Afia Walking Tree
Demba (Drum) Djembe from Source 1 & 2
Awaken Your Drum Voice. Stoke Your Inner Fire.
All Levels
This multi-level class is for anyone ready to ignite their rhythm from the inside out. Whether you’re feeling unsure, small, or stuck in your drumming journey—this is your moment to rise. We’ll dive deep into Yamama and Guinea Fare, two soul-shaking rhythms I learned while living in Guinea—both pulsing straight from the source.
Spark the Fire: Class 1
Ignite your inner rhythm; Awaken your drum voice.
Own the Power Class 2
Build confidence; Fine-tune your groove; Drum with strength and purpose.
Soul Songs: Sounding Thru the Self into the Collective
Awaken Your Soul’s Voice. Remember your light.
All Levels
No experience necessary to be in this space. Bring a shaker, sound bowl, tuning fork.
GOURDSONG Shekere!
Shake, groove, and connect with the spirit of the gourd.
All Levels
Dive into the vibrant world of Shekere and naked gourd playing through hands-on rhythm exercises, movement, and cultural her/history. We’ll explore the fundamentals and techniques of this dynamic instrument in a joyful, embodied way—no experience needed, just heart and rhythm! Bring your own or borrow one if possible. Come ready to move, groove, and celebrate the joyful power of the gourd!
Bring your own or borrow one if possible.
Amikaeyla Gaston
ROOTS OF THE CAULDRON!
All Levels
Sonic Sound Healing Tent at Born to Drum Women’s Drum Camp
All Levels
Step into a sanctuary of sound at this year’s Born to Drum camp, where rhythm meets resonance. The Sonic Sound Healing Tent is a sacred space dedicated to integration, restoration, and deep healing—an offering to support your journey before, during, and after the transformative experience of all that drum camp has to offer.
Within this tent, you’ll find skilled practitioners offering “Snack Paks”—bite-sized yet powerful sound sessions using modalities such as crystal bowls, gongs, chimes, shamanic sound tools, hang drum, and vocal toning/song. These sessions are designed to help you rest, reset, and reconnect with the wisdom awakened by the drum.
Drumming opens portals to presence, shifting consciousness and awakening waves of light and sound that move through our bodies in sacred rhythm. In the Sonic Sound Tent, you’re invited to continue that journey—to feel, not think—to allow sound to carry you deeper within for your own personal healing…as well as the healing of this planet.
Come rest. Come receive. Come realign.
Amy Vitro
The Shekere: Dancing with Fire!
All Levels (Class will go over the basics and take it from there.)
Amy will provide space for anyone interested in learning about this beautiful gourd instrument and to share her love of the music, rhythms, and history of the shekere gourd drum. Come and experience how the shekere brings the fire!
Arisika Razak
Transformative Change & Social Justice
All Levels
What new elements are you bringing to these difficult and challenging times? How are you transforming old wounds and traumas which limit your ability to build effective alliances with others across personal, social and cultural lines of difference? How have you been affected by cancel culture – who and what are you calling in, and who and what are you calling out? Join us for a session of sounding, movement, storytelling and sharing so that we can begin the deep work of collective healing that promotes personal and political transformation, social change, and intergenerational healing. Bring your drums, your voices, your bodies and your ancestral medicine.
Ava Square
West African Dance
All Levels
Avotcja (pronounced Avacha)
When Ancestors Speak Through Rhythm
All Levels
It is all about La Palabra Musical, The Music Of The Word, the Rhythm that speaks in us & through us & our responsibility in using this most sacred of gifts wisely. Be ready to write, bring your instruments & be prepared to surrender your egos to each other & the Music of the Word. I want to unlock a waterfall of poetic metaphors as strong as any Rhythm you have ever heard played on the Drum & see where it takes us!!! I am ready, are you?
Carolyn Brandy
The Conga Drum!
Beginning Class, Friday
We will learn basic technique and sounds; how to sit and hold the drum; and a few simple rhythms to get us started with this charismatic drum. We will also learn some of the history of the development of this drum from Africa to Cuba to North America.
