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CULTURE
............ ▼
Drum it out
A lot of loud beats
are coming out
of Eugene lesbians
by
S u s a n D et r o y
athleen Wilder of Eugene’s Laughing
Spirit Music Project was one of the first
people to participate in the Women’s
Community Drumming Circle at Mother
Kali’s Books, which has been going on for
three years now.
At this point, she can’t imagine doing with
out it or it doing without Jill Sager and Gladys
Campbell. “They are amazing. What would we
do without them?”
Wilder’s comment underscores the integral
role the accomplished drummers play in
Eugene’s lesbian and musical communities.
Gladys Campbell began the drumming cir
cle, which is predominantly lesbian, out of an
appreciation for women-only events that allow
participants the freedom to get loud and to
develop confidence and proficiency. She
encourages women to use their whole hand on
the drum, to make noise, to learn rhythm and
to make connections with other drummers.
Campbell’s passion began as a youngster hear
ing conga drummers in Balboa Park, Calif. She
explains how the sounds made her feel peaceful
and happy. In her room she listened nightly to
her brother play trap set and was awakened daily
Circle leader Gladys Campbell puts drums
in women's hands at Mother Kali’s
by her father’s Scottish bagpipes and
drums on the stereo.
She fondly recalls the times she
and her brother gathered with friends,
playing hand drums in the dark with
candles. “That was some of the best
drumming 1 can remember.”
Campbell’s first drum was a gourd
bought at a San Diego farm— an
instrument that survived through her
transient tree-planter life and numer
ous women’s gatherings. Her first
animal-skin instrument was a native-
style earth drum purchased at the
annual Women’s Fall Gathering near
Ashland. “It is still one of the
sweetest-sounding drums.”
n 1977 Jill Sager was a pianist in
San Francisco jamming with a
woman conga dmmmer. Impulsively,
she tried the drums and was “hit with
the bug.. .1 just fell in love with them.”
As well as being a professional tarot
reader who provides intuitive counsel
Drum teacher Jill Sager believes in hands-on experience
ing for clients across the United States,
Sager puts her 20-year music career to use at
whom was Sager. She met weekly for practice
Hands On Rhythm & Drum School, which she
with other women drummers. “We were crazed
opened in Eugene early last year. It is committed
and went to every drum workshop and class in
to offering classes for women and girls only
the Northwest and California.” From this
because she noticed when men and women drum
emerged the drum group Women at Play,
together, men tend to dominate and women
which performed at various events around
seem to disappear into the background. “I wanted
town for about four years.
women to have the opportunity to explore their
After that, Campbell joined Eugene’s
own voice on the drum without self-conscious
Samba Ja, a 35-piece Brazilian percussion
ness and get support to play an instrument that
ensemble, which she says “fills most of the
isn’t traditionally played by women.”
dreams I have ever had with music— that it be
Sager asserts that “80 percent of the time,
fun, positive, joyful, good quality and improves
women and men naturally hand-drum differently”
the quality of life in my community.”
and describes what she sees as women’s innate
Sager and Campbell agree drumming
strengths in drumming: cooperation and circular
empowers, creates community and raises spir
thinking. She points to how women listen to each
its while providing women the opportunity
other in a drum circle using finesse instead of
to be in a place traditionally and culturally
force and are willing to learn something new. “1
reserved for men. Campbell says women, and
believe if the Drum Tower at the Oregon Country
particularly lesbians, have more of a presence
Fair had a women-only drum time—even one
in the drumming scene now than ever
hour— that hour would sound and feel different.”
before. Role models and teachers such as
Carolyn Brandy and Jessica Marcus of the
en years ago Campbell’s serious playing
Bay Area, Simone LaDrumma of Seattle,
began when she poured herself into drum
Virginia Lopez of Portland and Sue
ming with lessons from two women, one of
Lundquist of Ashland provide a vision of
T
360
women taking drumming to
higher levels and pass their skills
on to others.
Sager believes drumming is a
natural activity for lesbians stem
ming from the process of building
their own communities of family.
“Women who are used to living
their lives with other women are
so used to living outside the box
already, picking up drums and
playing together was probably a
no-brainer." Gravitating toward an
activity that brings people together
just makes sense to lesbians.
Campbell underscores drum
ming has always been part of
women’s gatherings such as the
well-known drum circle at the
annual Michigan Womyn’s Music
Festival. Drumming is about our
need to make music, she states, and
it is an accessible, simple way to
connect to a higher spiritual reality.
Sager agrees, noting that drum
ming in other cultures has been
happening “forever” as part of
everyday life and part of the living
community. This spirit and magic
of community drumming has been
facilitated for 30 years now in the
United States, she says, concluding
that “we are finally seeing the rip
ple effect of this work.”
Both Sager and Campbell
emphasize that people of all ages
and abilities can drum with immediate feedback
and satisfaction. Sager notes the rise in popularity
makes sense because it’s an activity that is both
relaxing and eneigizing. Drumming interrupts
thinking and forces the individual just to play.
Both of these teachers affirm drumming is
self-nurturing and healthful in the search for
ways to reach out to others, regain a sense of
calm, bring joy into our lives and create bal
ance through our awareness. Drumming can
accomplish all of this.
“How many things,” Sager asks, “can total
strangers do together that instantly, and I mean
instantly, create magic and beauty T JF1
The W omen ’ s C ommunity D rum C ircle starts
7 p.m. on the third Friday of every month at
Mother Kali's Books, 720 E. 13th Ave. in
Eugene. Extra drums are available.
H ands O n R hythm & D rum S chool is locat
ed at 2775 Friendly St. in Eugene. For more infor
mation call 541-343-5920.
SUSAN D etroy is a Eugene photographer, artist
and writer. Find her work at www.efn.org/~dets.
o f J(})aíerfro n É D in in g
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