Baba Israel in Papua New Guinea with the Dana Leong Band

Baba Israel in Papua New Guinea with the Dana Leong Band!



We arrived in Papua New Guinea and were welcomed by local students along with members of the US embassy including Jon who proved to be a wonderful host. Due to security concerns we did not get to see much of the city but did check out the Botanical Garderns where we hung with Tree Kangaroos and beatboxed with the tropical birds.





Our first activity was a workshop with local musicians, students, and young people. The audience was a little shy but was energized by the youth who came and joined in and beatboxed and danced with massive amounts of energy.

After the workshop there was great small group interaction with drummers and keyboard players sitting in with Jason and Elliot while Dana and I fielded questions and made connections.



Here we are with the brave volunteers who came and joined for us the workshop. Mr Murray the music teacher who jammed on the indidegneous flute the Kakumba, two young beatboxers, and a dope emcee/reggae artist.









Later that night we performed for the larger community with an opening set by local musicians who combined indigineous music with rock, jazz, and pop influences. They had a great spirit and made us feel welcome. We were very moved by their performance! We rocked the show after with Dana launching into the crowd.

After all this hard work Jon took us out on a wonderful cruise! We swam in this ocean and made it to a beautiful island!

On our last day we did another school show with a really inspiring audience that showed us so much love! Before our performance some of the young folks shared traditional dance. PNG is a special place that faces a challenging transition from its ancient culture to the modern world. It is place with many languages and cultures, they face the problem of violence and violence against women. Yet there is a great enthusiasm, teachers, and elders who are helping to guide the positive energy of the youth. We were moved by the welcoming we received.