Lora Chiorah-Dye was raised Zimbabwe and came to the United States in the 1970's. She created the Sukutai Marimba and Dance Ensemble, one of the region's oldest African music ensembles, to celebrate the heritage of Zimbabwe's Shona people and to provide an opportunity for teaching music and dance to Americans.

Lora is an internationally respected dancer, singer, and Mbira player.  She is a professional storyteller and conveys the values of the Shona culture with stories, songs, games, dances and crafts projects.

NYDIA ‘LIBERTY’ MATA -- Rooted in the rhythms of her native Cuba. Nydia “Liberty” Mata is a dynamic percussionist and electrifying performer. Composer, arranger, and co-founder of the Latin Caribbean duo Harpbeat, Nydia is best known for her recording credits with Laura Nyro, Isis, and Latin Fever. She has performed with such legends as Dizzy Gillespie, Patti Labelle, Art Blakey, And Pete Seeger as well as playing for former President Bill Clinton at the Labor Research Association’s 24th Annual Labor Awards Dinner in NYC.

She has appeared at Concert Halls and Universities throughout Canada, South America, and the USA including; Carnegie Hall, Town Hall, Nassau Coliseum, The Beacon Theater, The Bottom Line, and the Palace of Fine Arts at the San Francisco World Drum Festival.

In recent years multi-talented percussionist extraordinaire, Nydia “Liberty” Mata has added the magic of the Steel Pan to expand her rich tapestry of sound and to date continues to share her passion for teaching “from the inside out” with her private students and the women who answer to “the calling of the drum” at the Born to Drum Women’s Drum Camp in Northern California.

Las Bomberas De La Bahia was founded in April 2007 and is the Bay Area’s first & only all-women's Bomba ensemble. The group is composed of Bay Area activists, educators, and artists who actively contribute to growing the tradition of Bomba and work to maintain & support Puerto Rico’s oldest African influenced music and dance tradition, which formed in Puerto Rico's sugar cane plantations by slaves as a form of resistance. Las Bomberas de la Bahia have performed throughout the Bay Area for educational institutions, cultural centers, and cultural festivals. 

Denise Solis is an activist, labor organizer, and musician who has lived in the Bay Area since 2002. Denise began studying the Afro Puerto Rican musical tradition of Bomba in 2004.

Sarazeta Ragazzi is a Boricua bred in San Francisco's Mission District. She is an artist, teacher and performer with over 15 years experience working in the cultural arts.

Currently, she is a faculty member at the Jazz School in Berkeley, CA, where she teaches several courses on Afro-Venezuelan percussion, Afro-Venezuelan rhythms applied to Jazz and Venezuelan Cuatro (four-stringed guitar). She is also the artistic and musical director of "The Venezuelan Music Project" and "The Snake Trio", bands which she performs and travels with in an ongoing basis. In her workshops, she often showcases a wide variety of musical styles and traditional instruments from her native Venezuela, such as the "Quitiplas" (bamboo ensemble), Venezuelan "Maracas" and "Cumaco" (long "avocado-tree" drum).

Jackeline Rago has performed nationally and internationally for over 20 years.

For more information, see Jackie's web site.

Debbie Fier --Debbie Fier brings over 35 years of experience to her life as a performing vocalist, drummer, pianist, composer, percussionist and teacher. She has performed internationally throughout Europe as well as throughout the U.S., at venues including Festival at the Lake in Oakland, CA, the Michigan Women’s Music Festival, Singing For Our Lives, a 24-hour New Years’ chanting celebration created by Bobby McFerrin, and Sistahs Steppin’ in Pride.

Debbie has studied numerous drum styles for over 25 years — including Middle Eastern, N. African, Afro-Cuban and West African -  teaches drumming and body percussion to young people and adults, and has led many, diverse community drumming circles. Over the past 8 years, she has found a home at Kehilla Community Synagogue as a spiritual leader through drumming, where she has been named the 'Heartbeat of the Service', and teaches classes called 'Drumming as Prayer'. Kehilla is a Jewish Renewal synagogue that blends traditional elements with contemporary values – political, social and spiritual — creating a spirituality that feels more holistic and inclusive. Debbie continuously uses music and drumming to build bridges between different cultural and spiritual communities, creating connection and peace. She performs regularly on dumbek, riqq and djembe.

