RUFARO practices at the Homer Council on the Arts before the MARIMBA MADNESS concert on Jan. 29 at Alice's Champagne Palace. In the back row, left to right, is Jonas Noomah, 12, Janette Latimer, logistics coordinator, Axel Gillam, 12, and Anthony Jones, 12. In the front row, left to right, is Patrick Latimer, 12, BRANDON BEACHY, 12, and John Shank, 13.
Watch out Homer, there's a band of 12- and 13-year-old seventh graders running around town sporting tie-dyed T-shirts, mallets in hand, banging out a hypnotizing, intoxicating beat on large, loud, wooden marimbas.
"Rufaro" means "happiness and joy" in the Shona language of Zimbabwe and was created by a group of local youths wanting to perform a kid's marimba piece in the January 2009 McNeil Canyon Elementary School annual talent show. Click here for more By Christian Whiting Special to the Homer News, Wednesday, February 3, 2010
