Article by:
Erica Vital-Lazare
Hasani Palacio knows the connection between rhythm and commitment. This past season marked two decades of drumming for the community, showing up on Saturday mornings at the West Las Vegas Cultural Arts center to teach and to lead an assemblage of drummers who gather to accompany African dance classes filled with students ranging from toddlers to teens, along with professional dancers who drop in from the Strip. A mental health professional working for over twenty years as a psychiatric nurse, Palacio is principal drummer and co-director for Olabisi African Dance Ensemble, which he founded with wife Kianga Palacio in 1997. Kianga succumbed to breast cancer in 2009. Kianga Isoke Palacio park is named in her honor. Palacio has remarried and lives with his wife and blended family in the valley’s northwest.
I got here, it’s been almost thirty years, and I didn’t think there was a lot of culture. There was a handful of people who decided they wanted some culture happening. I got swept up in that group and my contribution was, and has always been, African drumming. There was this sister in town, Abayomi Goodall is her name, African dancer for many years. She came to town and obviously, she observed no culture. There was no African drumming; there was no African dance in this city, and she wanted to have African dance classes. She was willing to teach whoever wanted to learn the basic rhythms that she knew in her head. She would say, “Play this one — boom, bap,” and we’re playing on conga drums. We did not have djembes, at the time. She taught the basic rhythms that she knew, so that she could have an African dance presence in this town. And I was one of three brothers who picked up the conga drums to assist her in that effort. I grew up around drums. I’m from Belize, Central America, part of the Garifuna people. Drumming is big in our culture. It’s a different type of drum, but drumming nonetheless. And, of course, the African influence on the drum is undeniable. You had a bunch of African peoples, spread throughout the Diaspora to become slaves wherever they landed; however, Garifuna people were never enslaved people. They’ve been able to maintain their identity and their culture for centuries now. The drum has always been a part of the Garifuna culture. I’d never played the Garifuna drum, but obviously that seed was in me somewhere and inspired me to play the African rhythms for the sister. When we started the center [West Las Vegas] didn’t exist. But we were doing our thing. She started this company called Codame: Children of the Diaspora African Music Ensemble. We did gigs all over town. It started off with just she, Kianga, Shafez, Kojo and myself. Overtime, more people would come and go. The sister ultimately left town and went to Atlanta. This was early 1990s. So, Kianga and I decided to start our own company, Olabisi, so that we could continue to promote and develop the African dance culture. We have been at it ever since. For awhile, we were the only African dance company in the whole state. In ’92, after the Rodney King verdict in L.A., there were riots. We had riots here in Las Vegas, too. We were tearing up some stuff. To appease the Black community the city built that center. They built that center and they built this little Bank of America. We didn’t have a functioning bank in the hood, if you will, and they built a little Bank of America that was probably no bigger than my living room — and the teller sat behind glass. Anyway, they built the center in ’94. This year will actually be its 25th anniversary. Ellis Rice, he was working at the center. He, Marcia Robinson, David and Iris, were the first four staffers at the center. He was familiar with me. He was with the Hittite Empire; he’d done a lot of poetry around town and I used to support him. When the center opened, he wanted African dance and drumming there. I was reluctant in that I hadn’t studied formally with anyone. I didn’t think I had anything worthy to contribute. Kianga was asked to do the African dance. She was far more confident. After a long discussion and reflection, I decided okay. Because what that would then force me to do, was step up my game. Instead of cowering from the challenge, I decided to step up and intensify my studies, so that I could then have something to share with people who showed up. That’s what I’ve been doing ever since. The drum speaks to us. It touches our spirits; it touches our hearts. The name of our company, Olabisi, means joy is multiplied. Meaning your spirits are going to be elevated. The drum represents the heartbeat. The heartbeat is the very first sound any human being hears. Without that heartbeat there is no life.
Photo Credit:
Jeff Scheid of Jeff Scheid Photography