Her original compositions are available on three recordings — In Your Hands, Firelight, and her most recent, Coming Home.
For more information, visit Debbie's web site.

Susu Pampanin has explored and studied all types of percussion instruments and styles of music, and her incredible talent is especially evident in her work in Middle Eastern drumming. Susu is well known for her virtuosity in Arabic drumming and is one of the few female Middle Eastern. drummers highly respected by the Arabic professional music community.

She has worked and recorded with fusion ensembles, including Wild Mango, Keith Terry and Crosspulse, Stellamara, Jazayer, BlueNile, Vince Delgado Quintet, Susu and the Cairo Cats, and most recently, Holly Near. She also has a solo drum CD,Hands of Time.

Elizabeth Sayre has performed, published articles about, and organized events around Afro-Latin, Brazilian, and African music since 1990. She is a freelance musician, teacher, researcher, writer, and translator/interpreter, as well as Visiting Instructor at Swarthmore College (Swarthmore, PA) in the Department of Music and Dance.

In Afro-Cuban music, she has studied with John Amira, Orlando Fiol, Amelia Pedroso, Lázaro Pedroso Michael Spiro, and Michel Aldama in Philadelphia, New York, San Francisco, and Havana, Cuba.

Since 2000 she has accompanied Afro-Cuban dance classes in New York City (batá, congas). Elizabeth is percussion captain for Obini Ashe and founder/musical director of Okan Iloro, two all women's Afro-Cuban folkloric groups based in New York. In the mid-1990s she was invited to join Samba Nosso, the project which eventually became Philadelphia’s dance band sensation, Alô Brasil.

See Elizabeth's Web site for more information about her work.

Thoz Womenz --Above all else, we lift credit to our Creator for giving us purpose and the strength to chase our dreams. All-women drums are not new. Women have served in many roles throughout history, with Native women accepting responsibility in every area of life in our world. Our purpose at the drum has always been to mentor youth along a cultural road, to keep our language and songs, and to follow the heartbeat of the drum. Along this journey we pursue our health, identity, language and knowledge through the heartbeat
of the drum.

Our style is women’s - not Northern nor Southern. It is our hope that our songs are accepted with the respect in which we share them. Language is the foundation of culture. Our original songs have daily messages seeking to preserve the Cherokee language. Language preservation towards cultural resilience is a goal we share with many other women’s drums. Like those drums, we seek to serve our communities.

o - gi - na - li - i o - tsa - tla - nv - dlv – i
(My friend. We are all sisters and brothers.)

Visit Thoz Womenz' website for more information about them and their music.

Michaelle Goerlitz --Since her arrival in 1980 to San Francisco, Michaelle has been enjoying, absorbing and contributing to the Bay Area's musical richness. She has played, recorded and toured with a variety of artists including Soul Sauce, the Snake Trio, Lichi Fuentes, Rhiannon, Patrick Palomo, John Worley, Jami Sieber, Erika Luckett, Voz do Brasil, Novo Tempo and Dimitri Vandellos. She was also a founding member of Wild Mango.

For the workshops, she will focus on Rio-style batucada and possibly Northeastern styles such as baiao, maracatu and coco. Please bring surdos, repiniques, tamborims, agogo bells and pandeiros!!

photo by John Spragens Jr

The styles she plays are a mix of African, Caribbean,Latin, Jazz, both folkloric and popular styles. Suki has also been a dance accompanist and educator , and she is happiest when playing drums!

Virginia Lopez was born in Cuba. She has studied Afro-Cuban drumming with Master drummer and recording artist, Amelia Pedroso,as well as other teachers in both Cuba and the United States.

