African drums throb at Sisters Middle School

Dressed in bright yellow Senegalese costume, Hakim Muhammad and 17 Art Discovery Program and Americana Project students culminated Hakim Muhammad's week-long artist in residency program at Sisters Middle School with a rhythm-by-rhythm, call-and-response drumming presentation at Friday afternoon's school spirit assembly.

Sisters Middle School participates in Caldera's Arts Partner School Program which provides arts education services to middle schools. Muhammad and four other world-class, master percussionists have been funded to work with Central Oregon and Portland area students through a grant that Caldera received for a project called "Celebration of the Drum."

In addition to his residency at Sisters Middle School, Muhammad has worked with students at Terrebonne Community School and will spend the week of October 23 in Madras at Jefferson County Middle School.

Muhammad said, "Specifically what I am doing - I am teaching, disguised as African drumming, I'm teaching teamwork. I'm teaching problem solving, and I'm teaching listening and communication skills all through drumming. We're having a good time, and the kids don't actually realize how much they're learning."

An even broader goal of the "Celebration of the Drum" project is for a school's entire student body and staff to "get turned on by art in general," Muhammad explained,

"When I come here, it's a big deal, and we have a lot of fun," Muhammad said. "And I want them to enjoy when I come. What we're doing is art. … And that's part of the mission. Go to the kids. Let them have a good time doing something artsy - because when money goes, that's the first thing that goes - art - they cut that out first before sports."

In addition to working with the middle school students, Muhammad performed at Sisters Art Works on Wednesday evening, October 18.

Middle school teacher Kit Stafford said, "It ended up to be a community drumming with about 50 people; five of them were over the age of 85. We just had a blast."

Stafford added, "He also did a wonderful thing for our staff. We had a staff meeting, and we called it 'Call to the Wild.' And everybody showed up. We did a drumming."

Muhammad said, "What I noticed and what some of them shared with me is that a lot of people are new here, so it kind of brought them together (see story, page 3). We do like a lot of call-and- response stuff, and I try to trick them. So I play something and as a group, they have to respond and we just added and added."

When asked if the staff made mistakes, Muhammad jested, "That's an understatement." He continued that the teachers helped each other out, "and the way it's designed, within that hour, they get such a sense of accomplishment, such a sense of unity."

The call-and-response sequence that Muhammad performed with the middle school students at Friday's assembly is called lenjen. Muhammad said that lenjen is one of his favorite rhythms because it is simple yet it has a great deal of meaning.

When it is slow, Muhammad said, "It's a bird dance, but when it goes fast, it's a war dance. When you hear it fast, its one of those rhythms that carries. So the other village knows, hey, they're mad at us - they're playing lenjen really fast."

Muhammad teaches the drumming of Western Africa, specifically from the country of Senegal, although he points out that the drumming from the countries of Gambia, Guinea, Mali and Guinea the South is very similar.

The hand drum that Muhammad plays is called the djembe.

"That's the most common drum in the world," said Muhammad.

About Sisters, Muhammad said, "Everywhere I go, the people are overly nice, and I have to adjust to that, being from a big city. I just love it here. I like that I can drive, and if I put my blinker on, these people stop and let me turn."