Last week in my poetry class, we learned about The Beat Generation. It happened in the 1950s along with the Consumerism, Baby boom, Red Scare, etc. The Beats were named from the phrase “beaten down” because they were kind of an outsider group because what they wanted and thought was right were different from others. They centered in bohemian artist communities of NYC and California. They wanted to liberate poetry from academia and bring it “back to the streets”, and the way they expressed this and themselves were quite shocking to people (ex. fashion, behavior, girls not shaving the hair on their legs and armpits).

The Beat Generation had Jazz/Harlem Renaissance roots, which led to the spread/development of Bongo drums in America. I did not know that bongo drums were significant in this period of time, so I thought it was so cool! Bongo drum is a Cuban percussion instrument, consisting of a pair of single-headed, open-ended drums attached to each other. The drums are all in different sizes with different names. The bigger one is called the hembra (female) in Spanish, and the small one is called the macho (male) in Spanish. How to play bongo drums is easy; you just tap it. As I was doing a little research on it, I got really interested in it. So I was going through Youtube watching tutorials and cover videos, and found this really cool cover (below). I loved the beat and the sound the bongo drums made, and decided that one day, I will learn how to play this, and play reciting a great poem I will write one day! Hope you guys enjoy the video! :)