John Chapman

John Chapman (he/him) is a Chicago teaching artist, musician, and culture bearer whose practice centers the West African djembe orchestra as an art form and a model for community. For John, the orchestra teaches a way of being together: each person must know their responsibility, listen beyond themselves, and understand that no single voice makes the music whole. John favors depth over speed, keeping students with a rhythm long enough to understand its architecture rather than simply collect repertoire. Before repertoire, he uses a rudiment system he developed to build timing, memory, stamina, listening, and independence. Students learn history, structure, and relationships between parts, so they understand the music and culture around them. His classrooms are rigorous, but that rigor is held within care: students stay with difficulty knowing they will be supported through it. 

The same philosophy shapes John's creative work. As a composer, arranger, artistic director, producer, and musician, he builds productions where music, movement, staging, sound, and ensemble responsibility work together. He conceived and led Queen Mother, a 2026 honoring of Mama Ann Ward presented across community, museum, and gallery settings, and shaped the Logan Center School Matinees as an educational production where young performers and audiences learned through performance and participation. For John, structure gives people room to create, respond, and lead. 

That approach is rooted in how he was raised. John grew up at Betty Shabazz International Charter School, where he learned through Azania Drum, founded by master drummer and teacher Baba Meshach Silas and educator, musician, and cultural matriarch Mama Ann Ward. After Baba Meshach's passing, Mama Ann carried Azania forward, bringing in Baba Atiba Walker, a revered elder in Chicago's West African drumming tradition who became a teacher and guiding presence within the program. 

After John left Betty Shabazz, drumming gradually disappeared from his everyday life. During those years, working in his family's Black-owned company, T&T Food Service, gave him another education in interdependence and community: clear roles, trust, accountability, and supporting one another under pressure. Those lessons later shaped his classrooms, rehearsals, productions, and leadership. 

When John returned to drumming as an adult, Mama Ann welcomed him back as someone she trusted to teach Azania students. After her passing in 2016, John and fellow alumnus Desmond Owusu understood that they now had to help hold the space that had once held them. Today, John co-directs Azania Drum Core and co-founded Camp Azania and Azania Academy in partnership with Music Moves Chicago, creating pathways for young people to study, perform, mentor, and lead. His growing community drum practice now extends this work to adult learners, carrying the same emphasis on listening, responsibility, and connection across generations. 

John is happiest when growth becomes visible, when an ensemble locks in, when a student pushes through something they thought they could not do, or when an older musician guides someone younger. His goal is to build a cultural home where Black Chicagoans can encounter West African drumming, study it seriously, and carry it forward in their own voices.