Drummers, Planters in Tune at Sunday Event

The latest Sundays @ Not A Cornfield: Drum Circle + Corn Planting happening took place July 31, 2005. Angelinos ranging in age from teens to seniors gathered to plant corn, drum, and take in the ever-sprouting Not A Cornfield grounds.

Planters and drummers engaged in a remarkable dialogue, according to those who attended. Seeds were placed in the center of the drum circle, so every time the gardeners needed to replenish, they joined the circle. Drummer Michael McCall and his fellow musicians, attuned to the spirit of the evening, would then chant, “corn, corn” or “squash, squash” – depending which seed was being selected.

(While the majority of the Not A Cornfield site consists of machine-planted corn, the “eye” includes the “three sisters” crops of corn, squash and beans. The "eye" is the hand-planted communal and ritual garden on top of the spiral mound on the south side of the project site.)

Sunday, shovel-wielding gardeners made about 600 new holes, each about one foot in diameter, in grids two feet apart. Per usual, three seeds were placed in each hole. Hopi Red and Hopi Blue corn varieties were planted. New seeds tend to poke through the soil’s surface after five or six days.

Sundays @ Not A Cornfield events occur every Sunday, 3pm-dusk. Please come and join the Drum Circle, Corn Planting, Oral History Booth (at Millies), and, beginning August 14, 2005, Short Story community history with Hilary Kaplan.

Photo by Jaime Lopez -- Drum Circle at a recent Sundays @ Not A Cornfield event