Brook­lyn–To de­scribe the emo­tions stirred by mu­sic is a task which goes be­yond words. To put the mag­ic of drum mu­sic in­to words is an even more daunt­ing task. Drums of Thun­der is a unique mu­si­cal ex­pe­ri­ence which, for the first time in New York City–puts the spot­light on the African drum in an all day fes­ti­val. The event–though a cel­e­bra­tion of the won­ders of African in­flu­enced drum­ming–is al­so a unique com­pe­ti­tion. It is de­signed to give an op­por­tu­ni­ty to drum­mers from across the Di­as­po­ra to show­case their mu­si­cian­ship and artistry. On Au­gust 21, the sound of the drums will roll like thun­der when the event kicks off at the Boys and Girls High School in Brook­lyn. A pro­duc­tion of the Broth­er­hood of Man Youth Con­nec­tion and CARE (Con­cerned Amer­i­cans For Racial Equal­i­ty). Drums of Thun­der has at­tract­ed au­di­ences from Boston to Wash­ing­ton who are ex­pect­ed to come by the bus loads to sup­port their favourite drum­mers.

In Drums of Thun­der, mas­ter drum­mers and drum en­sem­bles from across the Di­as­po­ra will com­pete for cash prizes and a chal­lenge tro­phy mak­ing this the ver­i­ta­ble "World Cup" of drum­ming. The day long com­pe­ti­tion will fea­ture en­sem­bles from T&T, Ghana, Haiti, Guyana, and the Unit­ed States. En­sem­bles will be re­quired to play a piece of choice which in­cor­po­rates the beats of three na­tions. Par­tic­i­pants will be judged by a pan­el of ex­pert drum­mers who al­so re­flect an eclec­tic Di­as­po­ran mix. The event is the brain­child of Rev Andy Ed­wards who is the leader of the Broth­er­hood of Man Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tist/Or­isha Church. "This idea was born out of a de­sire to repli­cate the Eman­ci­pa­tion cel­e­bra­tion which takes place an­nu­al­ly in T&T," said Ed­wards. "Though we hope to one day have a full scale fes­ti­val like in T&T, we felt that African drum­ming–which is the cor­ner­stone of that cel­e­bra­tion–was the most trans­portable seg­ment and hence Drums of Thun­der was born.

"I be­lieve that it is in­cum­bent up­on us as Caribbean peo­ple liv­ing in the Unit­ed States to en­gage in a mean­ing­ful cel­e­bra­tion of the abo­li­tion of chat­tel slav­ery in the re­gion." As part of the cel­e­bra­tion there will be lec­tures on the his­to­ry of the African drum, drum mak­ing work­shops and demon­stra­tions, po­et­ry and dance work­shops. Au­di­ence mem­bers will not be left out of the win­nings as there will be op­por­tu­ni­ties to win a free djem­be among oth­er give­aways. In ad­di­tion to the en­sem­bles com­pe­ti­tion, there will be a cat­e­go­ry for in­di­vid­ual male and fe­male drum­mers. Prizes will be award­ed to the three top place fin­ish­ers in the en­sem­ble cat­e­go­ry and the best over­all drum­mer in the male and fe­male in­di­vid­ual cat­e­gories. A spe­cial prize will al­so be award­ed for the best per­cus­sion sec­tion in the com­pe­ti­tion and the old­est and youngest drum­mers. The cel­e­bra­tion kicks off at 1 pm with a li­ba­tion and a street drum call. Com­pe­ti­tion be­gins at 3 pm.