BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – ACCORDING to the Director of Culture, drumming is a good outlet for frustration and stress.
The Director made this pronouncement on Thursday evening (May 14) when the Department of Culture held its 2009 Heartbeat at the Old Boys School.
The annual event was this year dubbed “Drumming at its best” and was spearheaded by Royd Phipps, Drumming Specialist at the Department of Culture.
The event had featured several primary schools including Tucker Clarke, Irish Town, Dean Glasford, Beach Allen, Dr. Williams Connor and the Special Education Unit.
The National Youth Drum Corps, Fire and Rescue Drummers, Defence Force Drummers and Okolo Tegremantine Drummers also made their contributions.
Following the performance, which was hailed as a success, Phipps told SKNVibes that he was pleased with the end result.
“This year we did things differently with having a script done by Dr. Ken Valentine, and although there were little things here and there I am very pleased with the performances,” he said.
Phipps said that sustaining the art form of drumming among the students for the primary school drumming programme has its challenges.
“I meet with them once a week for the drumming programme, but sometimes it’s difficult because the students that drum are the same ones who are also active in sports; so it has it’s challenges,” he said.
Phipps said that drumming is black people.
“It is our people, our heritage, so we should embrace it. It’s who we are and it is also a good past time. One sees things different when you play the drums…with drumming you can’t go wrong,” he said.
The reigning National Calypso Monarch, Konris Maynard, also gave a special performance to some drumming of his 2009 hit ‘Mommy and Daddy’.
At the end of the event, the Okolo Tegremantine dancers could not sit still as the music cast its hypnotic spell over them and they made their way to the front of the stage and began dancing.
Lloyd Lazaar, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Culture, described the event as “fantastic”.
He said that Phipps must be commended because drumming is a way of getting the young people involved in something positive, especially the young men who were in abundance at the event.
Heartbeat has been in existence for some nine years to date.
