Performance by Deb Lane and Afia Walking Tree
For years, percussionists Deb Lane and Afia Walking Tree have helped kick off mornings at the Bioneers Conference, filling the main stage with rhythm, movement and energy before the day’s conversations begin. Their joyful drumming has become a beloved Bioneers tradition and one of our favorite ways to bring the community together.
This performance took place at the 2026 Bioneers Conference.
Deb Lane has been playing the drums for most of her life. Formerly a member of the Santa Cruz World Beat Band, Pele Juju, she performs with artists throughout the Bay Area and beyond. In addition to her musical endeavors, Deb is a leader in water-use efficiency and works as a Water Conservation Administrator.
Afia Walking Tree, M.Ed., a Jamaican-born feminist percussionist, educator, and facilitator working at the “crossroads of rhythm, land, and liberation,” is an adjunct professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS), an Artist-in-Residence with the African American Policy Forum, and One Billion Rising/V-Day’s Jamaica Coordinator. Afia has returned to Jamaica to steward a 25-acre regenerative land-based sanctuary and learning hub (Solidarity Yaad), where she curates nature-immersed healing journeys and eco-experiences rooted in ancestral wisdom, agroforestry, food security, and community care, prioritizing BIPOC women, and gender-expansive, queer, and trans-masculine people.
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