She has taught at drum camps in California, Washington, Oregon, and British Columbia.

Vicki Noble is a Healer, Author, Artist, and Wisdom Teacher, Co-creator of  The Motherpeace Tarot and author of eight books, including Shakti Woman and The Double Goddess. 

Vicki teaches in the Women's Spirituality Masters Program at ITP in Palo Alto and travels internationally teaching Goddess and Tibetan Buddhist Dakini practices to women around the world.   At home in Santa Cruz, California, she is a professional astrologer and works privately with clients and students.

She has developed an innovative Transformational Ritual Healing Circle that combines drumming, chanting, and hands-on healing

Odilia Galván Rodríguez is an internationally recognized poet, writer, journalist, editor teacher and activist who has traveled extensively. She has three books of poetry and her work has been published in numerous literary journals and anthologies. Her most recent book, Migratory Birds: New and Noted Poems is about her many journeys the physical as well as the spiritual.

Odilia has practiced Native American Spiritual traditions of her ancestors all her life and the Sun Dance traditions of the Lakota Peoples, who adopted her back in the 1980’s. She was initiated into the Lucumí African Traditional Religion of Cuba, the tradition of her husband and son, in the mid 1990’s as an Orisha priestess of Yemaya, which she practices extensively.

As an avid cultural worker since her early teens, Odilia has always worked for social justice and says that she does not plan to stop until she takes her last breath. She trains young artists to become activists and believes that a social consciousness must also include a spiritual formation.

See Dance and Basic Skills Classes Below!

Ava Square-LeVias--Ava’s joy of ecstatic union with spirit can be seen in her dance performance, her writing, and love for family, friends & community. Considered a “proverbial” artist Ava’s talents include choreographer/dancer, actor, drummer/musician, poet & videographer. Ava has studied many forms of dance and considers West African her forte.

Ava has performed solo and toured with D’Cuckoo, Dimensions Dance Theater, Diamano Coura West African Dance Company, Harambee Dance Ensemble, David Rousseve’s “Reality”, and Canadian award-winning dub-poet, Lillian Allen. She’s studied with Dr. Albirda Rose, Nontsizi Cayou, Deborah Vaughan, grammy winner Dr. Zak and Naomi Diouf, Marie Bass, Reggie Savage, and internationally acclaimed, Alonzo King, to name a few.

Ava has founded her own dance company, Spirit Theatre of Dance as well as Spirit Theatre Dance Studio offering performances, drum and dance classes, workshops, and other classes for the community. Her studio received the Express newspaper’s “Best in the Bay” two years running.

Ava has been a consultant for many public school districts teaching dance and music theory, theater, and stagecraft. She has also produced videos, and wrote curriculum. Ava currently performs and/or teaches with Ojalá, Purple Moon Dance Project, Dreamfish for sustainability, as well as her freelance solo performance.

Ava has a self-published book of poetry, A Square Opening. Ava lives in San Rafael with her wife, Elisa.

Ava can be reached at: SpiritTheatreofDance@hotmail.com.

photo by Jackie Thomason

TerriAnne Gutierrez, a lifelong student of dance, has been studying and performing Middle Eastern Dance for over thirty years. TerriAnne is one of the San Francisco Bay Area?s most well-known and sought after performers and teachers.

She specializes in Modern Egyptian and American Cabaret, with stylistic influences from some of the forerunners of Egyptian Dance, including the great classic performers Samia Gamal and Tahia Karioca.

With a B.A. in Activism and Social Change, she uses her performances as a form of expression and as a soft voice that encourages the audience to increase their consciousness in areas that may otherwise be left dormant. Terri Anne is the director of the dance company, Joweh.

For more information about Terrianne and her work, Visit TerriAnne's Web site.

Michele (Buffy) Drysdale -- has studied West African, Brazilian, Jamaican and other Caribbean dance forms for over 15 years. Since 1994 she has focused her studies on Cuban folkloric and popular dances. She has traveled to Brazil, Cuba, Canada, and California to study with master Cuban dancers from the Folklórico Nacional de Cuba, Los Muñequitos de Matanzas, AfroCuba de Matanzas, and Raices Profundos. 

