by Tessa McKinley
Zachariah Combs is the director at the Gallery of African Art in Clinton, MA. He has partnered with Issa Coulibaly from Crocodile River Music to bring both the art collection and drumming lessons to our students. On display at the gallery are masks, musical instruments, carved figures, and ceremonial vessels. There are also artifacts of home life, including cooking and serving vessels, tools, textiles,and jewelry. Eileen Barnett and I were able to choose 20 or so of these pieces for display in our school's front entry. We will have the pieces for another month or so. The drumming classes were made available to each classroom and Zach and Issa tailored each class to be age-appropriate. The kindergartners played the rhythm to Chicka Chicka Boom Boom while the 6th graders explored more complicated traditional African rhythms. Each student had the opportunity to play both the Djembé drum and the djundjun drum. Issa is a master djembe drummer who is originally from Mali, West Africa. He began studying drums when he was 11 in his home city of Bamako,Mali. After all of the students have had their drumming lessons, they will be treated to a concert by Issa, Zach and two other band members, representing music from all over Africa.
