April C. Turner is a performing artist that travels around the country, and sometimes around the world, sharing her knowledge of the traditional West African dances and music. Though she spends most of her time in North Carolina, along with her team of drummers and performers, she enjoys traveling to share her ideas on how these dances and art forms can be used to show community-wide concepts such as working together, integrity, and perseverence.
Turner explained how in several traditional communities of West Africa, music is a key part of their society. Music and dances are used in different events: if somebody is born there is a dance for that, and so there is for a wedding, a funeral, a graduation, and even to plant the farm or give grace.
During her visit to New Hampshire, Turner and her team exhausted the importance that traditional african music has in itself, and everything that it symbolizes. She compares it to today’s modern music and the use we give to it, admitting that she believes “music can tear whole communities apart nowadays.”
Lastly, Turner and her team of performers, put a lot of emphasis on the importance of the instruments and the part that every member of society is given once a dance or music starts playing. They highlighted how a community comes together through these events because everybody is celebrating and assisting to the creation of such rhythm and ceremony.
Furthermore, you’ll be able to find a clip with the sounds of three traditional African drums playing in harmony.
International Life in New Hampshire 