{"id":5399,"date":"2026-09-28T20:30:28","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T20:30:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/sousa\/?p=5399"},"modified":"2026-09-28T20:37:39","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T20:37:39","slug":"folk-and-roots-festival-banjo-preview-performance-and-conversation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/sousa\/2026\/09\/28\/folk-and-roots-festival-banjo-preview-performance-and-conversation\/","title":{"rendered":"Folk and Roots Festival Banjo Preview Performance and Conversation"},"content":{"rendered":"

America\u2019s Banjo Legacy with Dom Flemons<\/strong>
\nMusic and Performing Arts Library
\nOctober 7, 2026
\n5:00-6:30<\/p>\n

\"\"The five-string banjo is an American invention, but its inventor was not, as some have asserted, Joel Walker Sweeney (1810-1860). Sweeney became America\u2019s first major \u201cbanjo artist\u201d during the 1830s and 40s, but the instrument that became the standardized five-string banjo sprang from the resourcefulness of West African musicians brought here as slaves.\u00a0 Using materials close at hand, these individuals led the development of this new music instrument whose roots drew heavily from the plucked string instruments were made from gourds and called bandora<\/em>, banza, banjah, and akonting<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The origin of America\u2019s banjo is essentially built on an eighteenth-century African instrument that was grounded in black music traditions. While most of the banjo playing styles associated with these traditions can be traced with some reasonable accuracy, the dating and location of the earliest five-string banjo remain elusive, lost in a maze of folklore.<\/p>\n

Dom Flemons, one of the country\u2019s leading banjo scholars and performing artists, will provide a spell-binding performance discussion about America\u2019s rich black banjo legacies to help kick off this year\u2019s Folk and Roots Festival.\u00a0 He is a musician based in the Chicago area and famously known as “The American Songster\u00ae” because his repertoire covers over one hundred years of American roots music \u2013 everything from country, folk, and bluegrass to Americana and the blues.<\/p>\n

This program is sponsored by the University of Illinois Library\u2019s Sousa Archives and Center for American Music and the Music and Performing Arts Library.\u00a0 For further information contact Scott Schwartz at schwrtzs@illinois.edu<\/a> or Kate Lambaria at lambari1@illinois.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

America\u2019s Banjo Legacy with Dom Flemons Music and Performing Arts Library October 7, 2026 5:00-6:30 The five-string banjo is an American invention, but its inventor was not, as some have asserted, Joel Walker Sweeney (1810-1860). Sweeney became America\u2019s first major \u201cbanjo artist\u201d during the 1830s and 40s, but the instrument that became the standardized five-string […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":511,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-the-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/sousa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/sousa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/sousa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/sousa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/511"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/sousa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5399"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/sousa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5399\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5410,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/sousa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5399\/revisions\/5410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/sousa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/sousa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/sousa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}