Reflection after last tuesdays gig)
The Healing Drum
The West African drum and dance students at Croatan Studio–were
invited by Josiah Lash to come be a part of Congreso’s World AIDS day
celebration and rememberance of the struggle this past Tuesday.
There were probably about 30-40 people total. The clients here are
HIV-positive, the poorest of N. Philly, the majority are immigrants,
and the most fun, wise people you can imagine.
Congreso de Latinos Unidos (Congreso) located in North Philadelphia,
is a very large, community based, non-profit agency founded in 1977 by
Puerto Rican activists “concerned with the social and economic
conditions of the growing Latino community in Philadelphia”.
Congreso’s mission is, “to provide leadership in the development and
operation of social, education, economic and health care services and
resources that meet the needs of Philadelphia’s Puerto Rican and
Latino community. All of Congreso’s programs, services and advocacy
efforts are dedicated to empowering members of [the] community to
confront and overcome the myriad of problems facing them, and to
reclaim the future for their families and their children”.
Congreso’s vision is to provide a bilingual and culturally sensitive
comprehensive network of services to support and empower residents to
create positive solutions to challenges they face daily. As a holistic
human service agency, Congreso offers a wide range of adult and youth
services including: truancy intervention, out-of-school time youth
development programs, workforce development, drug and alcohol
counseling, housing counseling, health education, teen pregnancy
prevention and intervention, maternal and child health programs, and
HIV/AIDS services.
The drummers and dancers at Croatan do a lot of different kinds of
events–trying to bring the drums to empower and celebrate and
educate, and many folks just don’t seem to get it. It takes a long
time for a connection to be made–or it just gets viewed as a
“cultural presentation”.
Not this time.
The folks at Congreso knew what was going on and responded immediately
with dancing and smiles and clapping and shout-outs. Most of them
came from cultures that know the drum is used for healing and for
getting the people together. We have so much to learn from them.
We are all born with a drum in our chest.
The beat of the drum resonates with the human heartbeat. In a world so
confusing and torn by evils very few of us understand– how better to
find balance and center than to connect to the heart essence? If we
can do this personally it is personally beneficial. But when it
happens communally it is world changing. Drumming for me is prayer.
The same holds true for personal and communal prayer.
Everything is rhythm. From the microscopic atoms vibrating around the
nucleus to the planets spinning around the sun. Rhythm is vibrations
repeated and everything that is alive is vibrating. Rhythm tells us
how and why. When we are off rhythm–we get sick. When we get
communally off–rhythm we create epidemics and oppression. To
understand the rhythms then–is to be engaged in healing work.
We dance through time as a group. We must learn how to synchronize our
personal rhythms with those of our fellow creatures.
If “religion” means to bind together, then a religion that works is
one that binds together the many rhythms that affect us by creating
spaces and atmospheres and rituals that attempt to synchronize the
three dances–the personal, the cultural, and the cosmic. When this
happens, the reward is a new dimension of rhythm and time known as
“the Sacred”.
I felt like we were in a very sacred space this past Tuesday afternoon
down at Congreso.
All the boundaries were crossed here and we created a common humanity
in grieving and celebrating together. There were people of many ethnic
nationalities, huge gaps in age ( from 2 years old to 70!)–gender,
sexual orientation, and class and we were all dancing together. We
were united against a disease that doesn’t discriminate and we were
able to show that solidarity with each other in a defiant gesture of
life because of the drum.
To be in a room with a few dozen folks who most people think are
“dying” and “poor”. and to feel and participate in the healing
passionate aliveness that came through in their dancing and fellowship
is nothing less than the inbreaking of the Kingdom of God.
It was an honor to be with those beautiful souls and if we can provide
the backbeat for that kind of transformation and healing to happen–we
have a mighty gift in the drum.
–jay