New Intro Taiko Workshop
Have you seen FINDING HER BEAT and been inspired to try taiko?
This workshop is a great introduction!
with Chiaki O’Brien
Saturday, February 10, 2024 @1 -3pm CST
FINDING her beat FILM UPDATEs
Check out the latest screenings worldwide here: Finding Her Beat Screenings
Want to know who made it all possible? Look at all our amazing Sponsors!
Finding Her Beat has its own social media now!
Like & follow to stay up to date on the film
Facebook: @herbeatfilm
Instagram: @findingherbeat
big drums, big dreams - how you can help
Finding Her Beat hopes to bring this historic gathering and concert to as many viewers as possible. The film will help us realize this dream by reaching the widest possible audience through film festivals and strategic widespread media coverage. But we need your help.
Will you join us in making history by becoming a producer of Finding Her Beat?
Taiko empowers and strengthens community.
Experience the power, rhythm, and grace.
TaikoArts Midwest provides our community with high quality taiko performances, supports taiko artists, and strengthens and builds community through taiko. We produce concerts, train artists, offer studio and master classes, lead school residencies, develop new work, and provide a variety of performances and workshops for public, corporate, and private audiences. We support two primary resident taiko groups in Minnesota: Ensō Daiko and ensemble-MA.
LEARN MORE
Find out about our organization, mission, objectives, and programs.
Our call to action (June 2, 2020)
Hello lovely community,
Like many of you, my heart aches with rage and grief, and sometimes hope. Even after several days, I'm struggling to find words. I've been challenged to make sure this does not appear as silence.
#JusticeForGeorgeFloyd #BlackLivesMatter
TaikoArts Midwest joined 20+ Asian Organizations in signing this statement created by Coalition of Asian American Leaders. See excerpt below, and read the entire letter here:
"We also cannot ignore the role of Officer Tou Thao who stood watch as George Floyd was dying. To see someone who looks like us behave as a bystander to Black death is devastating and painful. This is yet another reason that we must recognize our silence in the face of anti-Black racism, and commit to the ongoing work to dismantle anti-Blackness.
Throughout history, there have been attempts to pit Asian and Black communities against each other, a tactic that encourages us to turn on each other rather than tackle our common oppression: the systems of white supremacy."
We stand with Black Lives Matter in demanding justice for the murder of George Floyd. We LOVE Minneapolis and St. Paul deeply, and viscerally feel the trauma in our streets. We know that our beloved Minnesota has a long history of racism and racial inequity from which many of us have benefited, and under which others have suffered.
We believe that taiko can amplify, energize, empower, and heal.
Social justice and activism is woven into the history of North American taiko.
COVID19 challenges us to be more creative in finding safe ways to do this, and we welcome your ideas and suggestions.
CALL TO ACTION
Please join me in doing self inventory and self education on racism in ourselves and our community. Let's engage in uncomfortable conversations, knowing people are both behind and ahead of us in this work. Let's listen, support, and amplify Black voices and communities. Let's stay focused and continue this work for many days, weeks, months, and years.
There are many rich online lists of resources, advice, support, etc.
Here are just a few.
How to help
Where to support black owned businesses
Black led arts organizations
Struggling yet hopeful,
Jennifer Weir
Executive Director