Ras Mo Brings Caribbean Art and Culture to the Community

Ras Mo is a 21st century renaissance man. He combines his talents as a drummer, singer, performer, storyteller, recording artist, actor, poet, and community activist. Born in the Eastern Caribbean island of Dominica and visitor to many of the neighboring islands, Delmance "Ras Mo" Moses settled in the Bay Area five years ago, where he has established a solid foundation and community spirit in all that he does.

Through a residency with the California Arts Council, Ras Mo is sponsored to teach free Caribbean drumming classes at La Peña Cultural Center in Berkeley, California, which have been ongoing for three years. The drumming class, a perfect outgrowth of Berkeley and Oakland’s diversity, is preparing for a performance on March 30th at La Peña and is gearing up for a trip to Dominica in October for the International Creole Festival.

Click the play button below to view a movie clip from Ras Mo's drumming class.

Ras Mo outlined the program for me: "The show will be held here at La Peña on March 30th for their Carnival series, shows about Carnival from different parts of the world. The first show will focus on the Caribbean. On March 22nd we will have a lecture/demo night with artists, costume makers and bandleaders. We’re also going to have a pan maker and tuner, Leroy Williams, from Trinidad and Tobago who is going to demonstrate and have an exhibition. An artist from Toronto, Gomu George, who is of Dominican descent and has his MA in Fine Arts, is a storyteller, poet and a very good visual artist and he is going to talk about the impact of traditional Carnival costumes on contemporary art. On the 30th we will present the show with myself, the drum class, the Haitian dance group Petit La Croix, the All Ah We dancers, D’Midas dance group, and Asheeba who is a Trinidadian singer. It will be a really nice show that will focus on Carnival in different parts of the Caribbean: multi-cultural, multi-national and multi-ethnic."

To say that the drumming class is a cross-section of the population would be limiting its description. Comprised of 10-12 students of varied race, ethnicity, age, gender and ability, the class meets every Sunday afternoon from noon to 2 p.m. to soak up Ras Mo’s knowledge, "My strength is in the rhythms that come out of Dominica and the Francophone islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique, St. Lucia. That’s what I grew up with and that’s what I know very, very well. I was in school in Jamaica, so I learned music from Jamaica and stuff from Trinidad. I have been to almost every island and I used to host workshops in Dominica with artists from Martinique and Trinidad. So I teach stuff from Jamaica, Trinidad, Haiti, Dominica, St. Lucia, Martinique, Grenada–it’s just a mixture. It’s all related because the Caribbean was originally inhabited by the indigenous people, but then the Europeans came, then came the people from West Africa. What resulted is an amalgamation of West Africa, Europe, indigenous culture and it evolves. You see the connection, and it’s a musical journey that we’re taking," said Ras Mo.

Having grown up in a small Dominican village, Ras Mo attributes his musical and community interest to life’s hardships, "To make it work, people sang songs. People would come together and swap labor, whether it was building houses or farming, so I grew up with that as a natural part of community." He got involved in youth organizations and had theatre training in Jamaica. Ras Mo’s strength is using performance art to organize and educate about various issues, whether it’s AIDS or Dengue prevention. "When people get organized, we use theatre and songs in the organization to build confidence and trust," beamed Ras Mo. He said the work that he does is very rewarding, "I’ve worked in housing projects where youths come together, dance, and read poetry. We pull out a sound system, have a block party and talk about violence. It’s really rewarding to see the community come out and participate in something like that and claim the issue as their own."

Currently Ras Mo does youth work and batterer treatment, "I work with an organization that does batterer treatment, which treats men who have been abusive–adult men who have been abusive towards their partners or young men who have been abusive to their partners, moms, siblings, or whoever at home," he said. "I work with prevention. We prepare curriculum for schools, juvenile prisons and similar places. It’s more about prevention or early intervention rather than treatment. We use performing arts–drumming, music, poetry, storytelling–to deal with gender socialization and how we see ourselves as men, how we see ourselves as women, and how we relate based on what we’ve been taught."

His community involvement allows him to foster a nurturing, egalitarian atmosphere in his drumming class. When asked what is the most challenging aspect of teaching a class of this nature, Ras Mo responded, "I have dealt with many different types of people–everyone from schizophrenics to kids with learning disabilities–so I am comfortable with anyone at any level. What I hate is ego and competition, because this class is about learning, equality, sharing and trying to keep it on that level is always a challenge because people get good, they get better, they grow, they learn. It hasn’t been that much of a problem here because the people who have been coming for a long time are patient and teach. Most of our class is women, so it’s a very nice energy both from the men and the women, but you can see that the women are the most advanced in the class, and that creates a certain dynamic."

About his current work, he said, "I am presently working on a new album because I want to do my Caribbean and indigenous music and I want to continue to perform to the highest level that I can. The new album is totally dedicated to violence prevention, and my intention is to take it on the road and do a show, because I’ve got a lot of material on gender socialization, domestic and dating violence, and why women stay. My intention is to take this to the public in performance mode and do workshops to work with young people, women’s groups, batterer treatment groups and male groups. Eventually maybe I’ll take the performance to colleges and larger venues."

Ras Mo’s goal is to combine all that he does under one umbrella, but that is a challenge, "I have my skills and talents as an artist. I am a recording artist and have stage performances and CDs, which is a very individualistic thing. Then I’ve got the community values that I’ve grown up with, that I really like, and that takes a lot of time and energy. In some ways, the community work effects my personal performing career but what keeps me going is to see people grow and develop and see the culture spread. People are going to teach other people and it’s going to be alive and that’s what the work is about. I see the arts as being about sustaining life, sustaining sanity and sustaining relationships."

To learn more about Ras Mo and his projects, check out his website at www.rasmo.net, and if you’d like to participate in the La Peña Drumming Class, he is accepting new students following the March 30, 2001 show. The class meets every Sunday from noon to 2 p.m. at La Peña: 3105 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley CA 94705. Bring your own drum, or you may use the drums they provide.