Imagine a brisk November day in Siler City. The folks in the Love’s Creek community are getting home from work, unloading groceries from the car, starting dinner. Kids are playing in yards, riding bikes, shooting hoops, when suddenly the sounds of an ordinary Tuesday afternoon are interrupted by a new sound . . . a… Read More →
JS Waters and Woods Charter Students Embrace Their Poetic Sides with Phillip Shabazz
The ongoing pandemic has impacted everyone, but maybe kids most of all–so many months of not being in school, not interacting with friends in person, and just not being able to engage in the world as kids, in general. Now they’re back in classrooms, and the 2021-22 school year is bringing us all hope. Here… Read More →
Jim Roberts Percussion
Taking Artists-in-Schools to Students Across Chatham with Online Arts Videos
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 →