Ukelele Program
During the summer of 2019, ZAMI NOBLA developed a weekly Ukulele June Jam in East Point, Georgia, partnering with the Southeast Community Cultural Center (better known as the Arts Xchange), open to anyone over the age of 18 with a desire to strum and hum.
Out of that offering grew our Ukulele Griot Collective, a multi-racial, multi-generational group of queer women who practiced and played music weekly with the goal of playing for humanitarian benefits and aging facilities. Angela Denise Davis directs the ensemble.
UKE-IN: ZAMI NOBLA’s Community Music Program
is Offering
Fall Ukulele Lessons via ZOOM
$150 Donation for an 8-week session
https://paypal.me/zaminobla
Registration link will be emailed after the donation is received.
Sept 27 - Nov 15, 2022
Tuesdays: 7:30- 8:30 pm EST (8 Sessions)
Start FALL 2022 Off Right!
Learn Something New!
Are you an adult who wants to learn the Ukulele and connect with the art of making music?
This eight-week course will teach you how to play the ukulele and introduce you to basic music theory.
The instructor is Angela Denise Davis, a Level 3 James Hill Ukulele Initiative (JHUI) Certified Teacher.
Learn: Ukulele Strumming and Fingerpicking • How to Sing and Play Popular Songs • Basic Music Theory • Easy Songs for Ukulele
For more information contact Angela at UkeGriot@gmail.com
OPEN TO ALL ADULTS living anywhere in the country!
Meet Your Instructor : Angela Denise Davis, M.Div., M.S
Angela has been playing the ukulele for five years and started offering ukulele instruction in January 2019. Her work with the ukulele is focused within the domain of the African American classical and folk music tradition. In addition, she has a broad interest in using the ukulele as a conduit for meditation and healing. She merged her teaching studio, Uke Griot, with ZAMI NOBLA in May 2019 to create a community music program that was welcoming to everyone, with targeted outreach to the LGBTQ community.
She is a graduate of Clark Atlanta University where she earned a B.A. in Art. She also holds a Master of Divinity from Vanderbilt University Divinity School, and a Master of Science in Rehabilitation Counseling from Georgia State University. She is a level 2 candidate in the James Hill Ukulele Initiative teacher certification program.
Remember & Reimagine: The Use of Negro Spirituals in Ukulele Instruction and Ukulele Ensemble Repertoire
In the fall of 2020, with support from the Henry Luce Foundation, Columbia University’s Center on African American Religion, Sexual Politics and Social Justice (CARSS) provided funding to scholars, religious and civic leaders, and culture workers (i.e. artists, critics, media makers) to develop projects that would engage with and bring together the fields of black studies and the study of religion. ZAMI NOBLA was one of the grant awardees. This funding, along with other financial support, made it possible for ZAMI NOBLA to amplify our Ukulele community music education program by redesigning the curriculum to teach Negro spirituals and to create an ensemble of ukulele musicians to perform the ukulele arrangements of Angela Denise Davis, ZAMI NOBLA’s creative director.
The Remember and Reimagine Ukulele Ensemble is a group of 8 beginner ukulele players that Davis taught over a 9-month period in 2021. They learned how to play and then perform Davis’ arrangements. In November of that same year, RRUE premiered a video of the performances along with the ensemble’s stories about each member’s musical journey. The video clips above are from that documentary, “Another Day’s Journey: Remembering and Reimagining Negro Spirituals on the Ukulele.”
Angela Denise Davis - Program Director
It has been a dream of mine to arrange Negro Spirituals for ukulele ensembles. I am humbled to have the opportunity to work with sister musicians who are bringing my arrangements to life. Together, we are bravely wading into new waters of cultural preservation and celebration via the ukulele.
Musicians
Brooke Smith-Perry
Brooke lives in Decatur, Georgia with her spouse Donna, their child Alex and their dog Ginger. She enjoys gardening and learning to play the ukulele. She currently serves as the Board Chair of ZAMI NOBLA: National Organization of Black Lesbians on Aging.
Chadra Pittman
Chadra is an African/Native Womanist, Anthropologist, PR Strategist, Intersectional Black Feminist, Social Justice Warrior & proud Mother of two amazing sons. As Founder/Executive Director of The Sankofa Projects & 4 E.V.E.R. (End Violence End Rape), and Vice Chair of ZAMI NOBLA, she lectures nationally & is a published writer from the Bronx, NY.
Liz Hendrickson
Liz is 71, retired, and lives in Oakland, California. She came to this project as a player with very limited experience and has found comfort, joy and musical expansion.
Judy Koons
is a new musician who was drawn to this ukulele class by her history as a civil rights lawyer, her love of social and ecological justice as a law professor, and her studies in feminist theology and ethics at Harvard Divinity School. Her ukulele sat in the closet and on her bucket list until Judy found Angela’s class where African American spirituality is given such beautiful voice.
Maggie Mackenzie
I am Maggie Mackenzie. I teach Yoga and Movement. I love to garden, camp and play my ukulele.
Edith Biggers
Playing the ukulele seems deceptively simple yet is engagingly complex. Initially, under the excellent instruction of Angela Denise Davis aka Angela UKE in a six week class, I learned basic chords and strumming. Now I am being further challenged by learning tablature as I practice Angela’s exquisite arrangements of African -American Spirituals for ukulele for her Remember and Reimagine Project . Thank you Angela Uke for your passionate and patient tutelage.
Anne VanDerslice
I'm from San Francisco, a mom, grandmom and a recently retired Disability Services Counselor from City College of SF. My ukulele journey started when my mother talked me into taking her to our first Uke Jam...we attended many. Then my musician son gifted me my very own uke. It sat idle sadly until I found ZAMI NOBLA and Angela's beginner ukulele class last fall, my pandemic project. Now, I am officially hooked and so grateful to be learning and loving this delightful instrument, the amazing music it makes and being part of this fabulous ensemble experience.
Remember & Reimagine:
The Use of Negro Spirituals in Ukulele Instruction and Ukulele Ensemble Repertoire
In the fall of 2020, with support from the Henry Luce Foundation, Columbia University’s Center on African American Religion, Sexual Politics and Social Justice (CARSS) provided funding to scholars, religious and civic leaders, and culture workers (i.e. artists, critics, media makers) to develop projects that would engage with and bring together the fields of black studies and the study of religion. ZAMI NOBLA was one of the grant awardees.
This funding, along with other financial support, made it possible for us to amplify our Ukulele community music education program by redesigning the curriculum to teach Negro spirituals and to create an ensemble of ukulele musicians to perform Angela Denise Davis’ arrangements of such works.
Notes from the program director and musicians are listed below.