Local teacher launches digital platform for Pan-African music – Hyde Park Herald

A man wearing patterned clothing and a hat plays a double bass in an art gallery with various paintings, sharing the vibrant rhythms of Pan-African music.

When Daniel Kumapayi, a Nigerian-American Hyde Parker and a music teacher, began playing the double bass for his middle school orchestra in Grand Rapids around 2010, he wasn’t sure he’d amount to much as a musician. A bundle of energy, Kumapayi struggled to sit still and pay attention in his other classes.

“I had ADHD. I was a crazy kid,” he told the Herald over breakfast at Valois. Kumapayi said he…