“Have you done this before?”
“Nope.”
“Perfect.”
This was the initial conversation I had with Angel, a girl I’d guess to be about 9-years-old. She was one of three kids waiting patiently while I organized chairs and instruments for a community drum circle.
As the music started, she hit the drum with restraint, not quite sure the “right” way to do it. I told her to not think about what she was doing.
“Get out of your head, and into your hands.”
She played the entire two hours.
This was my second year back at the “Spring Into Good Health” festival in Pigtown, the southwest Baltimore community located near the sports stadiums and the B&O Railroad Museum. I was there to co-facilitate an open drum circle with Jason Armstrong Baker, a board-certified music therapist and the drummer of Fractal Cat. The event is run by the well-known community center, Paul’s Place.
What began as a soup kitchen—twice a week in 1982—has transformed into a full-time, comprehensive community resource and service center. Low-income individuals and families in the neighborhood are offered basic needs services, education and job readiness programs, health and wellness services, and after-school and summer programs.
More simply, it’s a welcoming place for neighbors in need to receive assistance while ensuring one’s hope, dignity, and growth.
The festival’s stated mission, according to Sadie Smith, M.S.W., Director of Programs at Paul’s Place: “To help residents in the Pigtown neighborhood live longer and healthier lives free from chronic disease.”
Activities and venders were curated to address five areas of health focus: healthy eating, active lifestyles, drug and alcohol-free lifestyles, smoke-free lifestyles and social and emotional wellness. Local organizations that set up shop included, Holistic Massage, who offered complimentary massages, The Baltimore Burn women’s football team and Enoch Pratt Library. A number of agencies that serve Pigtown had a presence too, including Baltimore Crisis Response, Inc. and Back on My Feet – Baltimore.
Want to know if a festival is thriving? Look at the number and quality of its volunteers.
“Spring Into Good Health” attracted over 40 dedicated volunteers, many who already contribute to Paul’s Place regularly. Others included local high school students, members of a Towson University sorority and students from University of Maryland’s School of Social Work.
So why would a drum circle be a welcome addition to a community health festival?
For many of the same reasons why people in other cultures have been drumming together for thousands of years.
Scientific evidence has been catching up over the past decade, proving the many positive ways our biology is altered when drumming with others. When compared to other “wellness interventions,” drumming is cost effective, has no side effects, and is fun!
Even more, drumming offers each person what they need in any given moment. Whether a Pigtown participant was in need of relaxation, a feeling of connectedness, a release of anger or a triumphant celebration, the act of drumming with others offered all of the above.
Within seconds, the music and those creating the music literally connects; thanks in part to the physical law of entrainment. On the surface, the connections being made were musical. But at a deeper level we were building community; not unlike other cultures you may find in West Africa or Brazil who drum socially each day. Unfortunately, in our culture we often treat our art as a product, unaware of the musical rhythms within each of us.
This is why Angel happily contributed musically for the entire two hours, even though it was her first time touching a drum.
She is a rhythmical being living in a rhythmical world, and once she let her thoughts get out of her way, her rhythm revealed itself.
I bet waking up that morning, Angel had no idea how connected she would become with her Pigtown neighbors.
I was just lucky to be included.
Jordan Goodman, M.S., Therapeutic Drumming Practitioner and Educator
www.beat-well.com
Photos by Athina Koulatsos
