Masankho Banda tells the story of the three spirits that live within the drum

The hypnotic slaps, thumps, and crack of the drum have taken a turn that permeates the core with dissonance. Chaos ensues and the previous moments of harmony give way to a nerve-twitching racket. Waving his left hand high, the facilitator calls out, “I like choc-o-late” (dum clack, bom dun clack!). To the right he conducts, “I like straw-berries” (dum clack dum slap slap!”). To the middle, “I like coffee” (dum clack boom!). Eyes closed, each player focuses on his or her section’s rhythm.

Drumming and dancing are activities that truly define the human experience. Common to every culture from before recorded history, the drum externalizes the rhythm of our heartbeats. This simple object that appears almost everywhere music and movement meet is still the most effective tool we have for connecting individually with the spirit within, and collectively with our communities outside. we invite you to explore the roots of rhythm and its meaning in the modern day in these two looks at the Spirit of the drums.

Jenny Swerdlow is a woman rooted in rhythm, arms extended in poetic resonance with Shel Silverstein’s Giving Tree. After ten years as an art therapist working with traumatized youth, she met Arthur Hull, a key figure in the expansion of the international Drum Circle Movement. “Upon placing my hand on the djembe for the first time,” says Swerdlow, “it was as if a door to the universe opened … The joy, power, connection, and release I felt while drumming was like nothing I had experienced before.”