Djembe class

I have officially committed myself to taking a djembe drumming class next Wednesday at the World Beat Center. Sounds like it will be fun. I will use this as a chance to get in contact with the instructor and ask some questions about his music. I'm still trying to solidify the direction I want this project to go in, but I think after speaking with him and getting some more information that will help me out. From the World Beat website (http://www.worldbeatcenter.org/), I learned that there are also many others I can talk to about the role of African music in the San Diego community. I think I'd like to see if there are differences in how African music is received in the African community in San Diego versus the general San Diego community. I remember hearing on NPR a while back about San Diego having a large African refugee population and being surprised, and googling it, I found it has the largest East African refugee population in California and second largest East African refugee population in the nation (http://www.hornafrica.org/).

Later, I plan to interview the professor and the drummer for TDMV 143 West African Dance. I think this will be cool because the drummer for the class is African-American, while the drummer for the World Beat Center is from Senegal. I hope to get their perspectives on learning djembe drumming and if how they practice it in San Diego is different. Maybe their backgrounds will have an important role in how they utilize their drumming and communicate with others in San Diego.