[DRUMS] JOHANNA DE LOS SANTOS: When we're thinking about the original use of the drum in communities where people were enslaved, they were coming from many different ethnicities from the African continent.

They were not all speaking the same languages.

They were coming from different cultures within the African continent, and drumming allowed those communications to take place.

It's an historical example of how communication was created between people who literally couldn't communicate with language in terms of freeing the spirit and freeing the body and the mind of stress of communicating in ways that are possible with words.

Music created through the drum, it's medicinal in many ways.

And then we also think about rhythm in our lives.

You know, our seasons are rhythmic, our 24 hours are rhythmic, the sun, our heartbeat, our breathing.

It's all rhythm.

So, everyone can drum.

BONI BENAVIDES: Yo empecé a tocar tambores desde que tenía 13 años en Bogotá, en mi colegio.

IMANI JALIL: I developed a passion for dance at a very young age just from just kind of seeing dance in the community.

JOHANNA DE LOS SANTOS: In my college years moved to the Caribbean and New York City where I spent many, many years studying, working in the Afro-Latino community.

BONI BENAVIDES: Es súper importante para nosotros que esas tradiciones continúen.

Continuamente estamos también investigando, estudiando, asegurándonos de que lo que estamos compartiendo con la comunidad, con nuestros estudiantes, sea, sea real y sea verdadero y sea lo que es.

NAZARETH SAAVEDRA: This is Casa Bembé, and this is, has been one of our goals for the past few years is finding our own space, and you know being able to make it a home for us.

And I think that that is, and we're going in a really great direction.

IMANI JALIL: We teach musical and dance traditions of the African diaspora particularly Afro-Latino music and dance, and the techniques and the cultural traditions that we teach come from places such as Puerto Rico, Brazil, Cuba, and Colombia.

BONI BENAVIDES: Muchos de nuestros niños, la verdad, no tienen referencia de estas tradiciones.

De pronto escuchan ciertas cosas en la radio, pero no, están conectados pero nunca de verdad lo han vivido.

Hoy empezamos a trabajar en ritmos de Colombia y siempre, a veces hay alguien como que yo creo que mi abuela era de color o empiezan ellos como a hacer esas esas conexiones y eso es super bello y super importante para nosotros.

JOHANNA DE LOS SANTOS: It's so much more than a folkloric tradition.

It's a way of living or a way of being.

That was the connection that the community was making through Bembé.

IMANI JALIL: So for me, dance has always been the way that I connect to my roots and my culture, and I think a lot of our students relate to that as well.

And so not only are they maybe connecting to their own heritage or their own culture through our classes, but they're also learning about an art form.

BONI BENAVIDES: En el afán de uno como acoplarse a la nueva, al nuevo estilo de vida en un país nuevo, hay pocas escuelas que de verdad tienen un programa así por nuestra comunidad latina.

Si se pierde un poco.

NAZARETH SAAVEDRA: It's beautiful to see that you have families, adults participating with their children.

I think that's what really makes it special about Bembé.

IMANI JALIL: Music or dance can just be a vehicle of self-expression.

If you're finding you know that you're struggling with something or are struggling to communicate something.

JOHANNA DE LOS SANTOS: But we've also found a way to help foundations understand the importance of our work as a performing arts organization, as a cultural arts organization, and we have also received a lot of support from academic institutions in Milwaukee -- Marquette University, Medical College of Wisconsin, and University of Wisconsin -- Milwaukee -- who understand the health impact of what we're doing.

So, we've conducted some of our own studies on the impact that drumming and culture and connectedness as a community has on the mental health and stress loads.

BONI BENAVIDES: Es medicina, es algo de verdad que te cura el alma, te llena de felicidad, te da mucha seguridad.

Lo vemos en los niños, les cambia.

Ya sonríen, ya no están tan tímidos.

Quieren hacer solos.

[DRUMS] BONI BENAVIDES: Cuando lo empiezan a hacer la confianza, la autoestima crece de verdad.

Es tanto lo que tradiciones, la música, el tambor, el baile, todo lo que nos da.

JOHANNA DE LOS SANTOS: The name Bembé really came from it doesn't matter where you are or who you are, but coming together with rhythms and each other, if you have drums amazing, but if you don't, you have your palmas, you have your feet, you have your voice, and you have each other.

And that is something that I think is so important for us to remember and really, again, as I mentioned, it starts with our kids and for them to learn from the very beginning of their lives.

[MUSIC]