Drum Circles as Culture Circles: Reimagining Freirean Culture Circles in Music Education Spaces That Connect, Activate, and Liberate

• In Event: Liberation Drum Circles: Reimagining Freirean Culture Circles

Abstract

Inspired Paulo Freire’s desire for people not to replicate culture circles but to “reinvent” them, I propose Drum Circles as Culture Circles as a new model of music education that combines the tenets of critical pedagogy and culturally relevant pedagogy with the relationship building and creative elements of music making as a way to promote conscientização as a praxis of education for liberation.

This workshop begins with a “hands-on” exploration of the symbiotic intersections between drum circles and culture circles: interconnectedness, improvisation/risk taking, community building, the political nature of education, problematizing based on generative themes and problem solving action. In music education contexts, “reading the word” may apply to learning scales, rhythmic patterns and fingering techniques, while “reading the world” may apply to using music to make sense of our lives, through musicking in community. (Freire, 1970)

In the USA, activists/musicians such as Nina Simone, Mahalia Jackson, Pete Seeger, Public Enemy & Kendrick Lamar have helped bring the voices of the oppressed together to create and deliver messages that name their world, challenge the status quo and push back against injustice. Through research and praxis, I yearn to help transform the music education field by developing an activist music education model that recognizes and centers musicking, education and activism in the struggle for social justice and collective liberation.

Author

• Martin Urbach, Harvest Collegiate High School