Djembes and Dance

Enjoy a day of traditional African American music and dancing at Djembes and Dance: A springtime celebration of African rhythm, the Hudson Valley’s most exciting drumming festival!

Step into the rhythms and get swept up in this springtime soiree featuring continuous performances of African drumming and dancing. In a day filled with music and revelry, master drummers bring African instruments alive on multiple stages throughout the grounds of Philipsburg Manor. Get a dance lesson, move to the rhythm of the djembe and shakeree, listen to the melodious strings of the kora, enjoy African folklore storytelling, and watch cooking demonstrations, including presentations by acclaimed food historian Michael Twitty. Children are invited to make their own djembe to take home.

Plus, experience a recreation of a colonial cross-cultural event known as Pinkster, first celebrated in the Hudson Valley in the 17th century. Pinkster was a joyous, festive occasion that beckoned the arrival of spring. For the African community riven by enslavement, it was a profound opportunity for family members and friends, many of whom were split off and spread out from each other, to come together.