My Identity: What’s a Griot?

A griot is a guru to tribal rulers and their people. The honorific comes from the West African tradition, more properly “griotte” in the feminine. I am neither of African nor Black descent, yet I can find no other identity term that explains what I do - a news reporter, adviser, arbiter, mentor, confidante, coach, explorer, historian, poet, and troubadour.

My profession has evolved into this identity; my pronoun (actually noun) is Foto-Griot, a teller of visual tales of insight, culture and expression, through photographic or cinematic based imagery, sometimes realistic, sometimes abstract - plus writing of my experiences and sometimes wells of poetic words that happen to bubble to the surface. A non-binary, multiple-existence of self—and responsibility.