Not long ago we performed in Hesperia, a small town in western Michigan. After the show we were greeted by a young teacher who was the niece of Verna Aardema, the author of Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain. (We tell this folktale, which originated in Kenya, with the help of our audience who create rhythms and rain sounds.) Verna loved Africa, wrote stories about it, and had a hat woven there with wooden charms dangling from it. The hat is a storyteller tradition in Africa, where a child would come up to a storyteller, touch one of the wooden characters, and then a story would be told to fit that figure. We asked if Verna had ever been to Africa before she died. No, she hadn’t. It just so happened, that Lise, one of our actresses, had and had taken Verna’s story with her! A story conceived in Kenya, found life in Verna’s book, and then returned there via Magic Carpet Theatre made us feel connected with the whole world! And that is what good literature does…it unites us, speaks to our hearts, and inspires us to share it.