CNY
Grants for Arts in Education - art$TART
The Sound
of the Drums" -
Danforth Middle School and
Biboti Ouikahilo/Wacheva Cultural
Arts
The
big idea of this project is to
give kids a greater understanding
of different cultural backgrounds
through learning and experiencing
their music. The questions that
guided the work in the partnership
were:
“What specific and technical skills are required for the students to
achieve mastery on the djembe and
the dun-dun in order to perform?”
“What cultural connections can we make between the students' culture
(African-American) and Biboti’s
heritage from West Africa?”
Biboti
Ouikahilo came to Danforth in 2006-2007
through the Partnership for a Better
Education grant from Syracuse University.
The partnership was able to continue
in 2008 through an artStart grant.
Biboti
worked with two different groups
of students at Danforth: a group
of 6th-grade general music students
who had never played the drums
before, and an advanced group of
students in mixed grades called
DRUM at Danforth. He worked with
the 6th graders for one hour
per week and the advanced group
for 90 minutes per week from January
through early June. The students
involved in this partnership learned
to love drumming and learned about
different cultures from West Africa.
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In February,
the students in DRUM at Danforth
travelled to Fayetteville-Manlius
High School to perform during their
Black History Month Celebration.
The FM Step Team then came to Danforth
to perform. Both groups attended
classes at each school. This added
another dimension to the sharing
of cultural ideas. Throughout the
year, the students in DRUM at Danforth
performed at FM High School, Ithaca
College School of Music, Fowler
High School, Webster Elementary
School, All-City Chorus, Cazenovia
Middle School, and Danforth Middle
School. |
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On June
6, 2008, there was an African Drumming
Celebration featuring Biboti Ouikahilo,
DRUM at Danforth, and the 6th grade
students who had studied with Biboti
for the semester, including eight
African drumming pieces, African songs,
and both African and Hip-Hop dances.
The students (twenty-eight in all) were
all dressed in African costumes and
entered the packed auditorium singing
an African song. The celebration was
a great success. The students reflections
almost unanimously indicated that this
was the best part of their experience
in music. They were so excited to be
able to share what they had learned with
the whole school community.
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"I
will continue to teach African
drumming as a part of my curriculum
in both the general music classes
and DRUM at Danforth. I would like
to bring Biboti Ouikahilo back
to Danforth to continue learning
with him, because I think it really
benefits the students to learn
African drumming from someone who
is actually from Africa. Biboti
is a professional, performing musician
and he expects professional, performing
behaviors from the students he
is teaching. That was a significant
challenge during this partnership.
With the pressure of performance,
Biboti focused less on the cultural
understandings and more on the
mastery of specific skills, which
I hope to change next time." --
Carin Reeve-Larham, music teacher |
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