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Casa de Cultura Taina Hosts Steel Drum Orchestra, Troupe Djembedon, and More

On May 6th at 7pm in Campinas, a city 100 km from Sao Paulo, Brazil, OWB Brazil will stage a musical extravaganza at the "Casa de Cultura Taina" (www.taina.org.br), which has ten years of history promoting culture, education, sports, and respect for the Afro-Brazilian and African cultures, as well as working with people in circumstances of poverty.

They have projects with computers and multimedia content production, a group for Afro-Brazilian music and dance, a group for steel drums, percussion and dance schools for children, a library, and Internet broadcasting. For the OWB event, "Casa de Cultura Taina" and "Instituto Famoudou Konate" are going to develop performances and a final big drum circle together.

The program will consist of a steel drum performance by the "Orquestra de Tambores de Aco Steel Pan", a parade of Maracatu ("Nasao Taina"), a Street Dunumba ("Fanta Konate, Troupe Djembedon and Taina friends"), and a Biomusical Drum Circle integrating all groups and the public. At 7:00 pm, a bonfire will be lit, and the event will be displayed on a wide screen with the performances themselves, videos from Brazil and Africa, and multimedia effects by VJ sofware.

Casa de Cultura will broadcast the audio sounds "live" on the Net, and possibly be webcasting or uploading pictures from the event (see website address above).

Luis Kinugawa of the Famoudou Konate Instituto Cultural (www.famoudoukonate.com), organizer of the 2006 event, also created an exciting event for OWB 2005, featuring Fanta Konate, daughter of Famoudou Konate, who sings and dances in the traditions of Guinean culture. The Instituto is involved with researching and promoting traditional African rhythms and cultures, chiefly music and dance from Republic of Guinea. It provides classes, meetings, workshops, group experiences, lectures, video sessions, parties, and drum circles.

Fanta Konate and Luis Kinugawa are teachers who give classes and workshops in drumming, music, and dance for all skills levels, and lead trips to Guinea Conakry to study djembe and dance in its original setting. The Famoudou Konate Instituto Cultural is in Pinheiros, Sco Paulo, SP, Brazil, next to Projeto Equilmbrio. Phone: (55 11) 3813-6049 or (55 11) 9671-1477. Luis can be reached at luisbiomusica@yahoo.com and
www.djembedon.com.

The Instituto also houses the Ilu-Mina, an atelier for research and production of traditional percussion instruments. Also connected to the organization are the Troupe Djembedon, which integrates djembe, music, and dancing.

Luis Kinugawa first saw a djembe in 1993 in a music therapy class, where it was being played by Senegalese percussionist, Ba Mamour, who was giving workshops on rhythmics and improvisation. When Luis acquired his first djembe in 1996, he also integrated Taketede drums and the sounds of the Paulo Campos Percussion Company "Djembefola", founding in 1999 the group "Baratzil", with teenagers from the college where he taught.

In December of 2000, he went to Guinea study music and the relation of sound and movement of the djembe, spending two years working on the development of Biomusic--his own unique form of music therapy--and studying percussion. He met Fanta Konate when he arrived in Africa. They married and brought to Brazil the African experience of the Malinke Culture of the Kurussa region  the Hamana.

Luis has pioneered the study of sound and music for therapeutic results. Biomusic is a combination of music, folklore, body expression, and education. Developed in 1998 and coming to fruition in Africa from 2000 to 2002, it quickly showed its adaptability and great benefit to refugees, victims of war, and homeless children. Biomusic uses sounds and movements to encourage individual and collective development of human potential. Its purpose is to offer a musical experience induced by joy and delight, accessible to people in all circumstances, which will create avenues for growth, integration, and healing.