Commencement drums bring rhythm and spirit to YDS diploma ceremony

For two decades, Michael Mills and the “Rhythms from the Heart” drummers have brought a distinctive—and much-loved—spirit to YDS commencement celebrations. “We play rhythms and music from various cultures, lifting everyone up,” says master drummer and music director Mills, who leads the New Haven-based drum group. “It creates a certain kind of engagement with the graduates, faculty, family, and friends where they all leave full of joy.”

On Commencement Day, as festivities get underway, the rhythmic sounds of drums serve as a gathering call for Divinity School graduates, faculty, and staff. Then, drummers and percussionists lead the YDS graduates in the long procession down Prospect Hill, urging others to join them along the way. 

As the graduates prepare to march into the all-Yale commencement service, the drummers lead a spirited call-and-response celebration. After that, the musicians head back up to the YDS campus to greet the returning graduates with more of the drumming that evokes, in Mills’ words, “an uplifting energy full of spirit and fire.” 

“These artists turn our pedestrian hike into a celebratory pilgrimage,” says the Rev. Vicki Flippin ’08 M.Div., Associate Dean for Student Affairs at YDS. “This is a big moment that should be acknowledged as sacred, and the percussionists help to make it so.”

The musicians are part of Rhythms from the Heart/Healing Drums, a New Haven-based gathering of drummers and percussionists who, according to Mills, “celebrate living as one human race, drumming, playing music, dancing, singing, and chanting.”

Mills, who is also a music producer and composer, is well known in the New Haven music community. He has performed with the New Haven Symphony Orchestra and at the Yale Peabody Museum, as well as events including the New Haven Jazz Festival, the Martin Luther King holiday celebrations at the state capitol, and the Million Mom March and Stand for Children national rallies on the Washington Mall. 

Mills is also a prominent community activist who has spent decades working with youth. He is founder of the nonprofit organization Drums No Guns Commission, which uses music and the arts to promote literacy, education, cultural heritage, and nonviolence.

Over the years, Mills has been involved in numerous projects with Yale faculty and students. He says he cannot even remember who first invited him to participate in the YDS commencement 20-some years ago, but the drummers have been invited back every year since. 

“They said, ‘People love the energy you bring, and you send them off in good spirits,’” Mills recalls. 

“These students have worked so hard, sometimes through incredibly difficult circumstances, to obtain one of the most competitive theological master’s degrees in the world,” Flippin says. “The feeling of utter joy and community is amplified by these percussionists, and we are so honored every year they say ‘yes’ to leading us.”

Drummer, community builder, and well-known contra dance caller Billy Fischer has participated in the YDS commencement celebrations for nearly 20 years at Mills’ invitation. “The purpose is to celebrate the graduating class and honor their commitment to their studies and their path—and to give them a good time,” Fischer says. “It’s quite wonderful, really.”

At 83, Fischer says his body is telling him to slow down, so he will not be doing the processions between campuses this year. However, he will still bring pieces from his large collection of drums and percussion instruments and invite students to join in with the musical celebration. 

“Many of the graduates are wildly enthusiastic about the drumming, especially the parts where they participate,” he says. “There’s a lot of laughter. It is uplifting, joyful, and very much spirit filled.”

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For both Fischer and Mills, drumming is a profoundly spiritual experience. “The drum is the oldest and most widespread of all instruments,” says Mills. “It’s an alignment with the heart, the heartbeat of life. My whole journey is to tap into the hearts of people so that they can feel life instead of just thinking it through.”

Adds Fischer, “Being part of the Healing Drums group in New Haven is deeply moving and spiritual and has nourished me a lot over the years.”

Mills hopes the multicultural nature of the drumming celebration will have a lasting impact on the YDS community. “I aim to bring people together through the spirit of the music, the drum spirit,” he says. “People can gather and be one people, one humanity. That’s what makes me feel so great about the Div School. We break barriers to bridge cultures.”

He also believes the joy surrounding the commencement celebrations is much needed in today’s world. “There’s too much darkness. We have to bring people out of the darkness. We have to bring people into the light,” he says. “It’s a matter of coming together with the community and the university, and then that branches out to different places when the graduates leave to do their own good things in the world.”

Flippin notes commencement is likely one of the last times a graduating class will all be together. “Bringing some rhythm and musicality to the moment reminds us to pay attention to the beauty of this temporary but transformative community,” she says. “Following the rhythms, joy, and hope of Michael Mills and these other New Haven artists on this final leg of students’ journeys is YDS at its best.”

Kim Lawton is an award-winning reporter, producer, and writer who has worked in broadcast, print and online media. For nearly 20 years, Lawton was Managing Editor and Correspondent for the highly acclaimed national public television program Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly.