Kristen Arant

(aka The Drumlady) is a percussionist, singer/songwriter, teaching and performing artist and activist living and working in the Washington, DC region. Originally a classically-trained oboe player with a degree in music, she began her drumming career upon moving to Washington DC (from her hometown of St Louis, Missouri) in 2000, at which point she helped initiate the activist drumming ensemble Rhythm Workers Union, known for its hand-built drum cart the “MotherDrumShip,” and its legions of drummers who created a spectacle at hundreds of protests, rallies and events through 2007. Enthralled by the healing and unifying power of the Djembe drum, Kristen began to study West African drumming in 2002. She has since spent time learning from master drummers and teachers including Baile McKnight, Mahiri Keita, Mamady Keita , Tammi Hessen, Jaqui MacMillan, Ubaka Hill, Afia Walking Tree, Nii Kwao Ashley, Monette Marino, Abasi Johnson and Amadou Kouyate. 

In 2004 Kristen began teaching drumming at DC public schools, and through one particular experience while teaching an after school program at a middle school, Kristen realized that girls need their own safe spaces in order to truly embrace their drumming potential. So in 2005 she started a DC non-profit organization, the Young Women’s Drumming Empowerment Project, which enrolled young women ages 12 and up from across DC, taught them how to play West African drums, and guided them through poetry, song-writing, theatre and dance workshops (taught by powerful, talented women artists from DC) that culminated in final performances. These performance showcases deeply impacted communities, especially women, across DC as they witnessed young women coming of age via drumming and expressive arts – an innovative Rite of Passage. Kristen’s role in initiating, organizing, teaching, and leading this project ultimately led to her becoming known as “The Drumlady,” and led to the acquisition of 20 grants over 10 years to support the project.

In 2010, Kristen finally made it to West Africa (Ghana) through a partnership with drummer, drum builder, and founder of the Drumming up From Poverty project, Michael Kweku Owusu, whom she met in 2009 in DC. Kristen and Kweku created and led a DC-based ensemble called the Akoma Drummers that performed between 2010 and 2012, in addition to leading 5 cultural/musical immersion tours in Ghana (the last one being in 2020). Together they built a community arts center in Senya Beraku, a fishing village not far from the capital city Accra. The center is now called the Akoma Center, and is the site of Kweku’s youth outreach programs, and the home away from home for their Akoma-tour goers. Kristen applied for and received a grant in 2015 to occupy a space in DC for 3 months, and this is when Hands on Drums was born. A Ghana-based pop up store and community space, Hands on Drums occupied 3-4 spaces in DC between 2015-2018 where many community events, classes and performances were held. Hands on Drums still exists in Brentwood MD and is operated by Kweku. Kristen had the pleasure of studying kpanlogo drumming while in Ghana, with teacher Nii Kwao Ashley, and of creating and performing with an all-women’s drumming ensemble in the Arts Center, Accra, Ghana, called the Adinkra Women Drummers.

In 2013, Kristen founded the Bele Bele Rhythm Collective, an all-women’s (non-binary inclusive) West African drumming ensemble that studies, practices, and performs locally and regionally, and which has become the backbone to Kristen’s “Drumspiration” – a class series that she teaches in 6-week stretches several times a year, with the assistance of Bele Bele members. Drumspiration began as a free drum lesson Kristen led every Sunday at 4pm for 2 + years on Facebook Live during the pandemic, leading thousands to follow her Facebook Artist Page , and many people from all over the US and Canada to sign up for her online Zoom Drum classes (which are still active as of 2025).

Kristen has facilitated hundreds of music and drumming experiences through her energetic, spontaneous style – deep technical learning, shared with cultural integrity, combined with letting go, connecting with the authentic self and transforming fear and grief into joy and exuberance. Kristen is an inspirational band leader and performer as well, with many bands and ensembles under her belt including the Akoma @ All Souls group which she lead out of All Souls Unitarian (DC) for 10 years, the jazz-world-fusion group Supernational Sound System, and as a frequent guest with Madame Gandhi and Ayanna Gallant, both of whom are her former students. Kristen also plays guitar and has written songs in perhaps a new genre – Kids Afrobeat. One of these songs, GeogrAfrica, made it onto all the platforms in late 2024. The song names all the countries and capitals of West Africa in a call and response Afrobeat style, featuring her upper elementary students from Lee Montessori. Kristen’s other iconic Kids Afrobeat song “This is a Djembe,” which she has used as a tool to share the most important details about the djembe drum with thousands, is in the process of being recorded and will be released on all platforms by the end of 2025. 

Kristen is currently the music teacher for grades K-6 at Lee Montessori PCS where she recently curated, organized and led a performance of 65 children aged 9-12 in an exuberant 5-part rendition of the DC Gogo beat – one of her most beloved rhythms – at the DC Music Educator’s Conference, Catholic University.

Kristen remains an advocate for Kweku’s Ghana youth programs via purchasing and selling his handmade Ghana djembes through her own business, Drumlady LLC. 

Kristen can often be found co-teaching and performing with her son, Kwame, age 13, who is a member of the Farafina Kan junior ensemble.