Chicago jazz musician Ernest Dawkins has been leading drum circles in parks for four years, an effort supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to amplify the arts and create a healing ritual in the South Side neighborhood. Some sessions take place on planned dates. Others come about more spontaneously after an episode of violence. Police and outreach teams mingle with residents. Dawkins and others play, inviting anyone to pick up a drum to join in. A passerby can take a seat and become part of a moment of community.
'Amid Chicago Violence, the drumbeat of peace'
The rhythmic beats filled the park on a rainy summer afternoon, transforming the corner of 57th and Racine to Harmony and Healing for the moment.
The sound came from under the eaves of the field house at Moran Park, where Ernest Dawkins, a Chicago jazz musician who performs in clubs around the world, played along with two other drummers sheltered from the rain.
This marks the fourth summer that Dawkins has been leading drumming circles in Chicago parks — primarily in Englewood, the South Side neighborhood where he has lived for many years.
The effort is the latest in Dawkins’ vision to restore the arts to Englewood, but the circles are also this gifted musician’s answer to the decades of violence his community has endured — a communal ritual that all are welcome to join, especially kids, he said.
