“KNOCK! KNOCK!” came loud, like that.

The her-elders stuck up their noses at the noise. Some may have been part deaf. Still, the her-younger had to hear all that knocking. “KNOCK! KNOCK!” Loud enough to wake the dead. Nobody asked, “Who’s there?” Or, “Is somebody hungry?” Her-elders in their long dresses leaned back, relaxed. “Who wants to cook for you?”* they asked, laughing.

Excerpt from the story, “Who You!” in Virginia Hamilton’s Her Stories: African American Folktales, Fairy Tales and True Tales.

The earthy aroma of rising dough, a repetitive knock like a drumbeat on a hardwood door, and flutter of wings and feathers, are the beating heart of “Who You!” a traditional African American folktale retold by Virigina Hamilton in her book Her Stories: African American Folktales, Fairytales, and True Tales. As the yeast and story work their magic, three woman reach a threshold between feeding only the domestic, small version of themselves, and answering the knock at the door to unknown potentials and opportunities that might nourish a more expansive, authentic version of themselves. This folktale about three women who turn into owls speaks of a latent avian power that exists within all of us that we have the choice to manifest. How might we be standing at this threshold, too, at various moments in our lives? How might we open ourselves up to set the bird within us free so we can fly?

This wise folktale reminds me of the words of renowned Jungian Psychologist and author Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes in her book Women Who Run With The Wolves, who says, “Inside every woman there is a wild and natural creature, a powerful force filled with good instincts, passionate creativity, and deep wild knowing”. Although her book is about an inner Wolf, and the multiple ways the wild Wolf in us can become trapped, domesticated, and imprisoned by our own thoughts, or conformity to social expectations, her idea is quite relevant and similar to this story about an inner Owl. She reminds us choosing to only feed the domesticated, smaller version of ourselves comes at a great sacrifice. When we starve the Wild Self and keep the door closed, we also end up burying ourselves in our daily toil that can become suffocating and depleting of energy and vitality. In the end the only way to live is to open the loft window, take the leap and fly.

This linocut “Who Cooks for You!”** features barred owls in a bald cypress tree, along with wild ferns, bromeliad flowers, Spanish moss, and black locust pods. All are wildlife local and native to the Southeastern part of the U.S. from which this folktale originates.

According to Hamilton in another one of her books, The People Could Fly: American Black Folktales told by Virginia Hamilton, enslaved people used folktales about flying to imagine freedom as a possibility. She says, “There are numerous separate accounts of flying African and slaves in the black folktale literature. Such accounts are often combined with tales of slaves disappearing. A plausible explanation might be the slaves running away from slavery, slipping away while in the field or under cover of darkness. In code language murmured from one slave to another, ‘Come fly away!’ might have been the words used” Telling stories to each other about birds flying was a way to express a collective desire for freedom without actually opening speaking about it.

In fact, Harriet Tubman used owl sounds (and the distinctive call of the barred owl) to alert fugitive slaves she was helping to escape enslavement. The sound of the owl enabled her to blend into the wilderness and not be caught, as she lead her escapees towards freedom. She also relied on wilderness survival skills to navigate diverse and unfavorable terrains. Perhaps for this reason a wild owl is associated with freedom in this African American folktale that was orally passed on during those times. As we read the story today, the barred owl appears as an archetype for a woman who has found her true Self. As Pinkola Estes says, “Go out into the woods, go out. If you don’t go out in the woods nothing will ever happen and your life will never begin”.

Note * Many of these stories have been orally transmitted and I highly recommend Hamilton’s version of this particular one because she retains the African American Southern vernacular which gives the telling of the story so much more authenticity. Who Cooks For You! is a handmade linocut print inspired by an African American Folktale retold by Virginia

Note** “Who Cooks for You!” is the sound a barred owl makes.

Blog Cover Photo Credit: Aaron J. Hill on Pexels

References:

Keyes, Allison (Feb 25, 2020). “Harriet Tubman, an Unsung Naturalist, Used Owl Calls as a Signal on the Underground Railroad”. https://www.audubon.org/news/harriet-tubman-unsung-naturalist-used-owl-calls-signal-underground-railroad

Hamilton, Virginia. (1985). The People Could Fly: American Black Folktales told by Virginia Hamilton. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

Hamilton, Virginia. (1995). Her Stories: African American Folktales, Fairytales, and True Tales. Beijing: Blue Sky Press.

Pinkola-Estes, Clarissa. (1992) Women Who Run With The Wolves. New York: Ballantine Books.

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