Library of Congress program explores "Black Banjo Renaissance" with Rhiannon Giddens and Dr. Ali Martin

Nicole Sailor, director of the American Folklife Center, opened the evening at the Library of Congress and framed the program as a celebration and interrogation of the ‘‘Black Banjo Renaissance,’’ noting a full day of panels followed by an evening conversation and performance. "I am thrilled to have you all here this evening," Sailor said in her welcome.

Joe Z. Johnson, an ethnomusicologist introduced earlier by Sailor, positioned the symposium as part of an ongoing movement of Black players, instrument makers and scholars reclaiming the banjo's history in the Americas. The hour-long keynote conversation between Dr. Ali Martin (ethnomusicologist, assistant professor at Dartmouth College) and Rhiannon Giddens (musician and composer) centered on who has the right to sample archival recordings and how artists can work ethically with material that often contains trauma and contested histories.