BoomShake

THANK YOU!! Serving over 410 participants with drumming and singing, here’s how we made Music for our Movement Community Music Day (classes for kids and adults facilitated by Regina, Tossie, Jonathan, Jason Brown, Nkei and Sarah) Started Kid Drumming at Malcolm X Elementary in Berkeley (continued at Manzanita SEED) Our new WOC of Color Street Drumming Class with Regina Califa began Went out in the Streets in support of the March for Black Lives UC Merced Street Drumming and Singing to celebrate Black Heritage with Tossie Long Rocked a Picket Line with SEIU USWW Janitors, Security Officers and Organizers drumming Community Singing with Tossie Long at Empowering Women of Color Conference at UC Berkeley Earth Day SF with Stern Grove Festival’s ‘Grove on the Road’ in the Mission District Our first on-stage theater presentation the Drumsical the ‘Street are Free’ at Eastside Arts Alliance All-ages Street Drumming workshop at the Oakland Museum’s Friday Nights 3-day work...

Family, It was hard to prepare this newsletter to send out. Extremely difficult to come up with words to introduce BoomShake's upcoming activities. Because it seems trivial, inconsiderate and incredibly disrespectful when yet another Black body has been gunned down unnecessarily; another act of terrorism has been inflicted on unsuspecting communities; everyday people seeking refuge from violence and war are dehumanized. But I remember that these types of instances are meant to kill our spirits, break our resolutions and destroy our thriving communities. I remember that continuing to play is the tool that I have chosen to stay strong, to keep up the fight, to be alive. That supporting our young BoomShake participants facilitating a workshop at OPC's Play On! Youth Music Festival , a Pan-ethnic showcase of diverse communities of youth in Oakland, is one form of activism (in an Oakland that is currently disregarding people of color and the working class). I remember that ...