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Interactive drumming session at library draws 100 enthusiastic kids
By Bob Jackson
YOUNGSTOWN
If you build it, he will drum.
Then he will teach you how to play the drum you just built, as well as how to dance, sing, and celebrate his African culture.
“He” is Sogbety Diomande, an Ivory Coast native who brought his high-energy drumming and dancing performance to The Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County on Saturday for an interactive session with nearly 100 enthusiastic children.
The program was one of several at the library in February in honor of Black History Month, said Josephine Nolfi, director of youth services and programs.
“The library likes to celebrate all cultures,” Nolfi said, noting that Diomande has been featured at library programs in the past, but only as a performer. “Because he’s so popular, we wanted to give the kids time to build their own drums and actually play them with him.”
Before Diomande’s performance, library staff helped children make drums out of plastic cups covered with decorative tape. They also made harmonicas from Popsicle sticks and rubber bands, and used water bottles and rice to make shakers. The children then got to play their do-it-yourself instruments during Diomande’s performance.
The djembe drum Diomande played has a head made of goat skin and came from his native village of Toufinga, a small farming community in West Africa. He strikes the drum with his open hands, and demonstrated how different sounds can be produced by striking the drum surface in various places, and how to turn those sounds into a beat.
The children and adults in the audience were capitivated from the moment Diomande stepped in front of them, dressed in a colorful costume reflective of his West African heritage. He had the audience clapping, shouting, singing and dancing from the start, as the sound of his drumming echoed off the library walls.
“I love doing this,” Diomande said before the program started. “I love teaching young people about the music and the dance and the culture of West Africa, so we’re gonna dance and we’re gonna sing.”
One of the more enthusiastic members of the audience was 8-year-old Maleah Jacobs of Youngstown, who came early to hear a presentation by Andrea Davis Pinkney, a New York Times best-selling author of more than 30 books for children and young adults.
“I couldn’t believe I was talking to an actual author!” Maleah said excitedly, explaining that she hopes to one day pen a book of her own.
“I’m going to call it ‘Let It Shine,’” she said. “It’s going to be about your special light that is inside of you. I learned that lesson, that I’m special, in first grade. Everybody has a special light.”
Hers, she said, is “probably being weird and unique in my own special way.”
Maleah, who is in third grade at Valley Christian School, said she plays the piano and would like to eventually learn to play the violin. For Saturday’s program, though, she wanted to make a harmonica.
Maleah was excited for Diomande’s performance, but was thrilled when Pinkney autographed a book about Ella Fitzgerald for her. Fittingly, the inscription read, “Specially for Maleah Jacobs,” with Pinkney’s signature beneath it.
Diomande, 38, said he moved in December 1997 from Africa to New York City, where he lived for about 10 years before moving to Ohio. He now lives near Mansfield and spends most of his time in Ohio doing drumming workshops and performances for schools, libraries, juvenile correctional facilities and festivals.