Los Gatos to host Drums in the Park on July 16
Los Gatos will host a first of its kind event to celebrate unheard stories and diverse cultures with Drums in the Park on July 16, from noon7 p.m., in Town Plaza Park.
The event is designed to promote inclusion, equity, transformative action and unity, and celebrates Nelson Mandela International Day.
The Los Gatos Chamber of Commerce partnered with AWO to put on the event, one of three in the local organization's HUEmanity Salon Series.
There will be arts and crafts booths, food trucks and vendors, and lots of
music. Artists, dancers, storytellers, makers and writers will lead various demonstrations and performances at the event, including Vietnamese American multidisciplinary
social practice artist Quynh-Mai Nguyen, West African Griot storyteller Mandjou Kone and the Tabia African-American Theatre Ensemble.
Ann Jealous and Caroline Haskell will give a keynote address titled “The Grief the World Carries: Lessons from Black Lives Matter.”
The event will also showcase drums from Nigeria, Israel and the indigenous people of the United States, and conversations about racism.
“After such a challenging year in 2021, filled with many incidents of hate, discrimination and racism here in Los Gatos and San Jose, we at AWO want to take a step toward healing, community-making and creative collaborations,” the organization said in a news release.
Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Catherine Somers said residents will have the opportunity to create prayer flags at the Promenades or at the Drums in the Park event. The flags will later be hung on Gray's Lane.
Los Gatos Poet Laureate Jen Siraganian will host a public reading workshop called “A long hidden history,” and a theater artist Alexis McNab will teach participants how to make their own kaleidoscope using recycled and household materials.
The HUEmanity Salon Series is a collection of three drumming exchanges that bring together “unheard voices from local communities to unpack the different shades of our shared HUEmanity,” according to a news release.
The next event will be Aug. 27 in the South Tower Lawn at San Jose State University, followed by another on Aug. 28 at Addison-Penzak Jewish Community Center in Los Gatos.
AWO said its goals for the HUEmanity Salon Series are “to build local solidarity and inclusion while dismantling cultural silos; enable audiences to see the value in unique and diverse rhythmic processes that contribute to inclusion and representation, and the diverse formation and shape of such music; and help attendees to gain experiential crosscultural knowledge through listening, positivity and an open mind.“