Sumaj Chasquis, Bolivian musicians in the BCC Diversity Series

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It’s like American kids playing rock and roll in the basement, said Juan Carlos Ferrufino, the founder and director of the Andean musical group Sumaj Chasquis, who performed at Berkshire Community College last Thursday, Nov. 16. They play the music they hear at home, at family gatherings, at celebrations. They compile music, rather than composing, and they return to Boliva every year to gather more. Bolivia is a high-elevation, inland country, and has preserved its culture very well, Ferrufino said. He founded Sumaj Chasquis, which means “Good Messenger” in Quechua, in 1989. There are five members of the group, but the youngest, 12 years old, was in school during the BCC performance. Sumaj Chasquis plays wind and percussion native music and mestizo music with Spanish influence — including the guitar and the charango, a smaller 10-string guitar invented in Bolivia. Ferrufino explains that when the Spanish controlled Bolivia, they did not allow the Indians to play guitars, so the Indians made their own out of armadillo shells, and made them small enough to hide easily. Their music is energetic and rhythmic, repeating short melodic phrases and building harmonies around them; audience members sway and try to restrain themselves from clapping, until Ferrufino invites them to “join in with your hands.” He explains each song before it begins; the group sings in Quechua, Aymara and Spanish. They sing in reverence for old men, in praise of the harmony of earth, and later of blue eyes; they sing party songs about dancing, and laments about leaving home. The Bolivian Aymara and Quechua Indians live on the shore of Lake Titicaca in the Altiplano plateau, 12,000 feet above sea level. Around the lake are statues and ruins of the temples of the Tiwanaku civilization that flourished before the Inca. The band performs under a banner with the condor and leopard and other Tiwanaku symbols. Audience members often come up to congratulate Sumaj Chasquis on their “great Peruvian music,” Ferrufino said; because Machu Pichu has become such a heavy tourist attraction, people see the multiple pipes and drums and they think of Peru. In fact, 80 percent of Andean music is Bolivian, and the Bolivians have invented many musical instruments. Sumaj Chasquis’ instruments are handmade; Ferrufino shows the way the bamboo pipes have been cut through the reeds’ knots, forming a natural block. They play multiple pipes in four sizes, from the hand-sized Ica to the 55-inch Toyos, and wooden and cane recorder-like flutes, and the wangara and tambora, the bass goatskin drum and the higher pitched, stringed drum, and the chullus, rattles made from goats’ hooves. Sumaj Chasquis performs in traditional dress: knitted, peaked hats, red-orange ponchos patterned with blue and green worn over loose white or black shirt and pants, and bare feet. Ferrufino says the native people of the Altiplano do not wear shoes; they develop calluses an inch thick and burned black with the cold. The Sumaj Chasquis musicians spend part of every year in Bolivia, but not long enough to build up such protection. When they stand barefoot on the BCC sidewalk, waiting for Diversity Series director Susan Pinsker to introduce them, they feel the cold. They have performed annually in the Harvard Anthropology Conference since 1991, and they founded the not-for-profit Centro Cultural Andino in Providence, R.I. in 1992. The Bolivian government elected the group as its representative at the 1994 World Cup soccer game in 1994, and they played as an invited group at Woodstock that summer. They have also recorded with PBS, and produced two albums. They came to the Berkshires through the BCC diversity series, which has been active nearly as long as the group has been together. In 1991, two black students at BCC came to Pinsker and another faculty member with ideas and plans to promote cultural awareness. In that first year, BCC sponsored a diversity film series including Do the Right Thing and hosted a conference on diversity in education for teachers and faculty at local schools. The two-day event ended with a Gospel Choir performance for the whole community. The series has grown by months, Pinsker says: it began with Black History Month and Women’s History Month and has grown to include Lesbian Gay Bisexual Month, and recently November, Native American and Latino Heritage Month. These months provoke discussion, Pinker said; some worry that remembering a minority group in its own special month will be an excuse to ignore it for the rest of the year. The school tried, one year, to schedule cultural events throughout the year and do away with the traditional months. Students got very upset and wrote to the Berkshire Eagle, saying these months were nationally recognized; now, the committee takes the best of both worlds: they keep the traditional months and schedule further events outside of them. The students, faculty and staff on the diversity committee educate themselves about diversity issues, Pinsker says, and try to respond to events in the news. They held a poetry reading and spoke out — Chimes of Freedom — after the Rodney King beating, and another — Tolerance: Building a Community of Hope — after the hate killings of Matthew Shepherd and James Byrd. They work with the Berkshire Museum and the Berkshire Stonewall Community Coalition. They may also influence other BCC departments. “We do our own thing and hope to encourage others,” Pinsker says; they have had no hand in planning the Indian weaving forum in December and the three forums scheduled already for Women’s History month. The committee also sends its calendar to local schools, which accounted for the rows of Sacred Heart Elementary School students at the Sumaj Chasquis performance, sitting on the floor in front of the crowded audience. Ferrufino invited audience volunteers to join the musicians, one to dance a traditional dance in knitted hat and Poncho, and one to try blowing into the multiple pipes. He explained that it was difficult to blow the pipes, especially the Toyos that were taller than the girl trying to play them. People who live in the thin air in the Andes have a greater natural lung capacity than most, he said. Ferrufino dedicated the last song in the program, “Tresorito” or “Little Treasure,” to the children in the audience. They called out “thank you!” from around the room. After the concert, adults in the audience tried turns on the bass drum. One mother brought her adopted South American son to talk to the performers. It was, as Ferrufino said, a very receptive audience. Those who enjoyed the encounter may want to keep an eye out for next semester’s Diversity Series programs. The Senegalese musician and composer Youssoupha Sidibe will perform religious bayefall chants Feb. 8 on the Djimbe, Sabar, Doumdoum and West African stringed Kora. The committee is hoping to bring together step teams from Pittsfield and Williams College. A percussive dancer is coming for Women’s History Month, and there will be a presentation on hate crimes and an aikido demonstration in April.
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SteepleCats Rally Past Vermont in Ninth Inning

iBerkshires.com Sports
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. -- The North Adams SteepleCats Wednesday scored two runs on an error in the bottom of the ninth to earn a 5-4 win over the Vermont Mountaineers in the New England Collegiate Baseball League.
 
Matthew Colella started the game-winning rally with a single to left. Chris Diaz then drew a walk.
 
Hunter Ray's fly ball to center allowed both runners to move up, and the Mountaineers intentionally walked Jake Butler to load the bases.
 
Nelphie Lopez then grounded into a fielder's choice, but an error on the play allowed Colella and Diaz to score to end the game.
 
Vermont rallied to take the lead with two runs in the fifth and one in the sixth after North Adams built a 3-1 lead.
 
Jake Butler went 2-for-3 and Lopez doubled in a six-hit attack for the SteepleCats.
 
North Adams used five relievers on the mound after starter Gage Wheaton went four innings, allowing one run. Parker Guthrie earned the win after striking out a pair in a scoreless ninth inning.
 
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