In New York her principal teacher was Xiomara Rodriguez.  She has performed at Symphony Space and and has been a lead dancer with Los Afortunados, Puntilla Rios y Su Nueva Generación and given lecture demonstrations at Brown University and Swarthmore College. 

Buffy has studied the Batá drums, songs, and dances of the Afro-Cuban tradition and performed with two all-women’s groups, Cambio Libre and Obini Ash

Her performances include concerts with Cambio Libre, at Camden’s Caribbean Cultural Celebration, Wesleyan University for the Ethnomusicology department, Lincoln Center in New York Cit,y The Painted Bride in Philadelphia, The Happen’n Drum Collective, and The Sivananda Yoga Ashram.  Buffy taught dance at Djoniba Dance and Drum Centre and the Park Slope Fitness Collective.  She designed a multidisciplinary, creative movement class for two and three year olds.  Buffy currently drums for an Afro-Cuban dance class at Alvin Ailey, teaches water aerobics at the YMCA and offers private yoga and dance classes.

Adwoa Tacheampong is a vocalist, drummer, dancer & actor who has been performing since the age of 10. She has studied many forms of dance, including Afro-Cuban, Ghanaian, Brazilian & Haitian dance.

Adwoa plays several instruments including, but not limited to Batá, surdo, sekere,
sakara, agogo, & caixa. She is an avid photographer & writer. She continually seeks to expand her creative opportunities including studying conga drumming & continuously strengthening her voice.

 Sue Lundquist has had a passion for music since she can remember. As a child she studied piano and guitar and longed to play the drums.

Forty years ago girls were not encouraged to play. True to her desire to learn she finally found her path on the drum twenty years ago. Carolyn Brandy has been her inspiration and primary teacher of Afro-Cuban music on congas and bata drums. Recently, she has been studying and performing West African music with Ryan Camara

Sue has been sharing her knowledge and joy for drumming with adults and children in private classes and in the public schools. She currently performs with Blue Lightning(a dance band) and with Asesu Hand in Hand Drummers.

Rana Halpern has been playing drums since elementary school where she learned Afro-Cuban, Caribbean and Brazilian rhythms. As a youth under the direction of Carolyn Brandy, Rana performed throughout the Bay Area alongside artists such as Pete Escovedo. In high school, she taught drums and percussion at Cazadero Music camp. She performed at venues such as La Pena, Carnival, American Music Hall and continues to study and teach drums.

Lali Mejía --A native of Maracaibo, Venezuela, Lali started her musical training at the age of nine at the “Colegio Bellas Artes” in Maracaibo.

Lali Mejía specializes primarily in the Afro-Venezuelan Folklore as well as other Latin American styles of music. She is a permanent band member of the Venezuelan Music Project (Venezuelan folk music) and the VNote Ensemble (a fusion of Venezuelan music and jazz) and has shared the stage with high caliber musicians such as Marco Granados, Aquiles Baez, Roberto Koch, Maria Volonté, Jorge Glem, Gonzalo Teppa and Francisco “Pacho” Flores.

Since 2004, Lali has helped facilitate many Afro-Venezuelan workshops around the United States in the company of her teacher and mentor, Jackeline Rago.

Among her most memorable performances are the Macau International Music Festival, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, San Francisco Jazz Festival, Monterey Jazz Festival, Moab Music Festival, Yerba Buena Gardens Festival and Venezuelan Sounds at the Smithsonian.

Tonya's drum path began at four years old. Her first drum was a tambourine played in a gospel choir where she sang and performed weekly. In 1994, her path converged with the West African djembe drum in Las Cruces, NM. Her drumming style has been greatly influenced by her teachers, Babatunje Olatundje Alseny Sylla, Karuna Warren, Edwina Tyler, Mohamed Camara, M'bembe Bangora, Ibrahim Diakate, Mouminatou Camara, Abdoulye Diakate, and Moussa Taore.

