 This is the Samayana, and I'm a teaching artist. It's exactly what it sounds like, a teaching artist, an artist who teaches. And I am here to share with you my skill and my love of dance, drum, and song of the African diaspora. Before we get started, there's always a warm-up. We warm up our bodies, warm up our voices, and warm up our spirit. So the first thing I'm gonna ask you to do is to breathe deep through your nose, inhale, and then let it out with sound. Ah, inhale, and let it out with sound. Ah, inhale, let it out with sound. Ah, yes, you can get it out. Inhale through the nose, and let it out with sound. There's a series of exercises that I'd like to take you through to stretch the muscle in your face, because sometimes those muscles get lazy, and we always wanna warm up our face to be able to sing. You're gonna take a deep breath in, let it out with sound. Ah, we're gonna go through our vowels. You're gonna go, A, A, E, E. This one is a bit when you raise up your forehead, open your eyes, and stretch those muscles, and go, A, A, E. The next one, come deep from your gut, in a deep, deep tone, and go, Oh, your chin is into your chest. Oh, very good. Oh, next one, you just ate a lemon. You're gonna scrunch up your face really tight. You're gonna go, E, O, O. The last one is, you're gonna use your arm, you're gonna put it up towards the sky level. You can do that with a smile. A, E, I, O, U, Y, very good. Take a deep breath in through the nose. Out through the mouth, ah, with sound, deep. Out through the mouth, with sound. Ah, up down, get those shoulders. Shaking, shaking. Remember, I'm a dancer, and later on we'll be able to dance. We want to, again, warm up the body. You're gonna jump a little bit to get the heart going. Yes, you're gonna fill it up. And sometimes when you jump, you wanna use the knees, bend your knees. Jump, ah-ha, one more time, jump. Ah-ha, one more time, and jump. Ah-ha, your heart should be beating. Don't immediately stop. Keep bouncing, bouncing and pointing. You're gonna put your chin into your chest, and roll down to the floor. Touch the floor, bend those knees a little bit. And your head is the last member to come up. The head is the first member to go down. Chin into the chest, you can count. Two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. On the floor, and roll up that spine. Eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, and one. One more time, in two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Roll up, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two. Before we get started with the dance, it's really important that I explain the story to you. The story goes with the dance. And I always like to bring what reminds me of time. It's called the Sankofa Bird, can you see? The Sankofa Bird represents time because its head is going where? Towards its tail. That is representing the past, the best of the past. Its feet are planted strong on this heavy wood that represents the present. The present is the best time, it's always today. And the Sankofa's chest is facing forward. The seed in its mouth represents the future. So time, the past, the present, and the future. And Sister Samaya likes to believe that we all represent simultaneously the past, present, and future. And there's a word that I'm gonna give to you that will represent your past. And it's called lineage, L-I-N-E-A-G-E, lineage. And when you split that word in half, you have line, age, line, age, line of ages. Yes, everyone has a line of ages. I'll give you an example. My name is Sister Samaya, and that's one. My mother's name is Elaine. Elaine's mother is Verna. Verna's mother is Alvarene, Alvarene's mother is Sarah, Sarah's mother is Martha, and Martha's father is William. Those are the people in my lineage on my mother's side. And I have a whole nother lineage on my father's side. So we all come into the world with this lineage of the people who have come before us. And we are the best of today because they were the best in the past. We are the best of them. So remember that we're in lineage. And the person in West African culture who keeps the lineage, who keeps the story of the family is called the griot. Now griot was a French word for storyteller, West Africa, which is where most of my training comes from, is Senegal West Africa. They call the storyteller, the oral storytellers, Ngewe, Ngewe, N-G-U-E-W-E-L. And the Ngewe are the artists who keep the culture through song, dance, and drum. Who also keep the lineage of the families intact through song, dance, and drum. Every family has an Ngewe, whether they're aware of it or not. Every family has a storyteller. Every family has a person that is interested in the lineage of the family. And the way that you identify that person in your family is by who has the pictures. Who has the pictures of the relatives who you are not, who you don't know. Who you may not know their name. You may not know where they live. You may not know where they're from. But whoever in your family has the pictures of relatives that are related to you, they are the griot. They are the Ngewe. So maybe Aunt Sallie, Aunt Susan, Aunt Sumaya, is, I am the griot in my family. I have the pictures of my great-grandmother and I can tell you who she is, what her name is, where she lived, what she did when she was my age, who her children are, who her grandchildren are, who her great-grandchildren are. I am the griot. I am the Ngewe in my family. Because I have the pictures that I can share them with other people in my family. Now the person closest to you who would have that information is your mother and your father. They are the closest to you to get that information. So I want you to ask them today or tonight, mommy, daddy, who is your grandmother? Who is your grand, not who is your mother? You ask your mother who is her grandmother? And if her grandmother is still alive, you call her on the phone or you invite her over and you say, grandma, who is your grandmother? Because everyone has a mother, a father, a grandmother, a grandfather, a great-grandmother, a great-grandfather, a great-grandfather, and great, and great, and great, and great, and great, and great, and great all the way to the beginning of time. Some people are not interested, but the person again who is interested in the lineage is called the Ngewe. And it's one head, there's one to end the head. I'm Sister Sumaya and it's important that you have this story before we dance and sing and drum. All stories are connected. All dance, drum, and song in Africa are connected to the story. And we don't want to disconnect the story from the music and from the rhythms and from the song. And then you wouldn't know what we were talking about. So remember those words when we're singing and dancing and drumming, lineage and griot and Ngewe and Sankofa and time. Yes, thank you.