Inside Lonnie Powell’s therapeutic drop-in drum circle.
As Lonnie Powell will tell you, “rhythm is everything.”
From the way we walk and talk to the sounds of nature, there’s a rhythm to everything. Taking some time to consciously experience those rhythms can help connect us to ourselves, nature and each other, according to Powell–and that’s what his Whitehorse Community Drum Circle (WCDC) is all about.
After taking a hiatus when life and work, drumming constantly for various artists, just got too busy and Powell was hit with a bout of burnout, he’s gotten the community drum circle he started alongside friend and collaborator, Dave Haddock, back up and running this fall. And he says he’s excited to get back into the groove.
“I’m really looking forward to just approaching it from a more ‘let it be’ perspective,” Powell says. “The circle itself is uplifting; I’m not going to go into the research about the neurological and psychological benefits–I’d say to most people, just show up and drum and see how it feels.”
Powell says managing the circle and trying to carry all the participating drummers was his mistake–he’s learned that the right move is to facilitate the circle and step back to let the drummers do as they will.
“You get the circle going, and you get its momentum,” he explains.
Having dealt with addiction throughout his life, Powell credits drumming with both introducing him to a world of vices and helping pull him out of that lifestyle. It was nearly 30 years ago that he participated in his first drumming circle in a treatment centre.
Eventually, he found himself visiting treatment centres to talk with patients and try to connect with them, when a friend suggested he bring in drumming as a way to connect and a form of therapy.
“I had never done much hand-drumming,” Powell says. “Now, I love it.”
Having played on massive global stages with well-known musicians during his prolific career, leading a drumming circle was a much different, more grounding experience for Powell.
“There was this equilateral sense,” he says. “I’m playing with them, not at them.”
While many participants come to the WCDC as beginning drummers, some never having drummed at all, Powell says each person is able to get something individual out of the experience, while being brought together by it.
He talks about Lillian Strauss, a participant who passed away in 2022, praising her childlike wonder and enthusiasm and saying she was a huge part of the community the drum circle facilitated.
“She was one of the first ones to talk to me about what it was doing for her, therapeutically,” he says. “It wasn’t so much the technique, it was the fact that she was so unapologetic and so into it, and I wish I could be more like that.”
The Whitehorse Community Drum Circle usually happens weekly or biweekly. Drums are provided and a donation may be requested on entry to each session.
To learn more about the drum circle, and to find out where, when and how to get involved, search Whitehorse Community Drum Circle on Facebook and join the private group.
“Come and find your groove,” says Powell. “I’ve had many people say they can’t drum, and within weeks they’re buying a drum and I can’t get them out of the door.”
