Author Archives: gcorvino

Rose, Theater Ghost Memorate

Age: 19

Story: What I remember is that Rose was a former student that died in the school and haunted the theatre in particular. She would bang around in the cats [catwalks] and ventilation especially if you were the only one in the theatre. Among techs I think there was more serious beliefs about how to treat Rose, aka ghost light and personally always saying hi and bye to rose if I was the first one in or last one out, or if she made noises I would talk to her sometimes. – JH

Context: This story was told directly to the archivist as a friend. It is regarding a ghost that was thought to populate their high school theater since the program’s inception.

Teller seems fairly convinced of the rituals that go into the ghost, they mention turning on the ‘ghost light,’ which is the last light left on the stage when people have left, and talking to it in their spare time.

Theaters are often places that claim to experience ghosts. The story of Rose was passed between multiple generations of student tech workers, perhaps to explain things like the weird banging in the ventilation shafts or unexplainable tech problems. There is no evidence showing that a former student died in the school, but a mockumentary was made by some former theater students showcasing Rose’s inception.

Brother Monkey and Brother Lion / African American Myth

Age: 47

So, it starts off with all the animals living in the forest together peacefully, for the most part. There’s brother monkey, there’s brother lion, they’re kinda like homies they hang out together all the time, there’s brother zebra, there’s sister elephant, there’s uh, a whole bunch of other animals that you can make up along the way, right? So, brother monkey is known for not being the nicest of people he always just be messing with people, just mokeying around, right? Well, one day he finds out that sister elephant is having a birthday party and he was not invited. So he goes to brother lion he say, “brother Lion, did you get invited to this birthday party?” He said, “oh yeah I did. you talking about sister elephant? She having a birthday we gonna have cake we gonna have punch its gonna be great, right?” And he’s like, “what the hell. This ish here did not invite me to this birthday part. And um, brother lion was like, “oof. I wonder why.”  right? Because brother monkey, he just be messing with everybody and monkeying around. Well, brother monkey decided, he got it into his head that he was gonna make sure that everybody know that they shouldn’t be messing with him they should invite him to their birthday party and stop… what’s the word I wanna use, uh. Hold on a second. He said that wanted to, uh, make sure that everybody know who the boss of this here forest, right? He said, and he’s like… brother lion’s like, “Who’s the boss?” He said “you of course brother lion. You’re the boss, you the king of the forest. Uh, but I’m the boss.” He said, “Uh huh, whatever you say brother monkey.” so they get ready and they go to the birthday party. Everybody turn around when brother monkey coming in the birthday said, “oooh, who invited him I thought he wasn’t invited. What’s going on here?” right? People be whispering in the side. And brother monkey he walk up to sister elephant. He said, “I see you didn’t invite me to your birthday party huh? You’ll get enough of doing that.” So he said, “I’m gonna poop on your cake and pee in your punch!” so he go and he go to the cake and he poop a lil turdlet on the cake and he go whip out his little weeny and he piss in the punch. He said, “now all of yall aint gonna have no cake and no punch! You didn’t invite me!” And he was expecting that brother lion his homeboy was gonna back him up. And sister elephant was mad. She roared. She roared everywhere. She was like, “what the hell did you don did. This is why don’t nobody wanna invite you to no birthday invite you nowhere cuz you always wanna be starting stuff. That’s why you wasn’t invited. And I am so mad that I’ll make you eat that cake and drink that punch!” Brother monkey’s like, “yeah right. You’re gonna be up against the king of the forest brother lion! That’s my home dude, you know he gonna have my back!” And he looked around and he looked at brother lion. “Brother lion,” he’s like, “you got me brother lion?” Brother lion’s like, “you know what? You pooped on the cake and you peed in the punch, you made your bed. I ain’t got you on this one brother monkey, that was not a nice thing to do.” So he had to eat that cake and eat that punch. – Tj’Jamika English

This story was told to the informant by their father when they were young.

The informant was very protective of this story and explicitly asked to be named and credited in its posting. They claimed that it had been passed down to them by their father, who likely used it as a tool for his own self reflection.

This sort of myth seems to be very popular in diasporic African communities, and is much akin to the Anansi the Spider stories. In this, a sort of trickster animal spirit tries to overpower another and gets checked, displaying a cultural importance in upholding social boundaries. The strong characters do come come to the defense of the weak because they have committed societal wrongs. It seems to uphold a desire for healthy social awareness, checked hubris, and responsibility for one’s actions.