(upbeat music)
-: Hi.
My name is Sister Sumayya
and I'm a teaching artist.
It's exactly what it sounds like,
a teaching artist, an artists who teaches.
And I am here to share with you my skill and my love
of dance, drum and song
of the African Diaspora.
Before we get started,
there's always a warm up.
We warm up our bodies,
we warm up our voices
and we warm up our spirit.
So the first thing I'm gonna ask you to do
is to breathe deep through your nose,
inhale, (inhales slowly)
and then let it out with sound.
(exhales slowly)
Inhale (inhales slowly)
And and let it out with sound.
(exhales slowly)
Inhale (inhales slowly)
let it out with sound.
(exhales slowly)
Yes, you can get louder,
inhale through the nose, (inhales slowly)
And let it out with sound.
(exhales slowly)
There's a series of exercises I'd like to take you through
to stretch the muscles in your face
'cause sometimes those muscles get lazy.
We always wanna warm up the face
to be able to sing.
You're gonna take a deep breath in
(inhales slowly)
let it out sound (exhales slowly)
We're gonna go through our vowels.
You're gonna go,
A
E
This one is a big one.
Raise up your forehead,
open your eyes
and stretch those muscles and go.
I
Now the next one,
come deep from your gut
in a deep, deep tone and go.
O
Your chin is into your chest.
O
Very good.
O
Next one, you just ate a lemon.
You're gonna strange up your face really tight,
you're gonna go,
U
And the last one,
is, you're gonna use your arms,
you're gonna look up to the sky, you're gonna go,
Y
You can do that with a smile.
A, E, I, O, U
Y
Very good.
Take a deep breath in through the nose,
(inhales slowly)
out through the mouth (exhales slowly)
with sound deep in through the nose
(inhales slowly)
out through the mouth with sound
(exhales slowly)
up, down, get those shoulders
shaking,
shaking.
Remember, I'm a dancer.
And later on,
we will be able to dance.
We wanna again,
warm up the body.
You have to jump a little bit
to get the heart going.
Yes, you're going to fill it up.
And sometimes when you jump,
you wanna use the knees,
bend your knees.
Jump Aha!
One more time, jump Aha!
one more time and jump
Aha!
Your heart should be beating.
Don't immediately stop.
Keep bouncing.
Bounce is important in dance.
Bounce,
bounce,
bounce.
Very good.
Take a deep breath in through the nose
(inhales slowly)
And let it out with sound (exhales slowly)
Very good.
You're gonna put your chin into your chest.
Now, roll down
to the floor,
touch the floor,
bend those knees a little bit
and roll up.
And your head is the last member to come up.
The head is the first member to go down,
chin into the chest,
you can count,
two,
three,
four,
five,
six,
seven,
eight on the floor
and roll up that spine.
Eight,
seven,
six,
five,
four,
three,
two
and one.
One more time in
two,
three,
four,
five,
six,
seven,
eight,
roll up,
eight,
seven
six
five
four
three
two
one.
Yes.
Are you warm? I'm warm.
Before we get started with the dance,
it's really important that I explain the story to you.
The story goes with the dance
and I always liked to bring
what reminds me of time.
It's called the Sankofa Bird,
dancing.
The Sankofa Bird represents time
because its head is going where?
Towards its tail.
That is representing the past.
The best of the past.
Its feet are planted strong
on this heavy wood
that represents the present.
The present is the best time.
It's always today.
And the Sankofa's chest,
is facing forward.
The seed in its mouth,
represents the future.
So time,
the past,
the present,
and the future.
Now, Sister Sumayya likes to believe
that we all represent simultaneously
the past, present and future.
And there's a word that I'm gonna give to you
that will represent your past.
And it's called lineage.
L- I -N -E -A- G- E
Lineage.
And when you split that word in half,
you have line, age,
line, age.
Line of ages.
Yes.
Everyone has a line of ages.
I'll give you an example.
My name is Sister Sumayya
and that's one.
my mother's name is Elaine.
Elaine's mother is Verna.
Verna's mother is Alvarin.
Alvarin's mother is Sarah.
Sarah's mother is Martha,
and Martha's father is William.
Those are the people in my lineage
on my mother's side.
And I have a whole 'nother lineage on my father's side.
So we all come into the world with this lineage
of the people who have come before us.
And we are the best of today because
they were the best in the past.
We are the best of them.
So remember that word lineage.
And the person in West African Culture
who keeps the lineage,
who keeps the story of the family is called, the Griot.
Now, Griot was a French word for storyteller in West Africa,
which is where most of my training comes from
is Senegal, West Africa.
They call the storyteller, the oral storytellers, Nguewel.
N- G- U -E- W- E- L.
And the Nguewel are the artists who keep the culture
through song, dance, and drum.
Who also keep the lineage of the families intact
through song, dance, and drum.
Every family has an Nguewel,
whether they're aware of it or not.
Every family has a storyteller.
Every family has a person
that is interested in the lineage of the family.
And the way that you identify that person in your family,
is by who has the pictures.
Who has the pictures of the relatives,
who you don't know.
who you may not know their name,
you may not know where they live,
you may not know where they're from.
But whoever in your family has the pictures of relatives
that are related to you.
They are the Griot.
They are the Nguwuel.
So maybe Aunt Sally,
Auntie Susan,
Auntie Sumayya.
I am the Griot in my family.
I have the pictures of my great grandmother.
And I can tell you who she is,
what her name is,
where she lived,
what she did when she was my age,
who her children are,
who her grandchildren are,
who her great grandchildren are.
I am the Griot,
I am the Nguewel in my family
because I have the pictures and I can share them
with other people in my family.
Now the person closest to you who would have that
information is your mother and your father.
They are the closest to you to get that information.
So I want you to ask them today or tonight,
mommy, daddy,
who is your grandmother?
Not who is your mother?
You ask your mother who is her grandmother.
And if her grandmother is still alive,
you call her on the phone or you invite her over.
And you say,
grandma who is young grandmother.
'Cause everyone has a mother, a father,
a grandmother, a grandfather,
a great grandmother, a great grandfather
a great great grandfather,
and great and great and great and great,
and great and great
all the way to the beginning of time.
Some people are not interested,
but the person, again,
who is interested in the lineage is called the Nguewel.
And there's one to every family.
I'm Sister Sumayya
and it's important that you have this story
before we dance and sing and drum.
All stories are connected,
all dance, drum, and song in Africa
are connected to the story.
And we don't wanna disconnect the story
from the music and from the rhythms
and from the song.
And then you wouldn't know what we were talking about.
So remember those words when we're singing and dancing
and drumming.
Lineage and Griot and Nguewel
and Sankofa and Time.
Yes.
Thank you.
(upbeat music)