Drumming bus driver Lass proves a hit with homemade instrument
A drumming bus driver is one of three performing artists to be the first recipients of Sunderland Culture’s ‘New Encounters’ bursaries - with a little help from his local butcher.
Lacina “Lass” Diabate is from Bouaké, Ivory Coast, but is now a bus driver living in Sunderland and has driven for Stagecoach since 2006.
Lass arrived in the UK in 2002 and has been drumming for many years.
He will use his £500 grant to help develop the workshops he runs from home. Lass, 46, leads sessions on djembe and dundun as well as African folk dance. He also runs a community voluntary organisation called African Societal Artistique of Sunderland.
Lass plans to run an openaireventinBarnesPark,where hehopestodiscovernewtalent andwillshowcasehisskillsona dundun he made himself.
He said: “I actually went to the butcher’s shop and asked himfortheskinofacow.Ithink he thought I was going to eat it.
"Then I got a small oil drum from the scrapyard. The rest came from B&Q. I watched YouTube for some guidance to make the drum.
“Thepassionfordrumming camefromwhereIgrewup;especially my grandma’s cousin who used to play. I’ve still got
that image of him in my head.
“The New Encounters bursarywillallowmetorundrumming workshops in the local community. If possible I’d like to organise a small-scale performance to showcase the skillsdevelopedbymygroups.”
The bursaries were launched this year to help performing artists from Sunderland’s ethnically diverse communities. They are the result of more than a year’s research completed by Sunderland Culture and Sunderland
Black and Minority Network (SBMEN).
The research mapped the diversity of Sunderland artists andfoundmanygroupsandindividuals struggling to realise theircreativeambitions,dueto insufficientresources,funding and support.
Twootherperformerstoreceive a £500 bursary are Maya Dhananjay and Stephen Elms.
Maya is studying for a masters degree in events management at the University of Sunderland and teaches traditional Indian dance.
Stephen is a rapper and composer whose duo, He Knows She knows, appeared on X-Factor in 2016. He will use his bursary to write music about people’s experiences of lockdown.