MamaDjo's Blog

Hi there, and welcome!

Some of you know me as MamaDjo, especially from the Renaissance Festival in Holly, Michigan, where I perform with the Djobi Ensemble as director and musician. I’ve been a musician and dancer since the age of five.

I’m from Toledo, but my first deep drumming experience happened at Four Quarters Farm in Artemas, Pennsylvania. That’s where I felt the soul of the drum move through me for the first time. Later, I joined Alma Drum and Dance, my first African orchestra, and from the moment I touched the djembe, everything changed.

What many don’t know is that I came to the drum through heartbreak.
My daughter passed away in my arms at 2½ months old.
They said it was SIDS. But it happened 18 hours after her scheduled shot, and the grief nearly took me with her.

I fell into a deep depression. I didn’t want to be here anymore.
But the drum brought me back.
Its rhythm was a heartbeat I could hold onto when mine was breaking. It called me back to life. It became my medicine, my breath, my prayer.

That’s why I do this. That’s why I keep dreaming, drumming, and building community.
Because healing is possible.
And sometimes it comes in the form of a circle, a rhythm, a shared beat between souls.

Since 1996, I’ve been traveling to festivals, dancing, drumming, and learning from masters across the country and abroad. I’ve never lost my love for the drum circle—it has always been a sacred place of connection, rhythm, and spirit.

But in recent years, something has shifted.

The circles don’t feel the same. The heart of them, the soulfulness, the unity—it’s been missing. And I started craving something deeper, something more rooted.

A couple of years ago, I had a dream—literally—to create a festival that would bring that heartbeat back. I traveled to scout locations, searching for a place that felt right. And then I walked onto the land at Thousand Suns… and I fell in love.

The more I got to know the people there, the more it felt like home. I reached out to Patrick, and met with a few friends to share the vision and walk the land to see and ask questions. At first, I wasn’t sure if it would all come together.

But then Michael called me—and everything shifted. He saw what I saw. He felt it. And together with Grace and my husband, Emmanuel Djo Bi (a true master drummer and my forever rhythm partner), we are working hard to bring this dream to life.

The Rhythm & Vibe Fest Retreat is a calling.

It’s about healing, about teaching, about returning to that sacred vibration that brings people together through music, movement, and soul.

We are building. We are learning. And we are listening.

Thank you for walking this path with us.

Let the rhythm rise. 🖤🥁🌞
— MamaDjo