‘Drummer girl’ inspired by Nigy Boy

The Salvation Army School for the Blind and Visually Impaired is known for encouraging its students, such as 10-year-old drummer Thaffessia Howell, to hone their respective crafts.

However, for Thaffessia, part of her inspiration also came from former student, dancehall superstar Nigy Boy. One of her favourite songs from him is Judgement.

"[Mom] don't want me to play it at home [but] he makes songs and I'm in love with them and because I'm in love with them, that's why I play them. [I'm inspired] by him because I'm a singer and I like it when he sings," said Thaffessia.

In a surprise call to the artiste, she was lost for words when she actually heard his voice as Nigy Boy encouraged her on her musical journey.

"I heard you can play the recorder. I wish I was talented as you are at that age, my God. Next thing you ago tell mi seh yuh can sing too," Nigy Boy joked. "But I love the work, I love what you're doing, you're doing well and you're excelling and I want you to keep it up, never stop and pursue all your dreams." The two even had an impromptu duet performing the song, which brought great laughter and appreciation from an overjoyed Thaffessia.

Thaffessia, who is an avid music lover, shared that she also really enjoys gospel and trending music. She confidently aspires to write her own songs to expose her natural singing talent that she acquired from her mom.

But Thaffessia is quite the drummer. While admitting that it's her teachers who discovered her drumming skills and good ear for rhythm and natural sounds, her mother Latoya Black recalled discovering her daughter has 'musical hands'.

"From the moment she started school at three years old, and as soon as she started, her teacher told me that she was really good at music and I proved it for myself. She was at home one day and I was outside but I heard something beating and I was wondering what was it because there was no drum [inside]. So I [went] inside and I saw her beating the ground and mi a seh 'Den a really di grung she a beat suh?' A suh she really good at it'," she recollected with a chuckle. She immediately decided that when Thaffessia is finished with school, she wants to send her to the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts to do music.

"I'm really inspired by the way she plays music. To me, she love music more than how she love her schoolwork because she know every song inna di book," Black stated, adding that Thaffessia is an honour roll student. The single mother, who depends on her family as her strong support system, shared the frightening moment she found out her baby girl's disability.

"She was born as a premature baby so she was in the nursery and she got discharged when she was one month and that's when I found out that her pupils were not opening and she had to do an emergency surgery at one month; and after the surgery I discovered that she was blind," she expressed.

"It was devastating because as a single mother it wasn't easy because I was young. I had her when I was 20 and after going back and forth to [two hospitals] twice per week, getting all these [bad] news, mi go pon di roadside and spread out di blanket and seh 'God a right yahso mi a lef [her] enuh, mi naah guh no further'," she recalled. Black explained that her thoughts were not focused on her child's "disability" but because of how "stressed and depressed" she was as a "single mother with no father as a strong person". However, she was moved by "a voice" that encouraged her to press on. Ten years later, her aspiring musician is destined for greatness and making her proud.

Black said Thaffessia can regain her sight with surgery but the family cannot currently afford it.