Voyage of the
Drum - Call 2020
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The Voyage of the Drum brings together the UNESCO Creative Cities of Music in cooperation with other UCCN Creative Cities to share the ways in which the drum is a cross-cultural form of human expression and cultural heritage. Every city has a heartbeat and every culture has a rhythm. The Voyage of Drum highlights the ways in which music has propelled and sustained cultural identities across history and geography. The Voyage of the Drum, from the perspective of Kansas City, Missouri USA and the Americas – is the story of the African Diaspora and its critical role in the development of all unique American Music genres – including, blues, swing, jazz, bebop, rhythm and blues, rock & roll, soul, funk, rap, hip-hop, house, neo-soul and beyond.
Our Goals
The objectives of this project are to:
UNESCO and UCCN Policy Context
In the context of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN), the Voyage of the Drum project promotes the International Decade for People of African Descent (2015-2024), which the UN General Assembly proclaimed in Resolution 68/237 in December 2014 https://en.unesco.org/decade-people-african- descent.
Racial Equity and Cultural awareness
The Voyage of the Drum promotes racial equity and cultural awareness of the African Diaspora worldwide by highlighting the African influence on the musical genres of the world through the drum and rhythm- based musical projects.
Gender equality
The UNESCO Creative Cities of Music also prioritized gender and racial equity in the music industry as a major priority for cooperative projects at the 2018 Meeting in Mannheim, Germany and affirmed these priorities through the UNESCO Cities of Music Festivals in Fabriano and Bologna, Italia in June 2019.
Network
The Voyage of the Drum provides an opportunity to connect the UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN) with other UNESCO and United Nations Programs, including the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage.
The Voyage of the Drum and UCCN Creative Fields
The Voyage of the Drum is open to all member cities of the UCCN
We seek to document and share the ways in which the genre and style of your city’s music is expressed through the cultural traditions of drumming, especially those musical idioms rooted in African diaspora, indigenous drumming traditions or the drumming traditions of immigrants and ethnic groups
Picture by: Kansas City, Creative City of Music.
Picture by: Puebla, Creative City of Design.
Design
All African drums are works of art – including intricate carvings, animal bodies and human bodies as sound chambers. The artistic lacing systems for tuning the drum are designed for visual beauty and function. Cities of Design can illustrate the ways in which drums and other rhythm instruments are evidence of unique design traditions and innovation.
Crafts and Folk Art
The cities of this cluster can use this project to express and explain the Voyage of the Drum and the influence of the African diaspora on the development of their local drumming and musical traditions.
Picture by: Kuthaya, Creative City of Crafts and Folk Art.
Picture by: Santos, Creative City of Film.
Film
There are numerous films produced that trace the history of African drumming or how it is expressed, e.g. Sworn to the Drum, Drum, Black Orpheus, Pulse, Saudade do Futuro, etc. Cities of Film can join Cities of Music to express the Voyage of the Drum through film clips, sharing documentaries and other creative uses of film to illustrate musical cultures.
Literature
Numerous books and countless articles have been written about the African drumming expressions, such as, Healing Drum, Drummers Path, Mandiana, Drumming for the Gods, Rhythm and Rhythmic Sensibility, etc. Poetry can express the rhythm of a particular drum or the sound of a city through onomatopoeia and other literary forms.
Picture by: Grzegorz Ziemiański, Krakow, Creative City of Literature.
Picture by: San Antonio, Creative City of Gastronomy.
Gastronomy
In the African tradition, music and food are synonymous. Most musical gatherings in the West African Diaspora call for a particular kind of cuisine. The construction of a drum often calls for a certain type of tree and/or an animal. Food-related components (animal skins for example) were not wasted in traditional cultures, but used for drums, carving tools, statues, masks, dwellings, and for social and ritual drumming gatherings, respectively.
Media Arts
Digital media and arts can express the multi-dimensional experience of sound and visual expression of the Voyage of the Drum. Cities in the Media Arts category also have their own drumming tradition(s) and connections to the African Diaspora. As a documentation of the historical journey of drums and drumming cultures across time and space – media arts can help to visualize the experiences and show how cities are connected through music, musicians and cultural practices.
Picture by: Guadalajara, Creative City of Media Art.
“Drumming is the most primal expression of music that’s been with us since prehistory so I think it’s a great platform to work from. It’s quite similar to the Days of Bread project, i.e. that every city will have a drumming story.
It’s certainly very true in our part of the world – drumming is the staple of Polynesian music, and there are all sorts of threads that lead through to contemporary music.”
Mark Roach, Auckland UCC Focal Poin
Credits Pictures: Kansas City, Creative City of Music
Voyage of the Drum
The Voyage of the Drum brings together the UNESCO Creative Cities of Music in cooperation with other UCCN Creative Cities to share the ways in which the drum is a cross-cultural form of human expression and cultural heritage.
Project realized by:
Voyage of the Drum
The Voyage of the Drum brings together the UNESCO Creative Cities of Music in cooperation with other UCCN Creative Cities to share the ways in which the drum is a cross-cultural form of human expression and cultural heritage.
Project realized by: