Afifi Durr got involved with the Seattle Storytellers Guild by using her talent for making
Tabbouleh. Yes, Tabbouleh. In 1980, Afifi established here own business in Seattle, an
Arabic language translation service. Several years later, the Folklife organizers asked her
to translate an Arabic song into English. She joked with them and said she was fed up with
translation, and would rather do something fun like present a Tabbouleh salad. She offered
to show an audience how to make Lebanese Tabbouleh, and to tell stories about its origin in
Lebanon, and of course, share gossip, which is an important part of making authentic
Tabbouleh. Folklife loved her crazy idea, and she was a hit. She drew quite the audience,
including people from The Seattle Times, and the Seattle Storytellers Guild. The Seattle
Times wrote about it, and the storytellers enticed her to get involved with storytelling
in Seattle.
More information about Afifi was published in the Winter 2021 edition of
In the Wind - 2021
A former President of the Seattle Storytellers Guild, Jill Johnson was loved by the
Guild. She was a strong supporter of storytelling, and our National Storytelling
Network liaison. We are all saddened by her passing.
Memories of Jill gathered from the Guild membership were compiled by Allison Cox, and published in
the Summer 2020 edition of
In the Wind - 2020.