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Won-Ldy Paye

 Meet

Won-Ldy Paye

Award Winning Children’s Book Author, 

Artist and Performer

“Arts in Motion – To fill up space, to make beauty, and to tell story.”

 

Won-Ldy Paye – My love for art started when I was a kid in Tappita, a rice farming region in Northeastern Liberia.  My grandmother would say preverbally, “Know one says life is supposed to be easy.  Show me where life is utopia, and we will all move there for free.” Oral literature was and is still today the foundation of Liberian culture.

A life without a story or a society with no culture is like a tree without roots.

One who handles life as a toy is a Tlo-ker-mehn – Dan language Liberia. I was curious to explore other culture creeping into my environment so, I used Art as a healthy recipe for educating and entertaining myself and others. Before the completion of high school,

  • I founded and directed the Trow Trow Artist Workshop in Monrovia, which become the fourth largest cultural trope in Liberia in the mid 80s.
  • I was brought on board as an Executive Members of the Liberian Cultural Union and was credited for introducing some of the earliest comic and health educational radio dramas in Liberia that were sponsored by NGOs such as UNCEF, CARE-Liberia, PLAN International-Liberia and ELWA Radio Station.

“Any form of war is never a good recipe for democracy. For Africans know too well, that any form of occupation is not and should not be welcome.” 

The uncivil civil war that happened in Liberia is testimonial to these quates above. My father, older brother and many relatives were among the 250,000 who lost their lives in Liberia. My native land-Liberia, that was once “The Golden Shore” for Black People fleeing racism in the United States in the 1800s became ravaged by nepotism and traditionalism. These senseless acts created the revolving door. In the 2000s, United States became “The Golden Gate” for many of us Liberians running from warmongers.

The saying now common among Liberians is, “The Love of Liberty Brought Us Here.” Depending on which way you came from.

I took residency in Seattle, Washington and later Connecticut in the United States. I continued my live as a Tlo-ker-mehn – an Artist-in-Residence and an Unofficial Ambassador of the Liberian Culture.

  • For over ten years I taught Liberian dance through the Experimental College and hosted a weekly African music Radio Show – “The Best Ambiance” on KCMU FM 93.5 at the University of Washington. ” There were many opportunities when
  • I advised Seattle Art Museum on African arts during many of its exhibitions and consulted with booking Agents bringing African art and music to the Northwest.
  • I founded, directed and performed in Village Drum & Masquerade (Traditional Liberian music and masks dance troupe based in Seattle.
  • I played with few African pop bands: (JEKAJO, Smell No Taste and Zigehleh) in Seattle during the end of the Grunge music era.

Today I am matured enough to say my works have been presented on stages in Liberia, British Columbia in Canada, in classrooms throughout United States, in Mexico City, Mexico, and Katmandu in Nepal. The archives of the Washington State Arts Commission, the Seattle Arts Commission, the Anchorage School District, the Montana Art Council, and The Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism, will agree that “Won-Ldy Paye was here.”

“Storytelling is putting sensual emotions into events or playing with words as though they were toys.”

I am proud to be a part of the publishing world. Please checkout:

  • The Talking Vegetables: Henry Holt and Company,
  • Mrs. Chicken and the Hungry Crocodile: Henry Holt and Company,
  • Head, Body, Legs: Henry Holt and Company, (which is also printed in Japanese and Korean)
  • Why Leopard Has Spots: Fulcrum Publishing

I am fortunate to have some of my works included in the fallowing Publications:

  • Earth Care:  World Folktales to Talk About: By Margaret Read MacDonald, Linnet Books,
  • Teacher’s Read Aloud Anthology (Volume I), Margaret H. Lippert, Anthologist, MacMillan/McGraw-Hill,
  • Teacher’s Read Aloud Anthology (Volume IV), Margaret H. Lippert, Anthologist, MacMillan/McGraw-Hill,

 

“It takes the whole village to raise a child.” African proverb