it's coming together

the collaboration for Swahili Encounters.

I can suddenly follow enough of the swahili to get what's going on. And Solo, the kora player, broke down the structure of the music for me, so I understood where everyone comes in, and how. And I found that I can improvise - with my heart beating very fast.

Yesterday afternoon, and this morning, we had those wonderful spaces of electric connection. When all our eyes lit up, all of us were moving with the rhythm, with the words, all of us were high with the joy of it "happening."

Festival opening ceremony tonight, where I will do Drum Rider, as an intro to the screening of As Old As My Tongue. Bi Kidude will be there - and her dancers. Doesn't quite feel real.