Richmond Folk Festival and School Outreach Performances

From October 5-12, I spent a week in Richmond, Virginia working on site at the Richmond Folk Festival. What I had the privilege of coordinating was the school outreach program - for which we sent 6 bands of musicians into 16 elementary, middle, and high schools in the Richmond Public School district. Participants included Debashish Bhattacharya (Indian slide guitar), Jorge Negron's Master Bomba Ensemble (Puerto Rican Bomba Percussion and Dance Ensemble), Khogzhumchu (Tuvan throat-singing), Phil Wiggins and Corey Harris (acoustic blues), North Bear (Northern Plains drum), and Min Ji Kim and Bora Ju (Korean music and dance). It was a fantastic program - the principals all expressed to me how much they value having the musicians come perform for the students. Some crammed their entire school population into the auditorium for the shows - as large as 700 students at one school.

The best I heard back from the musicians were these 3 things:

1. When Debashish came back to the hotel, I asked, "Did the kids seem to enjoy it?" to which he responded in his thick Indian accent "Oh, I had more fun than kids!!" (He good heartedly endured a 6:45 AM lobby call for that performance.)

2. The artist buddy said that the gym/auditorium in which Phil and Corey played had historic hardwood floors, and when Phil made the rich sound of a train chugging on his harmonica, all the kids enthusiastically thump-thumped their feet on the floor in the same rhythm, resonating the feel of a train through the whole room.

3. When we showed the non-English-speaking member of Khogzhumchu that he was on the front page of the Richmond Times Dispatch newspaper the morning following his school performance, he put both hands in the air rock-star style, and said "SUPA-STAH!"

Huge thanks owed to Tim Timberlake and his non-profit JamInc for providing sound and transportation support.

It was a great festival week. And with a heavy heart, my last with the NCTA this season.




Photo at top is of the Virginia Intertribal Drum and Dance group, whose performance I coordinated on Sunday. Second photo directly above is of me and Max, delivering sound equipment in a golf cart.