On Friday, February 27, the Alameda Free Library will welcome Hannah Mayree, Seraphina Perkins, and Azere Wilson of the Black Banjo Reclamation Project for an afternoon of Black music history and performance in honor of Black History Month. Each artist will perform a set, followed by some jamming and cross-pollination with space for audience questions.
The free event will take place at the Main Branch in the Stafford Room (first floor), 1550 Oak Street, from 1 to 3 p.m. No registration is required. All are welcome.
The Black Banjo Reclamation Project is a group of musicians and performers who “curate 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 and creating Afro-futures,” according to the library’s event description.
“By teaching and learning banjo playing techniques with African and Black centered perspectives, the BBRP’s unique facilitation of programs, which includes banjo musical education, building & repair, and restorative somatic community experiences, highlight the practice of land stewardship and the roots of Black liberation found in our folkways,” the description states. “Through economic solidarity and self-determination, the BBRP is paving pathways for restorative narratives to use music as a tool for transforming our world.”
Hannah Mayree
Founder and creative director of the Black Banjo Reclamation Project, Hannah Mayree 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’s work highlights original and traditional banjo compositions as well as harmonies through acoustic live vocal looping, which involves audiences in community singing.
After releasing a studio album, “Thoughts of the Night,” Hannah’s evolution as a musician has included solo performances as well as duo, trio, and full band configurations. Her work highlights both the Black string and tradition as well as innovation between genres.
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. It helps her to connect with spirit in a tangible way.
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 first album, “The Rock the Roots the Lean On Me,” is available on Spotify, Apple Music, and all streaming platforms.