Tonya plays the djembe, djundjun, balaphon, shakaree, shakara, congas, bangos, cajon, Mrimba, talking drum, and dumbek. She has been playing and performing traditional rhythms on djembe since 1994 and currently teaches in Austin, Texas. Her performance experiences range from solo artist to member of a sixteen piece West African drum and dance ensemble. Drum on Sistas Drum!

Linda Tillery is a veteran drummer, vocalist, , producer and cultural historian whose career has spanned 34 years. Since the 1960's, Tillery has been regarded as one of the San Francisco Bay Area's most versatile singers.

In the 90's Linda took command of an even broader repertoire, tapping into the diverse resources of African American roots music. She shares with us the historic beginnings of Black music through Work Songs, Spirituals, Play Songs, Field Hollers, Moans and Ring Shouts.

Nurudafina Pili Abena (Nuru)-- Oral Traditionalist/Teacher/Musician, Nurudafina Pili Abena has been drumming for 30 years.  She studied drumming as a child with Master Babatunde Olatunji as well as with many masters of traditional folklore from African and Eastern origins.  She has performed and studied in West Africa (Senegal), Kenya (East Africa), and in Cuba as well as nationally throughout the United States of America.

Nurudafina founded the "universal Vibrations School of Oral Traditions" in 1976.  She is considered one of the original women elders and is respected internationally as a woman drummer and teacher.

Nuru is a "Woman on a Mission", using drumming to unite people from diverse backgrounds and to dispel the ignorance surrounding African music and diaspora Cultural folklore.

Adwoa Antoinette Kudoto was born and raised in Cape Coast, Ghana. She has been drumming since childhood and at the age of thirteen and for the next five years she studied and performed with Nana Kwamena Kum, master drummer and artist in residence at St. Monica’s Girls’ School in Ghana. During that period Adwoa’s talent was evident and she was nurtured and tutored by Ghana’s best drummers.

In 2000 Adwoa was selected by the Arts Critics and Reviewers Association of Ghana (ACRAG) as Ghana’s Outstanding Female Master Drummer, stating she was “the only versatile female master drummer with obvious dexterity; skilled in traditional Ghanaian drumming including djembe percussion.” In fact, the state of Ghana official website lists Antoinette Kudoto as Ghana’s first and only female master drummer.
Over the past twenty years Adwoa has performed extensively as a drummer and instructor at the Center for Intercultural and Talent Development, Cape Coast. She is also the founder and director of the Nyame Tsease African Traditionals where she directs a drum and dance djembe ensemble and provides workshops for visiting American and other foreign University students.

Adwoa has been a visiting artist and educator in Denmark and in the United States. In 2004 she taught courses at the University of Michigan in drumming, dancing, singing and understanding of traditional African rhythms. In 2006 she taught a similar course at Long Beach State University and in 2007 she taught an intermediate course in Ghanaian drumming and performed in Sebastopol, CA.

Adowa’s resume reflects her accomplishments and expertise, but to really know her is to play drums with her. Don’t miss any workshop she offers!

Janet Koike's passion for taiko, has inspired original compositions, combining rhythm and movement into an exciting performance style. As a vital part of San Jose Taiko her work has been a highlight of the group's national concert tours from Arsenio Hall to Carnegie Hall. Blending traditional San Francisco Taiko Dojo training with custom built techno taiko, Janet performed with D'CuCKOO at the Cleveland Bicentennial and Macy's Passport with Cirque du Soleil. Janet has performed in Hong Kong at the "New Dimensions Festival" with Mark Izu, and Brenda Wong Aoki, toured Indonesia with Keith Terry's Body Tjak and performed with Jennifer Berezan, Kenny Endo, Ondekoza's Marco Lienhard, Anthony Brown with the Asian Jazz Orchestra and Theatre Yugen.

Janet has recently returned from mounting a new work for Odaiko New England and showcasing at the APAP conference in New York.

