Audio clip
Finn Bille: Evertime I hear a fly buzz
Audio clip
Finn Bille: Everytime I say goodbye
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Staff photo by Allison Kwesell/Chattanooga Times Free Press - Finn Bille, a local storyteller, is originally from Denmark and brings his heritage into the stories he tells in Chattanooga.
As an 11-year-old in Washington, D.C., who had just arrived from Denmark, Finn Bille was mesmerized by the 175-ton statue of President Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial.
He even wondered if he was a king.
But the reality of being in a new place didn't strike him at the sight of the Lincoln Memorial or the Washington Monument, he said. Instead, the epiphany of his migration from the Nordic country came when he spotted a blue jay.
"That bird to me said, 'Welcome to America.' I could relate," said the Chattanooga resident and storyteller. "I suddenly felt I belonged."
Mr. Bille, 68, draws on his childhood journey from his home country to his new one as the basis for a series of stories that are included on his first CD that will be released in early June. In "Marzipan," he shares some of his childhood stories and poems from Denmark. The stories are accompanied by hammered dulcimer player Rick Davis.
Although Mr. Bille's storytelling didn't begin with a focus on his three migrations from Denmark to the United States, he said he found his voice in those immigration stories.
"At my age, it's perfectly natural to look back ... and to try to figure out who I am, where I come from, how I've integrated to become an American and what I've brought with me from Denmark," said the retired teacher and consultant in his North Shore home.
In the first story on the CD, "When I Was Ten," he describes a vivid image of a gray, cobblestone road in Copenhagen, his yellow home and a red train his brother painted.
In "Marzipan," he talks about a five-year-old Finn who uses his own money to buy his mother a pig made of marzipan -- a sweet paste made of ground almonds, sugar and egg whites and usually eaten during Christmas.
Chattanooga native Jim Pfitzer, whom Dr. Bille describes as his storytelling mentor, said he doesn't know anyone who looks back to the time before his immigration as source material for stories.
"When you have dialogue going back-and-forth between him and his father, it's amazing. As a listener, I really get it and I've never immigrated," Mr. Pfitzer said. "I've never left a world that is so familiar and gone somewhere I don't understand the language or know the culture."
ABOUT FINN BILLE
* Born in Nrresundby, Denmark, in 1942.
* First migrated to the United States in 1953.
* Returned to Denmark a year later until he finished high school.
* Migrated to America a second time in 1959 and a third time in 1977.
* Married to Leslie Jeannine Bankey of Trion, Ga., in 1963.
* Earned a Ph.D. in English at Georgia State University in 1978.
* Taught at Baylor School from 1978-1985.
* Taught at several area colleges and universities.
* Has been telling stories since the 1980s.
* Has published a couple of books, including "Rites of the Earth: Selected Poems 1965-1990."
PRESENTATIONS/PROJECTS
* Storyteller Finn Bille will release his first CD, "Marzipan," together with musician Rick Davis in early June.
* They will perform at 2:30 p.m. June 17 at Morning Pointe of Hixson, 550 Greenbriar Cove.
* Along with other storytellers, Dr. Bille will tell his immigration story at the Carter Center in Atlanta on July 4.
Perla Trevizo joined the Chattanooga Times Free Press in 2007 and covers immigration/diversity issues and higher education. She holds a master’s degree in newswire journalism from Universidad Rey Juan Carlos in Madrid, Spain, and a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Texas. She was selected as an International Reporting Fellow by the International Center for Journalists and in 2009 received an honorable mention for her story “Families Broken Apart” from the Tennessee ...
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