THE WICHITA EAGLE STRING LESSONS OFFER STUDENTS BROADER VISTAS

A PROGRAM BEGUN 8 YEARS AGO TO ENCOURAGE BLACK STUDENTS TO PLAY STRINGED INSTRUMENTS ACHIEVES FAR MORE THAN THAT

Monday, July 8, 2002
Section: LOCAL & STATE
Page: 1B
BY BECCY TANNER, The Wichita Eagle

Titus James Jr. has been playing the cello since fourth grade. Now 19 and a freshman at Kansas State University, he's majoring in pre-veterinary medicine.

And he's still playing that cello.

James says it's because of NASAW - the Northeast Area Strings Academy of Wichita - a group that provides low-cost private lessons to African-American student musicians in Wichita.

He plans to play the cello for the rest of his life, and he hopes to write contemporary Christian music for stringed instruments.

"NASAW has helped me get on the professional level of things," he said. "I got the inspiration for composition from seeing all the different types of music performed on strings. I learned that it doesn't all have to be classical music."

That's exactly the kind of talk Kay Buskirk, NASAW's executive director, likes to hear. Eight summers ago, she came up with the idea to open the doors for African-American students.

"I just finished my master's and was teaching in public schools that had a high percentage of African-American students," Buskirk said.

But when she went to do work with the Wichita Youth Symphony and the city orchestra, Buskirk found very few African-Americans participating.

She noticed that as African-American students advanced to higher grades, their participation in the orchestra and symphony decreased.

That's why she organized NASAW. The first summer, there were only 17 students. Now there are 60.

"I've only encountered positive feedback," Buskirk said.

The group meets on Thursday evenings and Friday mornings at North Heights Christian Church.

Tyrus Thompson, a 14-year-old cello student in his second year of the program, said he was excited when his mom first signed him up for the summer program.

"I said, 'Yeah,' because I like seeing other African-Americans who are string players."

On July 13, the NASAW students will travel to Nicodemus, an all-black community in northwest Kansas settled by former slaves during the late 1870s and early 1880s.

While in Nicodemus, the NASAW string orchestra and a tenor soloist, Danny Darrington, will perform a commissioned piece, "Home to Nicodemus" by Wichita composer Miriam Overholt.

"Home to Nicodemus" is a tribute to the African-American settlers whose first homes were dugouts and whose blood and sweat were mixed with the prairie land.

The chorus is:

"Good times a comin', good times a comin.'
Long, long time on the way.
Under the cottonwoods in Solomon Valley
we will meet at the first break of day."

"These were people who had been slaves and never owned property," Overholt said.

"This was their chance. They were willing to leave everything they knew and come to this godforsaken place. They knew good times were coming because they owned their own land.

"But the circumstances were challenging, and it was hard to eke out a living."

James is teaching cello with NASAW this summer and says he is looking forward to the Nicodemus trip.

"To see my students go to a historically black town and see the fruits of their labor at work is inspiring," he said.

Reach Beccy Tanner at 268-6336 or btanner@wichitaeagle.com.

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