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Ask the Griot — Family Edition

Prepared for the Watkins–Bazzle family

It began with one small question: is Watkins a European surname? By the end of the night, it had become six generations.

In this episode, Nia — Erica's friend from Baltimore and an apprentice jelimuso — brings the family's story to Jeliba. Together they follow the Bazzle line from Nace and Vinny Bazzel in Bucktown, Harriet Tubman's home ground, to the founding of Bazzel Church in 1876; through Alexander Bazzle and Ida Waters on Pine Street in Cambridge; to Aunt Ida, who carried the family's memory and passed it to her niece Charlotte. They trace Charles Bazzle from Bucktown to Morgan College, and the Watkins line from Virginia through Washington's U Street neighborhood to Baltimore, where the two families joined.

And they honor the keepers: Ida Waters, Aunt Ida, Charlotte, and now Erica, whom her father calls the new matriarch.

Jeliba closes by sorting what the family holds into three baskets: what is documented, what is remembered, and what is still waiting to be found. Then the names are spoken aloud.

Chapters 0:00 — Cold open: the boat to Cambridge

0:53 — Ask the Griot

1:29 — The story: Bucktown to Baltimore, and the speaking of the names

18:49 — Closing '