Half a dozen teenagers sit in a computer lab in a building next door to San Francisco’s Juvenile Court. Each holds a pair of bamboo sticks. Their heads bow and brows furrow as they clap out the jambalasse, a Caribbean carnival rhythm developed by African slaves and their descendants. The kids — some fresh out of juvenile detention — are working to get their GEDs through a transitional school program in San Francisco.
On this day, they’re rehearsing with a local dance company called Dance Kaiso for a performance next week marking the first night of Kwanzaa, the seven-day holiday celebrating the history and culture of the African diaspora. For 26 years, Dance Kaiso co-founders Wilfred Mark and Robbin Frey have worked with young people to preserve Caribbean cultural traditions.
“This part is a little tricky,” says Mark, who patiently teaches this group the traditional rhythms of Trinidad, his island homeland off the coast of Venezuela. The students don’t say much, but once they get the hang of a calypso groove on the bongo drums, even the most stoic kids break into smiles.
Monae Ballard, 17, says she spent three weeks shivering in San Francisco’s juvenile hall for her role in a robbery. She says she learned her lesson and is excited to be out. She joins the group on a large drum with a mallet and sways side to side through the rest of class. “Once you get the beat down, you start moving with it,” Ballard says. “You have fun with it.”