Long before books and screens, stories were how communities passed down their history, their values, and their sense of self. That tradition is still very much alive at CADI, through a program called Tales By Moonlight – a tribute to the timeless practice of gathering under an open sky to share the tales that shaped a people.
Where the Voices of the Past Meet the Future
Tales By Moonlight celebrates the rich oral storytelling culture found across Africa and the Diaspora. It is built around a simple but powerful idea: storytelling is not just entertainment, it is a way of teaching, healing, preserving heritage, and building bridges between generations. Every session is designed to let the voices of the past speak directly to the ears of the future.
What the Program Actually Does
Tales By Moonlight brings this idea to life in a few distinct ways:
- Live Storytelling Events – Communities gather across age groups – children, youth, parents, and elders – for evenings of traditional folktales, myths, legends, and proverbs, from stories of Anansi the Spider to moon myths and everyday wisdom, shared in multiple languages and styles.
- Youth Story Circles – Young people are invited not just to listen, but to ask questions and share their own stories, building self-expression, confidence, and creativity while keeping cultural traditions alive.
- Performance and Visual Storytelling – Oral storytelling is blended with theatre, music, dance, and art, bringing age-old tales to life in new ways. Some stories are reimagined for a modern audience, while others are preserved exactly as they have been told for centuries.
- Intergenerational Dialogues – The program opens space for elders to pass down values, history, and life lessons through storytelling, while also making room for younger voices to carry those stories forward in their own words.
An Ancient Practice With Deep Roots
Long before the transatlantic slave trade scattered African communities across the globe, oral storytelling was already the primary way history, law, and wisdom traveled from one generation to the next. Figures like Anansi the Spider – the trickster hero whose cleverness outwits stronger foes – were not just entertaining characters but vehicles for teaching lessons about cunning, humility, and consequence. When written history was denied to enslaved communities, these oral traditions became even more vital, carrying identity and memory forward when almost nothing else could.
Tales By Moonlight draws directly from that lineage. It treats storytelling not as a nostalgic throwback, but as a living practice – one that still does the same work today that it always has: teaching, healing, and connecting people to something larger than themselves.
Why It Matters
In a fast-paced digital world, stories ground people. They are a reminder of where a community comes from and who its members are, and they teach empathy, resilience, and pride in ways that are hard to replicate through any other medium. Tales By Moonlight is not only about remembering the past – it is about reconnecting with it, making room for tradition inside a modern world, and creating a safe space where imagination, memory, and identity can coexist.
That framing matters for CADI’s broader mission. Programs like Echoes of Africa celebrate heritage through an annual festival experience, while Tales By Moonlight does the quieter, ongoing work of keeping oral tradition itself alive between those larger moments. Together, they reflect the same belief: culture survives when a community actively practices it, not when it is simply archived.
Join the Circle
Whether someone is a storyteller with tales to share, a listener looking to reconnect with heritage, or simply someone who loves a good story, Tales By Moonlight is built to make room for them. CADI welcomes participants of every generation to take part in live events, story circles, and performances throughout the year.
If this resonates with you, learn more about the Tales By Moonlight program, explore volunteer opportunities to help bring these stories to life, or get in touch to find out how you can be part of the circle.
