The Rhythm Comes Full Circle
Baba Charles and a Lifetime of Connection
Yesterday I had the honor of hearing Baba Charles and his Sama band at the annual MLK Day Celebration. What a joy to learn that he has welcomed people to that celebration with his drumming for 50 of its 51 years!
It brought me full circle. I floated back in time to all the moments where Baba Charles and his drumbeats have marked meaningful moments in my life. Just six years ago, in 2020, I invited Baba Charles and Drums for Peace to play at Sidewalk Hospitality to mark the opening of our building at 6238 Montgomery Road. Even during Covid, we found a way to make music and connection.
The connection that is created deep in the body and soul has always drawn me to African drumming. I’ve had the privilege of singing, dancing and learning with Baba Charles and many other wonderful drummers since 1987, when I first arrived in Cincinnati and found Contemporary Dance Theater. I remember moving across the floor as if the drum itself was moving my body, learning how to express gratitude for the drumming afterwards. I remember dancing at Krohn Conservatory with Drums for Peace among the greenery. I remember singing in the choir at St. John's Unitarian Universalist Church, where Baba Charles was our dear friend and a leader in the community with his brilliant and talented wife Katherine Gardette.
I treasure a beautiful interlude of a year when I attempted, under his tutelage, to master the Jembe and the Shakeree with my then 5-year-old daughter, wanting us both to understand and deepen our relationship to the heart of this music. I learned then that my body hears the rhythm and can move instinctually to it, but that producing polyrhythmic sound is far beyond my ability. The jembe held pride of place in our house for many years before moving on to hands better suited to making that amazing, absorbing, interwoven, complicated and challenging beat.
It is no wonder that African music has underlain, led and fueled all music worldwide for centuries. We know it in our bodies even when we don't know the actual history. The music of the African diaspora is the perfect metaphor for the work of Sidewalk Hospitality. Seemingly simple, but actually deep and complicated. Heard over great distances, yet created in the most intimate of settings, between the hand and the drum, and realized most fully in community with others.