The Drum Lesson

The African Burial Grounds is a national monument site in lower Manhattan of New York City) which memorializes both enslaved and free Africans of the 18th and 19th century New Netherlands (New Amsterdam, New York) who died and were buried in segregated cemeteries. In 1991 419 such Africans were unearthed halting the construction of an office building in lower Manhattan. After much protest by the African American community and others of good will, the local, state, and federal officials agreed to establishing a historic monument on site.

 

October 2017 marks the 10th anniversary of the completion of the outdoor monument memorializing those unnamed Africans whose remains were uncovered, transported, studied, and reinterred with great ceremony in New York City. To celebrate this victory for recognition and inclusion in the historic record, a week long program of activities was launched.

 

Here one of the elders of the drum community in NYC teaches the basics of the drum to the youth of the community.

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