Soon after last year’s BlackAmericana Fest, co-organizer and musician Dusky Waters received a sweet text message from singer-songwriter Joy Clark, who had closed out the festival at the Broadside. The inaugural event, Waters says relaying Clark’s message, had felt warm and communal and “like a homecoming.”
“When I stepped on that stage, I felt right at home sharing my artistry and basking in the lineup of diverse and underheard voices of Americana music,” Clark said about the festival.
It was “a lovely surprise for me,” Waters recently told Gambit.
Waters and her festival co-organizers, musician Teena May and educator Mark T. Williams II, created BlackAmericana Fest to highlight Black musicians working in Americana, folk and country music and to celebrate the Black roots of those genres.
They were excited to have been able to raise the funds to throw a single-day music and arts festival, and they worked hard on promotion, Waters says. Still, they weren’t sure what to expect.
But more than 1,500 people attended the first BlackAmericana Fest — and further, the reaction from artists and attendees meant a lot to the organizers, Waters says.
“The energy that day was so warm and friendly and fun, and for me, it felt like, our community is interested in this conversation and in supporting this,” she adds. “It felt really affirming.”
BlackAmericana Fest returns for its second year Friday, Sept. 26, and Saturday, Sept. 27, with performances by Dom Flemons, Leyla McCalla, Sunny War, The Suffers, Nikki Hill and more. There will be two music stages at the Broadside and a third at The Broad Theater, as well as panel discussions, an art market, a folk art gallery, food and drink vendors, a kids’ zone and more.
A co-founder of the string-band Carolina Chocolate Drops, Flemons has been called “The American Songster” for his deep knowledge of American roots music and folklore. He headlines the opening night on the Sister Rosetta Tharpe Main Stage, which also will host sets by Leyla McCalla (another former Chocolate Drops member), Bruce “Sunpie” Barnes & The Louisiana Sunspots, Big Chief Bo Dollis Jr. & The Wild Magnolias and Louisiana bluesman Kenny Neal.
A.J. Haynes, the singer-guitarist of the band Seratones, headlines the Elizabeth Cotton Songwriter Stage on Friday night, and Chloe Marie will host songwriters-in-the-round sets with Jerry Dugger, Destinie Lynn, Micah McKee and A Strange Bird. Flemons and folk-punk singer-songwriter Sunny War also will take part in a panel discussion on the stage.
BlackAmericana Fest organizers, from left, Mark T. Williams II, Teena May and Dusky Waters
The festival expands to three stages on Saturday. The main stage features soul band The Suffers, Sunny War, Nikki Hill, Dusky Waters, D.K. Harrell, Mireya Ramos and Dr. Michael White with The Liberty Jazz Band.
Over on the songwriter stage, Kelly Love Jones, Crys Matthews, Teena May and Kirkland Green will perform, and several musicians will join up for a headlining “super set.” And there will be a panel discussion on the Chitlin’ Circuit.
New this year, the Broad Theater hosts the Charlie Pride Heritage Stage with performances by Marcella Simien, Rachel Maxann and Louie Lou Louis. There will be a musical talk and demonstration of juré, a South Louisiana Afro-Creole call-and-response tradition. Hannah Mayree and the Black Banjo Reclamation Project also will present about the African roots of the instrument, and the project will have a booth at the festival.
“We are really proud to be expanding our educational programming,” Waters says. “That’s always been a big component for us: not just being in community with each other and playing music but also learning.”
The festival is family-friendly and is free for kids ages 11 and under. Last year, Waters estimates they saw about 200 kids at the festival. It’s important to the organizers to be able to include young people and maybe inspire the next generation of musicians.
“As someone who picked up the banjo after hearing a Black artist, Rhiannon Giddens, talk about the banjo and play it with such confidence and love, I really hope that we can inspire youth and maybe even people who are youthful at heart to want to pick up a new instrument,” Waters says.
In the last year, the BlackAmericana Fest has grown outside of the annual event. The organization is now a nonprofit, and Waters, the executive director, curates and hosts a monthly concert series, Southern Nights, under the festival banner, showcasing women songwriters in Americana. In May, they hosted the Mothers of Americana gala to celebrate musicians Lilli Lewis and Charmaine Neville.
Bringing together and lifting up underrepresented voices is “at the core of our work,” Waters says. “This is about joy and resilience and community, and so I think having that at the core of what we do, my hope is it engenders that feeling at our festival and our other programs.”
BlackAmericana Fest is 4:30-11 p.m. Friday, Sept. 26, and 2-11 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 27. General admission is $21.98 for one day or $37.24 for the weekend. Discounted weekend passes for students are available, and there is a VIP option with reserved seating and access to a VIP lounge. There also are a limited number of free community tickets available by emailing [email protected].
Find tickets and more information at blackamericanafest.com.
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‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source bestofneworleans.com ’
