The Drums Remember

In The Drum Remembers, LaVianca Asante’ invites us into a visceral journey of ancestral memory, rhythm, and homecoming. Through spoken word and embodied movement, this piece explores the echoes of voices that live within our DNA, the resilience passed down through generations, and the sacred inheritance of identity that connects us to a homeland we may never have seen but always carry. Read it. Feel it. Move with it. Let the voices of our ancestors guide you.

Sing with me:

Lift every voice and sing.

Can you hear the voices of our ancestors ring?

I hear them loud and clear,

guiding me along my way.

I will not let them down.

As I wear my crown,

I will live on

and make them proud.

My heart beats

to the rhythm of the drum.

Hips sway in worship—

in reverence

to what is

and what has always been.

Light and darkness

wrestling toward compromise

and revenge,

moving through my veins,

embedded deep within my DNA.

I am them.

And they are me.

Reflected in how we move—

across borders,

across continents

and seas.

I see you

without seeing you.

Feel you

without embrace.

Yet I am embraced

by the sound of home—

a home that was never home,

yet somehow

feels so familiar.

Pause here.

Clap your hands twice.

Feel the rhythm in your chest.

Repeat the refrain.

Native to a land

where many like to forget

that the soil is soaked

with blood

and the memories

of forgotten faces.

Stolen names

replaced with brands

that still linger

in the reflection of our eyes.

The supposed bastard descendants

of a land unknown to our feet—

yet the soul knows

all too well

where

and how

it all began.

Have you ever wondered

who they were?

The names they spoke

out of love

or command.

The names they wore

like warm furs

wrapped around their hearts.

The names

we were meant to inherit.

Before the strength

of who we were—

and still are—

was tested,

stretched,

magnified.

I am convinced

they chanted blessings

over my name

long before they knew

it would change.

I am certain

they prayed for me

and for my family—

for our strength,

for our peace,

for our love

to be all-consuming.

Perhaps that is what

guided my steps here—

to this moment,

when my family

became Shallah.

⸻

I often wonder

what songs they would sing.

What stories they would tell the young

to prepare them

for becoming.

For unfolding.

I thank them—

and those who carried

the unbearable weight

of being stolen,

taken,

manipulated,

until what they once knew

became only a whisper

resting in their souls.

A knowing.

A knowing we now recreate

through blended cultures,

dialects,

traditions—

trying to rebuild a home

from memory.

⸻

My heart beats

to the rhythm of the drum.

Hips sway in worship

to what has always been.

The rhythm moving through my veins

like inheritance.

I am them.

And they are me.

Across borders.

Across continents.

Across seas.

I see you without seeing you.

Feel you without embrace.

Yet I am embraced

by the sound of home.

⸻

Now hum with me.

Or sing if you know the song.

Lift every voice and sing.

Can you hear the voices

of our ancestors ring?

I hear them loud and clear,

guiding me along my way.

I will not let them down.

As I wear my crown,

I will live on

and make them proud.

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ABOUT LaVianca Asante’

LaVianca Asante’ is a writer, creative visionary, and sacred space holder devoted to restoring women and couples to wholeness through intentional living, spiritual alignment, and embodied love.

Through storytelling, marriage ministry, and immersive experiences, she weaves together faith, healing, and artistry—guiding women and partners to rediscover sacred rest, divine identity, and the practice of love as a living, daily devotion. Her work honors both individual sovereignty and relational harmony, inviting deeper intimacy with self, one another, and God Within.

As the founder of The Soft Sanctuary, LaVianca curates gentle yet transformative spaces for renewal, reflection, and recalibration—where softness is reclaimed as strength and rest becomes a radical act of alignment. Within her marriage ministry, she supports couples in cultivating emotional intimacy, spiritual literacy, and intentional partnership rooted in purpose rather than performance.

Her work explores the intersections of faith, femininity, restoration, and creative freedom—calling readers and participants alike into lives of presence, reverence, and aligned becoming.

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