“I love music and I love nature”
Hudson River Maritime Museum
Kingston, NY | 2022

Whoop Dee Doo artists came to Kingston for a 3rd collaboration, a maritime and Hudson River-themed show, working with the all Native Women’s Drum Group Spirit of Thunderheart, Celtic Bagpiper Richmond Johnston, and West African percussionist Amadou Diallo. We worked with incredible young artists from D.R.A.W. Kingston and ten young artists and performers from the Boys & Girls Club of Ulster County. 

In May of 2022, Whoop Dee Doo was incredibly lucky to be able to come to Kingston with the majority of our props already created collaboratively with D.R.A.W. students, as the show had been canceled in August of 2021 due to a rapid spike in the Delta virus a few days before the show. This allowed us ample time to work on the performance aspect of the show and build out the set even further. It also allowed for an entirely new performance collaboration, with ten elementary and middle school students who ended up stealing the show!

B&GC kids had a wide array of performance spotlights from being giant clam tongues that emerged to the sound of Richmond Johnston’s bagpipes, to learning and performing a drum set with Amadou Diallo, to a haunted seance that brought a giant turtle shell to life. Some of the students even co-hosted our show!

Our D.R.A.W. students were able to focus on set design, and creating a very large-scale spooky turtle shell prop that introduced Spirit of Thunderheart, who magically appeared through a tunnel, live on the river, performing on the Hudson River Maritime Museum’s boat “Solaris”.

The community in Kingston made this production very special, and Whoop Dee Doo was lucky to work with so many incredible organizations multiple times over two and a half years.

Collaborating Organizations

Eureka! House
Hudsy TV
The Boys & Girls Club of Ulster County  
The D.R.A.W. Kingston 
Radio Kingston  
The Hudson River Maritime Museum

Performers

All Native Women’s Drum Group Spirit of Thunderheart 
Celtic Bagpiper Richmond Johnston
West African percussionist Amadou Diallo 

Whoop Dee Doo Artists

Antonius Bui 
Danny Crump
Sarah Dahlinger
Sofia Dixon
Rebecca Damilola Fayemi 
Emily Flores
Ali Goss
Micah Fornari
Josh Pavlick
Priscilla Salser 
Mai Shimura 
Jaimie Warren

Collaborating Artists in Kingston, NY

Erin Dougherty
Kaya Wren Keller
Chris Mascilino
Kylie Williams

Collaborating Youth Artists/Performers in Kingston, NY

Andrew
Coco
Danyca
Devin
Dianne
Joshua
JusCineah
Sora
Zion

Special Thanks

Sam Liebert & Eden Sala, Eureka! House
Angel Gates, Hudsy
Lara Giordano, D.R.A.W. Kingston
Daniel Stout, Radio Kingston
AnnChris Warren, Brianne Cahill, and Shataya Mccomb at the Boys and Girls Club