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Therapeutic drumming featured at Klee forum
April 2, 2004
CARROLLTON, GA - A drum roll, please. Tom Harris, director of therapeutic drumming from the Inner Harbour African Drumming Ensemble, will be at the University of West Georgia to present “Bringing the Fire Back to the Village” at the annual Jim Klee Forum on Friday, April 9, from 5:30-8 p.m. in the Townsend Center. The Jim Klee Forum was established in 1987 upon Klee’s retirement from the West Georgia Psychology Department in honor of his contributions to the personal and professional development of students and faculty for nearly two decades.
Harris has been working in the field of experimental education for more than 25 years. During his first 18 years in practice he used adventure-based construction projects and wilderness therapy to help his adolescent clients develop self-control, self-discipline and a work ethic. Upon moving to Atlanta in 1993, Harris began studying local practices of initiation and rites of passage and began to incorporate these teachings into his work with youths.
In 1996, Harris created an innovative therapeutic drumming program at Inner Harbour hospital. Developing this program, Harris studied with many master drummers in West Africa and in 1999 spent time in Guinea learning the culture from where these teachings originated. Today, the students build all of the drums used in the program.
Harris has made over 900 drums with residents of the Inner Harbour facilities and in private workshops throughout the United States.
His student drumming group has performed over 300 times since 1996 at educational and juvenile justice conferences, schools and other agencies. In 2002 they performed at the Lincoln Center in New York City as part of a fundraiser for families of victims of the attack on the World Trade Center.
As part of Harris’ lecture, a group of students will perform and participate in the question and answer session. For more information, contact the Department of Psychology at 770-836-6510 or visit on the web at http://www.westga.edu/~psydept/.
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