Orisha Song Class, Saturday
MOZAMBIQUE!, Sunday
Intermediate: There are parts for All Levels
This rhythm is so much fun, melodic, and energetic. Created in 1961 by Pello El Afrikan in Havana, Cuba for Carnaval, the rhythm instantly became super popular in Cuba and in the US. This is an Intermediate rhythm but there are parts for all levels.
Advanced Conga Class, Monday
Advanced
This is an advanced class. Students must have an understanding and be able to play rumba clave, palito, tumbadora, and tres dos (Segundo).
Debbie Fier
Middle Eastern Percussion
All Levels
Drums, Percussion & Rhythms of Morocco
Denise Solis
Afro-Puerto Rican Bomba
Dancing the Drum (Saturday)
Intermediate
(Please see Julia Cepeda’s class description.)
Dancing the Drum (Sunday)
Intermediate
Students will review Sica, Yuba, and Cuembe rhythms and then practice some intro language phrases with a call and response exercise between the Buleadoras (accompanying drum) and the Subidora (lead drum).
Elizabeth Sayre
The Batá Drum!
All Levels (see note below)
The batá drums of Cuba are part of the collective musical genius preserved and still developing in Afro-Cuban communities in Havana and Matanzas. The batá drums salute the revered forces of nature known as orisha (the crossroads, iron, the forest, the mountain, the wind, thunder & lightning, the river, the seas, etc.) and are part of a living spiritual tradition. They have also over time become part of the national cultural heritage of Cuba.
This class will introduce a bit of history (or herstory–crucial in the case of the batá for women students and players), correct posture and hand technique, several fundamental rhythms (such as Lalubanche, Ogún, Yakotá, Egbado [Rumba Obatalá] or others) and possibly some orisha songs. We will cover different material in each class.
At least one year of hand drum study and knowledge of 6/8 bell patterns/clave are recommended for the classes. The batá have their own hand technique (similar to congas and bongo) and require the constant development of listening and ensemble-playing skills.
Students at all levels are welcome: beginners will have a crash course in the batá; intermediate and advanced players can try a part or drum they have not played before.
Please bring batá drums (no other type of drum) and maracas (or a similar type of shaker with a handle and a clean sound). Some drums will be provided for those who don’t have them!
Jeni Swerdlow
Restorative Rhythms – Drumming for Transformation
All Levels
Got stress? Get relief! Restorative Rhythms is an empowering drumming experience designed for all skill levels. This workshop offers a safe and supportive space where we can connect with each other and explore the healing power of rhythm. Through guided exercises and improvisational play with drums and assorted percussion instruments, participants will drum out negativity and “womanifest” positivity, while also engaging in mindfulness techniques and self-care practices. Whether you’re looking to try something new or deepen your existing drumming practice, Restorative Rhythms offers a unique and transformative experience for drummers seeking to connect with their inner rhythm.
Jnana Gowan
Creating a Gratitude Bundle - Ritual
All Levels
Join us in the Healing Tent as we will create a haywaricuy (hai-wah-ree-kwee), also known as a despacho—a traditional Andean gratitude bundle. This sacred offering is an act of ayni, or sacred reciprocity, honoring our relationship with the spirit world and unseen realms.
Shamanic practitioner, Jnana Gowan guides you to create your own special haywa. Each item placed in the bundle carries prayerful intention and becomes a living map of gratitude, healing, and connection. This ritual allows us to give thanks for what has been, offer blessings for what’s to come, and restore harmony within ourselves and the world around us.
The haywaricuy is both ceremony and medicine—opening the heart, clearing energy, and aligning us with the flow of life. All are welcome.
Julia Cepeda
Puerto Rican Bomba, Drum and Dance
All Levels
Mabiba Baegne
Dunun (Bass Drums) from Guinea
All Levels
Those drums are the heart of the Malinke rhythm: the bass drum are made from hallowed tree trunks cut to a cylindrical shape and covered with cowhide at both end: the musician strikes the drum with a wooden stick on one hand, while the other hand simultaneously holds a metal stick that is used to strike an iron bell attached to the drum. The Dunun comes in three different sizes.
