Grant helps Southern California nonprofit beat unique cultural drum – Press Enterprise

By Greg Archer | Contributing Columnist

Dance, drums, storytelling, and more converge at African Soul International, a bi-coastal West African dance company that has been inspiring and educating Southern California residents for decades.

Led by professional artists with more than 50 years of combined experience, the professional ensemble shares stories of cultural and historical relevance through the arts — including stilt walking and song — and has established a strong educational component. Along the way, the ensemble has performed at universities and schools and has established ties to the entertainment industry.

“The arts are always engaging,” said Dr. Adama Jewel Jackson, founder and director of African Soul International. “We always say the drums get them [students] in, then we can teach them more about their culture. The drum is very attractive because of its power and the connection with music — a connection that for many of us was forcibly taken. And unfortunately, people have lost it because the power of the drums were illegal here. People could not congregate and play the drums because they were so unifying.”

Connecting and building cultural resilience remains a key goal for the nonprofit today.

“We remind students of our ancestors of antiquity, which built everything from Sankoré University in Timbuktu to over 200 different pyramids in Sudan and in Egypt,” Jackson said. “It’s about that rich cultural history that many of us unfortunately are not connected to.”

Jackson and the creative community she built within African Soul International are champions for the arts and how the arts strengthen ones understanding of their lineage. Educational programs, performances, and community building are part of the mix within the organization, and Jackson’s passion for educating about the power of their own “soul” is always key.

“We know that our children hear negative imagery regularly,” she said. “They hear conversations, songs, and read news articles that could give them the impression that they may not even need to have hope, because maybe people who look like them aren’t successful, and maybe people who look like them don’t achieve. We need to combat that because it’s not true. We stand on a very rich legacy of success, resilience, and of positivity and impact.”

Recently, African Soul International received a grant from the Black Equity Fund via Inland Empire Community Foundation. The grants fueled creative efforts for a unique cultural arts program offered at Savant Preparatory School, a Black-owned charter school based in San Bernardino, Jackson said.

The technical assistance grant the organization received helped produce a performance during Black History Month.

“It helped us to continue building our ability to do more within San Bernardino, and to offer programming for families and youth,” Jackson said, noting the importance of informing students about the contributions African Americans have made to this country and to the world.

“The grant was just another way to help us to have a more realistic and accurate view of ourselves as world citizens, and as contributors to the world,” she said. “We want to make sure that our children know that they come from a group of people who contributed to the world, who helped to shape the world, but who also left them the blueprint for how they can impact in their own generation.”

Jackson’s vision for the organization includes reaching new students, as many as possible, she said. She is also keen on creating partnerships.

“We’re always looking for people to sponsor the kids and support our organization,” she said. “A lot of our kids are low-income and inner-city young people” whose parents may not have the income for them to take classes or to travel. “We like to take them to different dance conferences — just one, so they can get an experience of being on the road and being out of their immediate community, but also so that they can actually get to study for a master artist and people from different places in the world.

“That really expands their knowledge of the world and how they see themselves,” she said. “When our students meet some of our professional artists from Senegal and they speak four or five different languages, it really helps, especially African American kids, to see themselves in the world very differently.”

Learn more about African Soul International at africansoulinternational.org.

Inland Empire Community Foundation works to strengthen Inland Southern California through philanthropy. Visit iegives.org