in our country now.”

Karen Fairhurst of Emmaus spoke of Johnson’s importance in telling the stories.

“We need to hear stories like these more often,” Fairhurst said. “It’s such a good thing.”

Johnson’s presentation was sponsored by Dr. Marvin Charles, president of the Lehigh Valley Institute for Learning in Retirement, housed at Cedar Crest, and Cheryl Bohannon a member of the board.