This is a 1-hour video of a Zoom presentation from Folk Alliance International's Folk+ online music conference recorded on June 18, 2025.
How did the banjo, which has roots in West Africa, become a symbol of rural white America? And how are African Americans today reclaiming this vital part of their heritage? Along the way, the instrument took center stage in America's most popular form of entertainment in the mid-19th century and found a home in the Victorian parlor. Through historic images, recordings, and live performance, Matthew Sabatella, founder and president of Ballad of America, Inc., tells the story of the banjo from its African roots through its development in the Caribbean, early history with enslaved people in North America, growth in popularity through blackface minstrel performances, integration into dance and song traditions in Appalachia, role in 20th and 21st century ragtime, jazz, folk, old-time, bluegrass, country, popular, and world music, as well as the current Black Banjo Renaissance.