The Black Banjo Reclamation Project (BBRP) is is a creative eco-system that curates musical, cultural and land-based healing opportunities for Black, Afro-Diasporic communities around the world to work with the banjo as a tool for reclaiming ancestral wisdom & creating Afro-futures. By teaching and learning banjo playing techniques with African and Black centered perspectives, our unique facilitation of programs which includes banjo musical education, building & repair, and restorative somatic community experiences, we highlight the practice of land stewardship and the roots of Black liberation found in our folkways. Through economic solidarity and self-determination, we are paving pathways for restorative narratives to use music as a tool for transforming our world.
About Hannah Mayree:
Hannah Mayree (they/them) is an artist and musician whose work as a banjoist, multi-instrumentalist, producer and vocalist has made cultural waves over the last decade, as a conduit for music and craft expansion in Black folk expression. Hannah has a body of work that highlights original and traditional banjo compositions as well as harmonies through acoustic live vocal looping and involves audiences in community singing.
On the dawn of releasing their second studio album following the 2017, Thoughts of the Night, Hannah’s evolution as a musician has included holding down solo performances as well as duo, trio and full band configurations and highlights both the Black string and tradition as well as innovating between genres, expressing the conditions of our world and sparking change through culturally stewarded experiences they curate for music loving communities.
They founded and creatively direct the Black Banjo Reclamation Project which is currently creating musical, cultural and land-based opportunities for Black, Afro-Diasporic communities around the world to work with the banjo as a tool for reclaiming ancestral wisdom & creating Afro-futures.
About Seraphina Perkins:
Seraphina Perkins is a multidisplinary artist, musician, seamstress and storyteller. She explores themes of ancestral reverence with depth and ethereal softness, through the banjo, guitar and dulcimer. Folk music and craft holds a grounding force in her life that she loves to share as an offering, and helps to connect with spirit in a tangible way.
About Azere Wilson:
Azere Wilson is a bluesy, roots Americana musician from the hills of central California. Old-time blues, Americana, and Folk music are her volumes of truth. She excavates America's past through the lens of her life experiences as a mixed race Black woman. Her elders are Nina Simone, Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, and traditional Black music and bluegrass. Azere breathes new life into old music from the early 1900s and melds her originals with a jazzy, folk blues vibe.
Azere’s first album The Rock the Roots the Lean On Me is now available on Spotify, apple music and all streaming platforms and can be purchased on vinyl or cd on her website azerewilson.com
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No registration required; bring your loved ones and see you there!
Image courtesy of BBRP.
The entrance to the Main Library is wheelchair accessible. The venue can be accessed through the 1st floor Library Cafe. Please call or email us with other access needs or questions.