“Pan in the 21st Century:the Scholarship and Music of Steel Drums.”

Pan Symposium--Atlanta, Georgia, April 20-21

When Steel Talks caught up with Dr. Ajamu Nyomba the organizer of the Pan Symposium that will held this April at Clark Atlanta University in Atlanta, Georgia. The symposium is entitled “Pan in the 21^st Century: the Scholarship and Music of Steel Drums.”

If media does not auto start click here

The first symposium took place in 1995 under the title of "Fifty Years of the Steelpan." This year's event is designed to promote a more intellectual outlook on the pan, Nyomba told When Steel Talks. The idea of the symposium is to bring together various scholars from diverse academic disciplines, and recognized leaders in the steelband culture, who are involved in research on pan, for the purpose of starting an intellectual movement on pan. Nyomba looks forward to having the proceedings published from the papers submitted and presented. In addition, he believes that the pan community should have their own forum to express their ideas about pan.

According to Nyomba, there is already much informal back and forth between this intellectual community, and he was keen to have this type of exchange available in a more structured environment, hence this year's April 20-21 event. Nyomba says that the symposium will generate interest not only among additional intellectuals, but also foster new interest among students to begin research on that platform on the steelband.

The symposium will follow the university's National Students' Festival. Performers include Ron Reid and the Pan People's Steelband. Pan People, who are celebrating their 20th anniversary 'is much more than a steelband; it's a movement' according to Dr. Nyomba, who is also the group's director. While pan has been the focal point, Pan People Steelband has spearheaded several programs in the Atlanta area that address issues focused on disadvantaged youth. The group is currently engages in a major fundraising effort to secure funds to go to Ghana, Africa next year to participate in Bicentennial celebrations of the end of the slave trade and the fiftieth anniversary of Ghana's independence.

“Pan in the 21^st Century: the Scholarship and Music of Steel Drums.”

An interdisciplinary symposium of scholars and practitioners in the steelpan industry.

The Exhibition Hall of the Thomas D. Cole, Jr., Research Center for Science and Technology, Clark Atlanta University, Atlanta, Georgia, on April 20-21, 2006. Confirmed speakers include: Dr. William R. Aho, Professor Emeritus, Sociology, Rhode College, Providence, R.I., Dr. Amilcar Shabazz, Director, African American Studies Program and Associate Professor, History, Oklahoma State University, Dr. Uwe Hansen, Professor Emeritus, Physics, Indiana State University, Dr. Bernice de Gannes-Scott, Associate Professor, Economics, Spelman College, Dr. Aurelie Helmlinger, Ethnomusicologist, Paris, France, Dr. Hollis “Chalkdust” Liverpool, Nestor Sullivan, Manager Pamberi and Operations Manager of the National Orchestra of T&T and Dr. Kim Johnson, former Trinidad Express columnist. Mr. Patrick Arnold, president of Pantrinbago has been invited to deliver the Keynote Luncheon Address.

Clark Atlanta University is located at 223 James P. Brawley Drive, S.W., Atlanta, Georgia.

For information, contact Dr. Ajamu Nyomba (404) 880-6286 or by e-mail, panatlanta@aol.com

_____________________________________________________

The following article was written by Denise Noe, and appeared in the Atlanta publication, Caribbean Star

Pan People Steelband

Pan People Steelband has been bringing the best in pan music to the southeastern United States since the group was formed some two decades ago. “There were three of us who started it,” recalls Dr. Ajamu Nyomba, Director of the band and one of the trio of founders. “I was in my second year as an assistant professor at Clark College, one was Neville Francis, a former Clark College student, and the other a local percussionist, Claude Fabien. We were all from Trinidad and Tobago.” Today the group has grown into a band with over a dozen regular members with a repertoire of Caribbean musical forms, reggae, soca and calypso. The band is also adept at playing such American genres as R&B, jazz and hip hop.

In addition to playing at a wide variety of events, Pan People Steelband also coordinates and organizes Caribbean-oriented festivals, concerts, parties and workshops on pan and Afro- Caribbean culture.

“We’re more than your average steelband,” Nyomba asserts, “because we’re advocates for pan as an art form. We have held ‘The Fourth Annual Pan Under the Stars,’ an event where making money is not the focal point but at which we share different aspects of pan with anyone who is ready to have a broader appreciation and a deeper understanding of pan.”

Committed to educating the public about this unique musical art form, Pan People Steelband offers pan classes, lectures, workshops and video and slide presentations. For example, in July 2005 they conducted a two-day workshop for youth at the West Hunter Street Baptist Church. Last summer they held a pan clinic for participants in Clark Atlanta University’s Marching Band Summer Camp.

The group is also socially conscious and does extensive work with the under-privileged. “We have sponsored several programs for youth in primarily Atlanta’s low-income, disadvantaged African American communities,” Nyomba elaborates. “We've worked in Vine City, conducting a summer program for kids in that area. We've had programs in the Boat Rock and East Lake Meadows housing projects, at the Dunbar Neighborhood Center, where the group was based in the early to mid-1990s, and at the Villages at Carver, formerly Carver Homes public housing project.”

The work that Pan People Steelband does with youth assures that the band always has fresh members entering it. In 1999, it began the Oglethorpe Steeldrum Ensemble at Oglethorpe Elementary School. It also has conducted a pan program at Southside High School. “What we have essentially is a way to have a constant supply of new pannists for Pan People,” Nyomba relates.

In September 2005, they traveled to Brooklyn, New York, with about 20 members, for the Labor Day West Indian Carnival. There they participated in the J’Ouvert ”Bomb” and “Old Calypso” competitions. According to Nyomba, “Last year we won the steelband competition at the Atlanta Peach Carnival.”

Nyomba continues, “Earlier in 2005 we began a program which entails collaboration between Oglethorpe Elementary School and Ralph Bunche Middle and two schools at similar levels in Ghana. We are also working on establishing relations between another middle school in Ghana and the Nsoromma School, a local Afrocentric K-8th school. The ultimate goal is to link children in Atlanta and children in Ghana. Together with members of Pan People and the Oglethorpe Ensemble, a group of students and teachers plan to make a trip to Ghana in 2007 for the celebration of their 50^th year of independence.”

As might be expected for a group with exquisitely high musical standards, Pan People Steelband puts a great emphasis on getting and using the best possible instruments. For this reason, all of its instruments are crafted and maintained by Roland Harrigin, one of the top pan makers from Trinidad and Tobago, the birthplace of pan.

The group has released a CD called SteelDrum Vibrations. Anyone wanting to learn more about this prominent and accomplished steelband, or seek their services or music, should contact Dr. Nyomba at (404) 768-9984 or go online to http://www.panpeoplesteelband.com

Denise Noe,
Caribbean Star
Atlanta, Georgia