Many members of the Chatham Arts Council’s staff now find themselves with children schooling at home. You too? If so, we have some exciting new arts curricula to share with you (and all of Chatham County!), and we couldn’t be more thrilled about it! With COVID-19 stay at home orders in place, executing our amazing… Read More →
Artists-in-Schools: Pittsboro Elementary School Embraces Every Beat with West African Musician Diali Cissokho
Diali (pronounced “Jelly”) Cissokho arrives at Pittsboro Elementary School bright and early. He has 25 drums to unload and set up so that he’s ready to teach 3rd grade classes how to do what comes so naturally for him – play the drums. What these students may not know is that Diali, a well-known West… Read More →
Artists-in-Schools: West African Musician Diali Cissokho Unifies Students, Drumming to a Central Beat
Stretching across the multi-purpose room, you see an audience full of wide eyes and slight restlessness. The students at North Chatham Elementary are curious about the performance they’re about to see and anxious for it to begin. As soon as West African musician, Diali (pronounced “Jelly”) Cissokho, begins playing the kora (a West African jumbo… Read More →
Go See This: The Chatham Experience
As new members of our Chatham County community, Chatham Park is powering our Go See This series this year because art is an integral part of Chatham County’s identity. They join us in inviting you to Go See This . . . Here at the Chatham Arts Council, we’ve got a uniquely Chatham gathering for you–The Chatham… Read More →
Go See This: Rave On in the Lustron with The Straight 8s
As new members of our Chatham County community, Chatham Park is powering our Go See This series this year because art is an integral part of Chatham County’s identity. They join us in inviting you to Go See This . . . The Straight 8s will rock ODDCO’s circa 1951 Lustron home—number 2144 of only 2500 manufactured… Read More →
Artists-in-Schools: The West African Kora Makes its Way to Three Chatham County Schools, Thanks to the Talented Diali Cissokho
This May, three Chatham County schools experienced an interactive performance of West African kora (a West African jumbo spike-lute with 22 strings made from fishing line), singing, and drumming with Diali Cissokho, as part of the Chatham Arts Council’s Artists-in-Schools Initiative. Bennett K-8 School, Virginia Cross, and Perry Harrison Elementary students and teachers were called… Read More →
Artists-in-Schools: Diali Cissokho Brings West African Music to Chatham County Schools
The beat of an African drum is not something that every child is familiar with. But for West African musician Diali Cissokho (pronounced “Jelly”), the beat was an integral part of everyday life. “Before we had a phone, radio, or a TV in our village, we used the beat of the drum to let people… Read More →
Meet This Artist: Antonio Lynn is Drumming to the Sound of Success
Antonio Lynn, it seems, was born with a drumbeat in his soul. He remembers playing drums at the early age of two. When he was three, his grandparents, Albert and Susan Alston, gave him a full junior-sized drum set for Christmas. By age five, he was playing in his church’s Junior Petite Choir. Now, as… Read More →
Meet This Artist: Diali Cissokho Blazes a New Chapter
Musician and songwriter Diali Cissokho was born into a long line of West African griots, who have been passing down history through song for seven centuries. From a small fishing town in Senegal, he followed his heart across the sea and landed in Pittsboro, N.C. where he lives on a small farm with his wife… Read More →
