2006 West African Drumming Workshop

The library hosted 30 children and their families for a night of West African drumming and dancing on Oct. 19th, 2006. Sogbety Diomande, from the Ivory Coast, donated his time and provided some of the drums for each child to use for this 2 hour workshop. Melanie Seaman, the 2006 winner of the Virginia Hamilton and Arnold Adoff Creative Outreach Grant, put together this program with help from Annalea Volk, who provided dance instruction, under the direction of Sogbety Diomande. The grant enabled the purchase of 10 African djembes which were used in the program. Children learned about village life in the Ivory Coast and became familiar with the djembe, learning the 3 sounds and the rhythm for Kuku. They also learned the dance steps for Kuku, a fishing dance.

And the beat goes on...

Sogbety telling the story of the djembe.