Oct 30: Swamp Guinee and Uncle Devin Walker at Ida B. Wells MS
Program specialist Matt “Swamp Guinee” Miller and Children’s Drumcussionist “Uncle” Devin Walker teamed up for class visits at Ida B. Wells Middle School. On top of teaching some of the fundamentals of go-go music, Walker and Miller challenged each other and students in creating and imitating improvised beats using whatever hard surfaces they had around them. With an emphasis on percussion, Walker and Miller explained that drumming was long banned in the United States, especially for enslaved people, because it was a form of nonverbal communication and could be used as a tool of resisting white supremacy.
Teacher Alison Rice commented:
The students and I were so impressed with Walker and Miller’s workshop! Their connection to settler colonialism was unplanned but timely!