Alex Fischer, a student in Penn State’s Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications, created today’s Slice of Pennsylvania on WPSU. It’s a series where people in Central and Northern Pennsylvania talk about sounds in their lives that are meaningful to them. Fischer talked with members of a drum circle that plays in State College every Friday evening at 5:30 in front of Old Main.
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”My name is Carene SweeLoh Gutshall. I’ve been drumming for 21 years, because of my husband. He loved to drum, he learned from Africa … I don’t like it at first because it’s so loud … The reason I don’t like it is also the reason that I love it… Drumming is always making you happy, and that’s the reason I keep continuing.”
<<drum sounds>>
“My name is Tim Summers, and I have been drumming since around 2000 … I always tell people it’s like an injection of sunshine, like, it just lifts your mood up … we see a lot of people sitting and listening across the street. We try to coax them over, and usually we bring a few extra drums in case anyone wants to play when they are walking by.”
<<drum sounds>>
“I’m Rachel Summers … I’ve been doing it for 20 years now … It makes me feel powerful because it’s a strong, loud sound. And it also makes you feel like part of a group because you’re usually drumming with a, you know, a circle of people, and you’re all listening to one another … and actually, it’s where I met my husband. He was drumming at the wall, and we became friends over time. And then eventually, he actually proposed to me at the wall, since that’s where we met.”
<<drum sounds>>
“My name is Nishanti Sudhakar … With the stress of grad school, I think just having this to kind of just, get into is really nice … For like, the last two years, I come here as many Fridays as I can … and it’s my favorite thing to do. I look forward to it all week … When everyone’s just synced up and then it sounds amazing, I kind of just get transported a little bit and just forget everything, and just kind of listen to the rhythms.”
<<drum sounds, fade out>>
