Shayna Jones is a mother, an award-winning actor, a performance storyteller, spoken word artist, and folklorist. While raising three young kids, tending a grand garden, and living in the rural mountains of BC, she earns her living through a performance career steeped in her life context. Presently, she is the founder and leader of The Black and Rural Project, a multi-year artistic investigation into the hearts and minds of black folks tucked away on the Canadian countryside. Partnering with both arts and heritage organizations, her vision is to gather, honor and showcase black and rural Canadian life through a touring performance and gallery exhibition. Learn more about her and her work at www.wearestoryfolk.com.

This piece is based on a poem I originally composed and performed nearly a decade ago. The opening stanza’s are exactly the same. The sputtering loss of God near the end is also identical. These were the lines that sprang to my mind as I contemplated Jonah and his plight. I resonate with the helplessness Jonah feels. I resonate with the lack of understanding. The despair. The separation from God. In fact, this resonance is what gives me hope. Not a happy hope, but a hope that comes from shattering the need to be The One That Knows.