I’d rather be drumming . . .

By Heather Poyner

A couple Second Saturdays ago, it was suggested that I expose myself. “Surely you must be joking,” I thought, (and yes, don’t call me Shirley). My umbrage ($5 word for feeling slightly insulted) came not from the vulnerability of such a proposal (the suggestion came from Francisco Loyola himself) but from the belief that the act of exposure, or discovery as it were, was the job of someone else, say, the mainstream media.

Ah, but on review, I used to work for mainstream media, so what was I thinking? Seriously, however, it was my professional media past that made me hesitate—not from false modesty after all— but from old school journalism that taught reporters to stay in the background and not inject themselves into the story. But in the Wiki world of “consumer generated copy” such rules are antiquated ($5-7 word for being out of date). In truth the media has been indulging in “experiential” journalism with feature stories featuring the first person for at least 10 years. And, on closer inspection, when I was a writer for the Kenosha News, so did I…

Which brings me back to me. I don’t like to blow my own horn, but what that’s what I do— blow horns, (Australian didjeridus and Native American flutes); play African drums and facilitate groups of total strangers in the making of improvised musical masterpieces using ethnic percussion and hardware supplies. That would be my “elevator speech”—the description of what you do in a way that makes the listener (or reader) want to know more about you within a short span of time (a few floors up or down).

The nutshell version (appropriate for me on many levels) is this: After studying journalism in Madison I moved to Kenosha with my husband and baby daughter in the post-Chrysler crisis of 1989. (This against the advice of a journalism colleague from Fort Atkinson who deemed Kenosha “a future rustbelt and the economic armpit of Wisconsin.”)

I began working for the Kenosha News as a local and features reporter. In 1999 I discovered the phenomena of interactive ethnic music known as drum circles. I took hand drum lessons and learned to facilitate music from Tom Gill of Wauwatosa and by mid-2000 began to hold drum circles in my home. Given the interactive nature of this music I dubbed the enterprise Rhythm in the Round.

I continued with the News until 2003 when I traded my Reporter’s Guild card for a vanload of ethnic drums and assorted percussion. By 2005 I decided to share my drum circle experiences in a book titled, Some Kind of Magic: Livin’ the Rhythm of Community Drumming (AuthorHouse, 2005).

Today I strive to provide groups of all ages and abilities with the adventure of making upbeat and exciting music. To do this I basically show up with stuff and let people play it. Drum circles are less about what we know than what we share. To help people get to this place I do something called “rhythm facilitation.”

The word facilitation comes from the French facile, meaning easy. My mission is to make music easy, accessible and fun. Ethnic percussion is completely accessible because it is all about rhythm. Each of us is a rhythm machine from our pulse to our heartbeat so when we sit in a drum circle we’ve already brought our music with us. I just supply a few instruments and the opportunity to explore and play. If I am doing my job as a facilitator I am helping you connect to your song as you connect to
those of others in the circle.

Since 2001 my drums and I have been called to a Mardi Gras party at Lemonstreet Art Gallery; Paideia Middle School; Harvey Elementary School’s annual international fair; Southern Oaks Correctional Facility; St. Joe’s adult daycare participants, and six annual parking lot birthday parties for residents of the Dayton (to name a few). A loyal core group has evolved and we find ourselves drumming at public venues from the Racine Humane Society to Carthage College homecoming parades. Some of us also get together each month to play didjeridus and Native American flutes.

On a good day, Rhythm in the Round is more than a glorified hobby; it is a business. Although drumming is my passion, it takes money to buy drums and fill the drum-mobile’s gas tank. To fill in financial gaps, I also am a teacher for hire (substitute) for Kenosha Unified School District (all grades, most schools). Some days are better than others but even an easy day is pretty tough—’nuf said. Long and short of it is that “I’d rather be drumming and facilitating!”

The past eight years have been an interesting adventure—perhaps most interesting because this is Kenosha (but that, as they say, is another story.) Rhythm in the Round has gone from its living room beginnings to downtown K-town—where currently we host Second Saturday drumming at Down the Rabbit Hole and recently stirred up the musical scene at The Nook’s Monday Open Mic. My vision for the future is to own my own public space in which to hold hand drum lessons and drum circles and offer play space to like-minded musicians.

The bottom—or top—line is that drum circles are community circles and everyone is part of the community. So that’s it for exposing myself. To catch my act—or more correctly, be part of the act!— check out www.rhythmintheround.com or drop me an email: djembelade@hotmail.com.