Newburgh Peace Project, Summer 2007, page 3

There was drumming!

Partnering with Arm of the Sea brought two terrific musicians to Newburgh, Joakim Lartey and his son Miles. They provided us with drums and taught us how to play. Learning how to play the drum was such a joyful experience, most of the young people wanted to start the evening with playing, and then wanted to keep playing for the entire time! They needed encouragement to remember to devote attention to all the other activities involved in putting on a show - making the puppets, painting sets, writing the story, practicing their parts. All this they did very well, but drumming was irresistible.

On our very first evening together, Mr. Lartey, who grew up in Ghana and holds degrees in biology and musicology from Vassar, taught us that the beat of the drum is like the beat of the heart, the sound we first heard in the womb. When we play together as one, it means our hearts are beating as one. In these pictures you can see some Muslim members of the NPP. In late 2006, when I first wanted something like the Newburgh Peace Project to come into existence, I began to understand that the desire, the energy, was coming from my anguish about the Iraq war. So, I particularly wanted to be with Muslims and show that there is respect and delight between people of peace, whatever their religion. I was incredibly happy and honored to have the faithful endorsement and the full participation of the Imam of the masjid in Newburgh, Salahuddin M. Muhammad, Spiritual Leader of The Islamic Learning Center of Orange Co. and his wife, Fonda.

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