The names of the drums are: Kenkeni, the smallest and the keeper of the time; Sangban, the middle one is the heart; Dununba gives power and heat to the rhythm as well adding great rhythmic dimension; the bells bring another tonality and fill the space between the beats. In some regions they play one or two. Only in Kurussa and Kankan region, they play all three Dununs and bells.
West African and Congolese Dance with Live Drums
Mar Stevens
Drum Meditation
All Levels
Djembe Vibrations
All Levels
Michaelle Goerlitz
Rio-style Samba Batucada
All Levels
Some instruments are provided, but feel free to bring yours as well, including djembe or conga.
Afro Brazilian Hand Drumming
All Levels
Neena McNair
Native American Drum
All Levels
Ouida Lewis
Mento to Reggae Origins (Friday)
All Levels
We go where it all started with mento to reggae journeying through the folk forms
DRUMVERSATIONS (Saturday)
All Levels
Reconnecting with internal Joy, creating meaningful dialogue using the language of the drums with the rhythms of the heart. Feeling the four.
From Africa to Jamaica and Back (Sunday)
All Levels
A deep dive into the Jamaican Congolese TAMBU.
Put It All Together (Monday)
All Levels
Qween Hollins
Grandmother Wisdom Circle
All Levels
Grandmother Wisdom Circle is a place where we share wisdom and combined strategies set a frequency that brings a transformation to generational trauma. We hold a bold vision for a new future.
In this workshop, we will crown ourselves with Flowers and claim our Sacred position as wise grandmothers. It is a recognition of the position that we hold in our families, our communities and ultimately on the globe.
This circle will be a self-initiation.
Blessings Queen
Rebecca Rodriguez
Salsa Rhythms
All Levels
Rebecca offers a percussion workshop based around Afro-Cuban percussion. This class will teach how to play basic salsa rhythms. We will explore the clave, conga, bongó, chekere, maraca, güiro, and timbales and layer each pattern into a few salsa grooves. Students will be able to learn and play each instrument and incorporate rhythmic independence through each pattern. Once we learn each pattern and layer together the Cuban rhythm sections, students will be able to sing and dance to the music and explore our creativity!
Regina Wells (Rashida Oji)
Embodied Movement
All Levels
Warm, stretch and prep for whole-self drum, dance, song and healing. Connect to places inside you that drum, dance, sing and heal with effortless passion, physical ease and presence. Learn and create simple moves that lubricate joints, renew muscular elasticity, reduce strain and invite Goddess presence to pour through you with unhindered joy.
Susu Pampanin
Fun With The Drum
All Levels
Sheree Seretse
Welcome to the World of Zimbabwean Marimba Music
All Levels
The ensemble of instruments is comprised of sopranos, tenors, baritones and bass marimbas. The class will include an introduction and cultural perspective. The workshop will not use written notation. It will draw upon your listening and visual skills. The music is made of short repetitive melodies and rhythms which interact to create polyphonic and polyrhythmic sounds and melodies. If you can hone into those skills and use your hands you can play the marimba. Come make a joyful sound with this infectious music. Each session will focus on a different song.
Sue Kaye (Suki)
Conga Class
All Levels
We will be exploring Afro-Cuban and Congolese styles in this class. We will learn rhythms that can be played in an ensemble of drummers and also as accompaniment with other instrumentation. We’ll also focus a bit on technique to work on a good sound. Along with congas feel free to bring other drums, and hand percussion to this class.
Tannee Osborne
West African Drumming
All Levels
A very beginner friendly exploration into West African Drumming. With the use of Djembes and Dunduns I will introduce the “ABC’s” of an ancestral language of love we can all learn to hear and use to bring joy and unity. This workshop will touch on history, technique basics, and deepen the understanding of the conversation happening between the drums as well as a moment to be free and release.
Zero experience is required and all levels welcomed.
Trinity Watkins
Kundalini Yoga
All Levels