Project Manager
Teaching Artist - African Drumming
darrin@movinghistorytogether.org

Musician-Drummer, Lyricist, Teacher, Father

I found Rock and Roll, Blues, and Calypso from the 40s and 50s while sorting through and listening to my own father's record collection. There was Jazz and Motown, Country and Gospel and much more. It opened my ears and my mind to the ideas and stories and struggles of people everywhere. Full of the sounds and stories of Africa and African America, my daddy's records nurtured a love of history and of people and not least of all, a love of self; and of course, they were the start of a deep love of music.

I was born 1970 something, when Funk and Soul Music was drenched in Revolution. Then came Hip Hop. Word! The combined influence of the music of the generations before me and the music of my youth is a great portion of the sum of who I am. I began writing lyrics and stories and poems, and reciting music at a very young age. My first performances were for my parents. At the behest of my father I started with the saxophone shortly there after. But I was born to be a drummer. Years later, the drum and a teacher found me at the strangest of places.

At Dartmouth College, some time ago, I was introduced to a Master Drummer named Hafiz Shabazz. In my first audition he called me a natural, who am I to argue? Over the next few years I studied music of the African Diaspora from a cultural perspective. I played it, practiced it, wrote about it, created it, taught it, dreamed of it and performed it. Thirty years later, after many teachers, many projects, and many journeys to far off places, here I am.

An educator, a school teacher, a world traveler, sort of a multi-lingual, a performer, a writer, a thinker, a problem solver, a story teller, an emcee, a daddy, an uncle, a real estate professional, a drummer, a man. Made by the Music.