As Black Music Month came to an end, the sounds of the drum could still be heard throughout the Gullah/Geechee Nation from Jacksonville, NC to Jacksonville, FL. The drums are sounding in celebration as county and town councils from North Carolina to Florida are proclaiming “Gullah/Geechee Nation Appreciation Week” from July 30-August 7, 2016. The theme for the celebration is “A Celebration of Self-Determination.”
“Gullah/Geechee Nation Appreciation Week” will be launched at “Gullah/Geechee Famlee Day at Mosquito Beach” at Noon on July 30, 2016. Admission to the event is FREE and presentations will be done by Queen Quet, Chieftess of the Gullah/Geechee Nation, re-enactor, Ernest Parks of Sol Legare, Gullah/Geechee native craft artists, and DJ Frankie de Big Bopper. The celebration will continue with a number of events in all four states and will culminate with the 11th Annual “Gullah/Geechee Nation International Music & Movement Festival™” (www.gullahgeechee.info) in Charleston.
Every year, Queen Quet, Chieftess of the Gullah/Geechee Nation (www.QueenQuet.com) and Kwame Sha of All Mobile Productions™ (www.AMPTurnItUp.com), who are the co-founders of the “Gullah/Geechee Nation International Music & Movement Festival™” encourage those coming to the celebration to bring drums, tambourines, water, chairs, and open spirits. De Gullah/Geechee drum circle is part of the healing and reconnection part of the “Gullah/Geechee Reunion Day” of the festival at the Charleston Maritime Center which is situated on the Charleston Harbor where the enslaved ancestors of the Gullah/Geechees were brought to the auction blocks on which they were sold during the TransAltantic Slave Trade and chattel enslavement era. As the drums sound along this water way once again, they will be sounding in honor of the strength of the Gullah/Geechee people as they continue to thrive and survive in spite of the numerous things that have come against their cultural community over the generations. They invite the world to sound the drums with them in “A Celebration of Self-Determination.” As Queen Quet states, “Dem wha yeddi drum drum gwine kno we still dey ya and ain da gwine nowhey!”
For more information about the “Gullah/Geechee Nation Appreciation Week” and “Gullah/Geechee Nation International Music & Movement Festival™”, email GullGeeCo@aol.com or go to www.gullahgeechee.info, or www.gullahgeecheenation.com. Follow @GullahGeechee on Twitter and Instagram for consistent updates of where to follow the drums to throughout “Gullah/Geechee Nation Appreciation Week!” E gwine be a time!