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Juneteenth Interactive Drum Circle -- Celebrating Freedom

West African Drum, Dance & Song Performance

Experience the healing rhythms, dances & songs of West Africa. Lara Gonzalez/Marafanyi Drum, Dance & Song leads an interactive exploration of music, movement, culture & history! All ages welcome!

This interactive program transports audiences through traditional West African music, dance, language, and culture, weaving in historical context and introductions to indigenous instruments. Lara’s holistic approach creates a fun, welcoming, and accessible experience for all ages and abilities, inviting attendees to actively participate by bringing shakers or light percussion instruments and joining in the collective rhythm.  We will have a limited number of djembes (West African Drums) for people to use.  Please bring your own shaker or small drum if you have one. 

About the Presenters:

Lara Gonzalez is a multidisciplinary humanitarian artist and arts educator who believes creativity is our essence and that art is for everyone. A passionate creator and lifelong dancer, she uses the creative and performing arts to foster self-knowledge, healing, empowerment, and awareness, both for herself and the communities she serves. Lara is a Life Center Stage Teaching Artist and the Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Marafanyi Drum, Dance & Song, a performance and educational group honoring West African music and dance. Through this work, she has shared the stage with renowned artists including Angélique Kidjo, Habib Koité, Sierra Leone Refugee All Stars, Odetta, Ram Dass, Carl Hancock Rux, and DJ Spooky. A versatile musician, arranger, and director, Lara created the multimedia performance piece “Marafanyi Meets the Mural: Alaa Awad’s ‘Justice’ Becomes a Catalyst for a Community Collaboration,” supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. Her artistic journey includes guest performances with Ronald K. Brown’s Evidence: A Dance Company and appearances in Nick Cave’s iconic Soundsuits at MASS MoCA. She has also pursued immersive study in Havana, Cuba, exploring Yoruba traditions, and connected this experience to her heritage through an ancestral pilgrimage to Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula. A 2022 and 2020 Arts Professional Learning Institute Fellow, Lara has been a Faculty Artist and workshop presenter with NJPAC since 1999 and designs inclusive arts and wellness programming for people with disabilities. She holds a BA in Studio Art and Art History from Fordham University.

Vicky Mulligan Life Center Stage, Founder: Vicky has been facilitating drum circles on a regular basis since 2008. She is an artist, social entrepreneur, innovative thinker, visionary, and community leader. She is dedicated to offering programs, workshops and social events through the expressive arts to enrich lives on an individual and community level.  Through her work at LIFE Center Stage, Vicky has worked collaboratively with Morris Arts, Morris County Human Services, NewBridge Services, Prevention is Key, Coalition for a Safe and Healthy Morris, C.A.R.E.S, Dover Public Free Library, Morris County Public Library, Butler Public Free Library, Montville Public Library, Roxbury Public Library and many other organizations to find ways to engage the community through the arts. Vicky and her Life Center Stage team have created expressive art prevention programs, host trainings, interactive lectures and performances, public service announcements, concerts, contests, murals, a play, and a documentary to educate, unite, and inspire individuals and communities to come together in fun- filled, uplifting ways, educating through personal experience and creative expression.

Funding has been made possible in part by funds from Morris Arts through the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.

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