African Banjo Echoes In Appalachia by Cecelia Conway

The Southern Folklife Collection is an archival resource dedicated to collecting, preserving and disseminating traditional and vernacular music, art and culture related to the American South. Featuring talented musicians and leading scholars, the series provides opportunities to enjoy and learn about the music, history and culture of the American South. Additional panel discussions, exhibits and concerts highlighting the pedal steel guitar and fiddle are scheduled for 2013. 25 event is the first of a three-part interactive Southern Folklife Collection Instrument Series. Slated to speak on the history of the banjo are Robert Cantwell (professor of American Studies at UNC and author of Bluegrass Breakdown), Bob Carlin (musician and author of The Birth of the Banjo: Joel Walker Sweeney and Early Minstelry), Cecelia Conway (professor of English at Appalachian State University and author of African Banjo Echoes in Appalachia), Laurent DuBois (professor of Romance Studies and History at Duke University), Dom Flemons, Phillip Gura (professor of American Studies at UNC and author of America’s Instrument: The Banjo in the 19th Century), Jim Mills (a musician who has played with Vince Gill and Ricky Skaggs), and Stephen Wade (musician and author of The Beautiful Music All Around Us: Field Recordings and the American Experience). An exhibition of banjos and ephemera will be on display on the Wilson Library’s fourth floor from Aug.

“Through exhibits, lectures and performances, the event will explore the history of the five-string banjo, an instrument that traces its origins from enslaved Africans brought to the new world, rising to the pinnacle of American popular culture, and deeply embedded in American traditional music,” says Steve Weiss, curator of the Southern Folklife Collection. Dom Flemons of the Carolina Chocolate Drops is among the participating artists (Jim Brock Photography)

African Banjo Echoes In Appalachia by Cecelia Conway