The Junebug character that we have created these plays around is a folk character in the fullest sense of the term despite the fact that most of the folk who participated in the generation of the character are literate. Although Junebug himself can be dated back to the early nineteen sixties, he is an expression of a generic character type as old as the ages. Wherever and whenever oppressed people have taken stock of their situations and begun to consider what to do about it, Junebug or somebody like him may be found nearby....

Junebug comes from a long line of African storytellers. Aesop, the African, was one of Junebug’s fore-bearers. The innumerable praise-singers, the oral historians who have carried the records of events and the families of African peoples from time immemorial to now, are ancestors to the Junebug. The tales of Anansi the spider, the Uncle Remus tales, the John and Master tales, Langston Hughes’ character, Simple, the street comer poets who chime the rhymes of Shine and Stagolee all these and more are ancestors to this keeper of dreams and other sacred things.