Gypsies, travelers, strollers, bargees, sojourners, vagrants, tramps, thieves, whores—the Romani people have been called many names, but rarely their own. Misconceptions abound in reference to the Romani people, most of them concocted by governments and landowners that resented the Romani presence in their country. Rumors about the thievery, prostitution, witchcraft, and child abduction that the Romani supposedly committed stemmed from a resentment for these people who were able to travel through many countries free from taxes, social constructs, and governmental oversight. Through all of that, the real history and culture of the Romani people has often been overlooked and forgotten. So, who are the Romani? The Romani (sometimes referred to as Roma) are a diverse group of people spread all across the world in places like Iran, Morocco, Bulgaria, Germany, England, North and South America, and even Australia. This people group share two main things in common: their ethn...
“ Did you play any instruments when you were younger?” I start off. It feels strange to be interviewing my dad, as if he hasn’t animatedly told me a thousand times before about his days in high school band. We sit across from one another at our kitchen table, the steam from his tea rising between us. I press record. “Yeah, I was a percussionist in school so I played the snare drums, timpani, xylophone, triangle, cymbals, timbales, trap set, everything in percussion we played,” he begins. “They’re all similar, the only really complicated thing was the xylophone, but my main instrument was the snare drum. One of the pieces that we played was called “Snares Traps and other Hunting Devices” and it was just a fun piece,” he says. “It was a snare drum, field drum, we had the timpani, but we used the instruments in different ways. We played on the sides, we played on the rims. I was playing timpani and a field drum, but I was actually using xylophone m...