Hey All!
I hope your weeks have gotten off to a good start. YWDEP had its first official meeting this past weekend and I think it was pretty cool. We met at BloomBars around lunch time, so the first thing we all did was chow down. Thanks to the lovely Renee, we had a selection of food that was both yummy and healthy. After eating, we played a few games to help us all get to know one another better. Then we moved on to drumming; Kristen showed us two notes on the djembe – the bass and the tone – and after practicing these for a while she gave us a few rhythms to try out. Accompanying us on the dununs were Sarah, Doné and Deja, and with Jessica shakereing and xylaslapping, we were making some funky sounds. People in the neighbourhood even came by to take a better look/listen at us. I bet they were surprised when they saw we were all women!
After drumming we headed to the Flashpoint Gallery’s Mead Theatre Lab to see Paige in Full. The show was dynamic and engaging; I think everyone that went enjoyed themselves. Afterwards, we had time to interact with Paige and her brother Nick the 1da, who provided all the music for the show. We talked to them about the work that went into the performance, and even got to play around with Nick’s DJ equipment. Little did we know that we were all in for a treat – Alexis blew us away with her improv’d song, and Briana, Sarah and Milan showed us their beatmaking and scratching skills. Nick and Paige were warm and down-to-earth, and I think we might even see one of them at one of our shows!
We’re taking a break for a couple of weeks; our next meeting isn’t until the 12th of June. On that day, we’re going to have a workshop spearheaded by actress and poet Farah Lawal. She’s going to be giving us all the basics in theatre, which are definitely going to come in handy in the future. I’ve been poking around her website and there are some thought-provoking pieces on there. If you’ve got time I encourage you to check it out.
Until next time, stay safe and keep it rhythmic. Deuces!
some of us outside BloomBars
