We’ll let the Lebeha Drummers drum us out of our week with the Garifuna….
In case this morning you woke up thinking, “I desperately need to escape my humdrum life, run away to Honduras or Belize and learn Garifuna drumming,” be assured that the Lebeha Drummers will gladly welcome youto their drumming center on the Caribbean coast. If you’re not leaving today at least you can take your kids to an All Around This World music class and drum drum along to “Our Story May Be Sad.”
Make it happen, Umalali…!
One of the most inspiring concerts I’ve seen in recent years was a stunning show by Umalali: The Garifuna Women’s Project as part of Crossroads Music – Philadelphia at Calvary Center for Culture and Community. The ensemble is the result of a collaboration between Belizean musician and producer, Ivan Duran, who spent over a decade collecting Garifuna women’s songs and stories, and Garifuna female performers who bring hundreds of years of Garifuna history onto stage when they perform. Asumming you’re not going to be in Belize or Honduras any time soon…if Umalali is so kind to play a concert near you, BE THERE.
This week in our online class for kids we travel to Honduras, where, about 1500 years ago the land was the site of a major Mayan kingdom known as Xukpi (Copán). The Mayan population declined by about the year 900, but there were still non-Mayan inhabitants around when Columbus and other Spaniards landed in the early 16th century. In 1537 the warrior Lempira unified two hundred Native American tribes in an effort to expel the Spanish and made a strong stand at the fortress of Cerquín. The Spanish captain invited Lempira to a peace conference, ordered a marksman to shoot him and then, after he fell to his end from the high cliffs, chased his warriors away.
Not good.
In our class we’ll tell a much more pleasant tale as we meet the Garifuna people learn about their unique history. As we do we will shake our bottoms while dancing the Punta. Our dancing will be technically embarrassing yet unrelentingly awesome.
We know you’ll love Aurelio Martinez….
This week in class we celebrate music from Honduras and Belize, particularly the sounds of the Garifuna. The Garifuna are a distinct Afro-Caribbean group that originated in 1635 when a boat carrying African slaves shipwrecked off of the Caribbean island of St. Vincent. The survivors integrated into the Carib population and developed their own West African/Caribbean language and culture. Within two centuries the Garifuna had settled in several locations along the Central American coastline yet, unlike many cultures, maintained their own communities and never fully integrated into the Spanish-influenced mainstream. To get into the groove, les enjoy this video of Aurelio Martinez and Garifuna Soul performing in Belize City Belize.