See the Rhythmix web site for more information about Janet and her current projects.

Akiba Onada-Sikwoia has been participating in ceremony, conducting workshops and maintaining a healing practice for the past twenty-five years. Akiba's Spiritual practices, coupled with knowledge that we are so much more than our physical bodies, have afforded her the gift to believe in the miraculous.

Barbara Borden--  A drummer, percussionist, keeper of the beat, she began drumming at age ten. Her musical expression is diverse: composer and recording artist (latest album Beauty in the Beat); performing artist (solo "percussion play" She Dares to Drum); member of the band Alive! (eight years, three albums); and educator (community drum circles, workshops, clinics, retreats, and private students). With the Heart Drum---a very special community gathering drum---Borden does her part to help keep the heartbeat of life alive and well.

Simone LaDrumma j has been composing and performing on hand drums since 1987. She has studied many different styles of drumming including Afro-Cuban, West African and Middle Eastern, and drumset. Simone was founder and Director of Ladies Don’t Drum, an all-female percussion ensemble. In 1991 Simone created "Drumming & The Holistic Expression of Rhythm," a simple and joyous method of learning to play hand drums.

Over the years, Simone has brought the magic of rhythmic expression to thousands of people of all ages, genders and skill levels across the U.S., Canada and Europe, both as a teacher and as a performer. Simone’s entertaining and effective teaching style is perfect for the “raw beginner” with no musical background, as well as those with more experience. For more information, see her web site

Shawn Nealy has been walking with the drum for the past 6 years & actively apprenticing & performing throughout the Bay Area (2 years) with Afia Walking Tree, learning traditional rhythms from West Africa, as well as learning how to utilize the drums for healing & liberation.

As a progressiv, social justice educator, she continually introduces her high school students to the power of the drum and its history of empowerment for African people as a nourishing tool to cultivate change.

Leilani Birely, Hawaiian Priestess and ceremonialist, brings ancient Hawaiian healing and Goddess wisdom to the community. She is the active mother of two girls. Graduated from George Mason University in Fairfax VA with a degree in Business, and a graduate of the Masters in Womyn’s Spirituality from New College in San Francisco. On Summer solstice of 1996 she founded Daughters of the Goddess Womyn’s Temple. In August of 1998, she was Ordained as a Dianic High Priestess by Z Budapest at the Goddess 2000 womyn's Festival in La Honda, CA. For more information please see our website at DaughtersoftheGoddess.

Eli PaintedCrow Native American (Yaqui) retired Army veteran. Mother of two veterans and grandmother of 8 grandchildren. Currently lives in merced California and devotes her time to bring awareness and clarity of militarism and its effects on human life.

Eli's speech at the Veterans for Peace 2006 National Conference is available here on YouTube.

 

Debbie Guerrero-- (Tlingit/Snohomish/Cowlitz) is a Research Assistant and Outreach Coordinator for the Native Wellness Research Center at the University of Washington in Seattle.

She is considered a Community Resource and conducts sweat lodge ceremonies for women who need healing and support as they endure life on life's terms. She is a member of the Native American Church, and attends on a regular basis.

Debbie is also a Sundancer. She is widely acknowledged for her beautiful singing of traditional songs while playing the Native American drum or rattle. She is the mother of three grown children and an active Leader in the Native Community in Seattle. Her passion is working with Indigenous Healers and empowering women.

photo by Jackie Thomason

Ojalá -- is a group of 6 talented women who combine a mixture of traditional Afro-Cuban folkloric music, contemporary and infectious funky rhythms, beautiful vocals and imaginative original songs. OJALÁ uses traditional rhythms and songs to express their own unique creative talents.

  Learn more at the Ojalá website.

Carolyn Brandy, a groundbreaking Bay Area female percussionist, is the musical director of the band, and the inspiring and moving vocals are led by Regina Wells and Elouise Burrell. Joining them are Ava Square-LeVias, Annette Acosta, and Sue Matthews.

photo by Jackie Thomason