COUNCIL OF ELDERS
ADVISORY BOARD
Benkadi has a simple mission and goals but to make those reality we need the wisdom and guidance of experts in many areas. Benkadi is fortunate to have such experts whose short bios appear below. They provide the knowledge, perspective and much else, all of which is needed to turn good intentions and ideas into concrete plans, actions and results.
Elders are listed in alphabetical order by last name.
Janet Alikpala
Janet has extensive experience in the nonprofit sector. She currently works as Program & Business Development Director for the National Asian/Pacific Islander American Chamber of Commerce Entrepreneurship, headquartered in Washington, D.C. and is also CEO of KOHA, a SaaS community fundraising app built for schools, nonprofits, and small businesses.
She previously worked as the Director of Marketing & Business Development for Nutrition First (a food production firm committed to delivering 100,000 meals each week for northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin school districts and senior daycare centers), as well as Public Affairs & Charitable Foundation Director for Dominick's, Safeway's former Midwest division. Janet is a community volunteer and serves as Board President for the Education Foundation of Downers Grove School District 58, and also serves as a Music Director for the Archdiocese of Joliet, both organizations located in suburban Chicago, Illinois.
Janet is an expert in strategic planning and development, as well as key funding partnerships with businesses, foundations, private trusts, and government grants. She will advise on program implementation and growth plans, and serves as a key advisor to Benkadi's Founder and nonprofit Advisory Council.
Janet brings invaluable expertise to Benkadi in many areas including but not limited to: strategic planning and development; developing and sustaining a portfolio of strategic and funding relationships with corporations, foundations, government and others; advising on program implementation and expansion plans; and being an expert advisor and resource to the Founder and Council on the NFP sector and Benkadi’s operations in that space.
Darryl Franklin
Darryl is the Founder of Benkadi. An entertainment lawyer and executive with Disney Music Group he has spent his entire career in professional entertainment and sports. His areas of expertise include general project management, business and brand development, and production of live events and content. He has worked all over the globe with world’s best level entertainers and sport people.
About 5 years ago, as a result of a Google search for somewhere to learn hand drumming near his Los Angeles home he found Motherland Music. There he studied under many of the Benkadi educators. Immediately recognizing the extraordinary powers of African drumming, the world class talent teaching him and then being unable to ignore the urgent need for greater social justice and equity across America it became an imperative to turn the idea of Benkadi and its pillars of action into reality.
Who could be more perfect to found a West African drum and dance program than a middle aged white guy from England who is a sub-average drummer and a terrible dancer?
Christian DeLarkin
Christian is a highly experienced bi-lingual educator who is currently the President of Pius X Matthias Academy a Catholic High School in Downey, CA. A graduate of LMU with a Doctorate of Educational Leadership for Social Justice, Christian has an impressive track record as a teacher, Vice Principal and Principal in various learning communities across Los Angeles. A hallmark of his tenure in each community is significant improvement in opportunities and outcomes across a number of metrics HIs guiding professional aspiration is to unite diverse stakeholders to accomplish organizational missions that value democracy, promote social justice, and strive for excellence.
Christian has been a passionate African drummer and percussionist for many years. He understands the tremendous impact the Benkadi program can have on participants and the communities (educational and otherwise) that they are a part of. He provides invaluable expertise and understanding of our target educational communities and how we can best interface with them. Christian is also focused on ensuring that Benkadi can speak to its outcomes and benefits on the basis of solid empirical evidence.
Simon Painter
Simon is a visionary creative producer and entrepreneur based in Los Angeles. Originally from London, Simon began his career as a drummer and classical violinist but soon transitioned into producing and creating commercial theatre. Over the last 10 years, Simon has been at the forefront of the live entertainment industry, having launched and managed major performance venues and conceived, created and produced acclaimed productions such as Adrenaline and Le Noir. In 2012, in collaboration with Tim Lawson, Simon founded The Works Entertainment and created The Illusionists franchise, which became the highest selling magic show in Broadway history. In 2019, Simon sold The Works Entertainment to global circus powerhouse Cirque du Soleil, where he continues to produce and develop breathtaking spectacles for audiences around the world.
As an ex-professional drummer, ex-member of national youth orchestras and having a twin brother who runs a Ukulele program similar to Benkadi in Germany, Simon truly understands Benkadi’s mission and the impacts it will have and is a passionate supporter.
Tanya Perara
Tanya is a highly experienced business executive and entertainment attorney currently the Executive Vice President, Music Business Operations at NBCUniversal responsible for strategy, business and legal affairs in connection with all music related business for NBCUniversal’s film and television divisions and Universal Parks & Resorts. She has worked in a senior executive capacity at Telemundo Networks and overseen the music needs of productions from Universal Pictures, Illumination, DreamWorks Animation, and DreamWorks Animation Television. She has also worked at senior level for Interscope, Geffen and A&M Records. Tanya is a graduate of Yale University and Harvard Law School. She has served as a member of the boards of directors for USA for Africa, and the California Copyright Conference, and the California Board of Governors for The Recording Academy. She is also on the Board of Trustees for the Center for Early Education.
Tanya is committed to improving outcomes for students in communities of need, creating greater opportunities for those students and building stronger more equitable communities.
Malik Sow
To describe Malik as a world class multi-instrumentalist, font of knowledge about West African culture and teacher with six decades of experience does little to describe his impact on West African drum and dance education in the Greater Los Angeles area (and beyond) and the probably thousands of people he has influenced. HIs brief resume in the Team section of our website summarizes a few of his many professional accomplishments. For many, including the Founder, Tony, and Christian his classes are where they first met. For the other teachers in Benkadi’s team the path he blazed as a popularizer of West African drum and dance, as a performer and educator forged the way for their journeys.
Malik is the 6th generation of his family line to be a griot (West African musician, storyteller and much more). HIs son, Magatte Fall carries that torch for the 7th generation. As well as being an excellent teacher himself, Magatte is percussionist for Andjelique Kidjo, the world’s pre-eminent African female vocalist.
To meet a great teacher in your life is truly a gift. To have him as a subject matter expert, along with our other teachers, will ensure Benkadi stays true to our subject matter area.
Tony Williams
Tony is a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion leader who has spent almost a decade working to create meaningful employment opportunities for individuals from historically excluded groups. He strongly believes “talent is distributed evenly but opportunity is not” and has worked to encourage everyone from museums to fortune 500 companies to distribute opportunity more equitably. He currently leads Diversity Recruiting Programs at Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution where he focuses on diverse hiring efforts, career program development, DEI training, and external events and community outreach. Tony is also a passionate student of West African drum and dance. Having come to the tradition later in life, he is fully invested in Benkadi’s mission to return these powerful tools to his community. As a member of the Council of Elders, he hopes to provide a community based perspective on how to resource and expand this work, leveraging his years in non-profit development.