African Music Comes to Creative Girls

Last Friday, Creative Girls was greeted with an amazing musical/dance opportunity from Chiku Awali organization. Our Creative Girl campers were able to learn how to drum from drum expert Gabriel Roxbury and learned to dance from dance expert Benita Roxbury. Alexandreena Dixon (Founder of Chiku Awali) also participated in this fantastic event.


The Chiku Awali African Dance, Art and Culture, Inc. of Rockland, was founded by Alexandreena Dixon in January, 2003 as a non-for-profit entity to enrich its community, particularly its youth. Chiku Awali’s mission is to promote, encourage and project civic and cultural programs and activities in Rockland County that are representative of African dance and culture. We also provide community outreach programs to local libraries, nursing homes, and rehabilitation facilities.


Campers learned and participated in African cultures. The girls were separated into two groups and each group learned to drum and dance like Western African cultures like from Mali. The drums sounded loud and in charge as the girls enthusiastically played the music with rhythm of the beat to traditional African music. The two handed drums were awesome to watch and hear, especially when the drums were made out of real goat fur! Expert Drummer, Gabriel Roxbury had this to say, “I have been drumming since I was 5. I started in the 5 start dance center. I love the rhythm and play a lot.”


“Anything you can think of you can play”. This was a quote from Gabriel who was great with the girls. Overall all the representatives from Chiku Awali were great the girls, working and teaching them as well as building an awesome connection. Shevy Oliver who is the director of Creative Girls thought “We can all use a little Rhythm”.

Although a little nervous at first, these girls quickly got the bat and sounded great after only a little practice. Check out the video below to see how everything came together. Please visit our facebook page to see more pictures from this event! Please also check out Chiku Awali’s website at http://www.chikuawali.org/ for more information about this great organization!