DAYLONG CONVERSATIONS, DEMONSTRATIONS, READINGS AND PERFORMANCES:

10am - Doors

10:30am

Color Me Country x Beloved Community: A songversation between Rissi Palmer and Kamara Thomas

Join us for a conversation and acoustic performance from Durham based songspeller, ritualist, multidisciplinary storyteller, and creator of Country Soul Songbook, Kamara Thomas and Rissi Palmer. Both mothers and musicians, the two discuss how to create like that life work balance, the pivot that so many artists have had to do in order to keep above water in the current climate, and building community within a musical space and balancing creative work with organizing and advocacy. Between the discussion, Kamara will play selections from her vast discography.

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12:00pm

Mama Dip’s Family Reunion Panel

To celebrate the release of Spring Council’s debut cookbookSouthern Roots: Recipes and Stories from Mama Dip’s Daughter, Biscuits & Banjos will host the author alongside her sisters Annette Council and Sandra Council for a deep dive into their family legacy in food and entrepreneurship. Inspired by their mother’s near fifty-year run at the helm of Mama Dip’s Kitchen, a beloved Chapel Hill institution, the conversation will be moderated by food anthropologist Dr. Ashanté M. Reese to reflect on the power of gathering people around good food.

Curated by BEM | books & more, a New York-based bookstore & culinary hub dedicated to global Black storytelling and foodways.

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1:30pm

River of Life

Songs, poems and stories, featuring Toshi Reagon, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Destiny Hemphill, and Eden Segbefia.

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1:30-5:30pm

Bookmobile

Courtesy of Durham County Public Library

• Books specially curated for checkout by Biscuits and Banjos and BEM | books and more!

• Kids coloring sheets of Black country trailblazers available!

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3:00pm

Kristina Gaddy x Rhiannon Giddens: Go Back and Fetch It - A Book Talk

Join groundbreaking banjo scholar Kristina Gaddy and Pulitzer prize winner Rhiannon Giddens as they talk about their book Go Back and Fetch It: Recovering Early Black Music in the Americas for Fiddle and Banjo (UNC Press 2025). Pre-signed books will be available for purchase.

For the first time, this groundbreaking songbook collaboration by Gaddy and Giddens makes nineteen examples of early Black Atlantic music accessible and playable for today’s musicians, music enthusiasts, and historians. Presenting music from 1687 through the 1860s in modern treble clef and banjo tablature, along with the rich stories behind each song, Gaddy and Giddens take readers on a journey from the Caribbean across the Americas.

Immensely readable for amateurs and professionals alike, Go Back and Fetch It explains the significance of early Black Atlantic music and how the patterns of tunings, melodic lines, and lyrics shed light on the impact that Black American music has had on nineteenth-century popular music, early country, old time, and bluegrass. Each tune pairs with an engaging essay on its historical background and how the tune transformed over time, as well as information about the collector. Deeply researched and carefully approached, this essential source restores the roots of Black music to the musical canon.

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4:30PM

Black Land Sovereignty & Freetown, Virginia: ExploringAfriculture by Michael Carter and The Taste Of Country Cooking by Edna Lewis

Following the Civil War, a group of formerly enslaved Black families settled a farming community called Freetown in Virginia. The iconic chef and cookbook author Edna Lewis grew up in Freetown in the early 20th century and today, Michael Carter, eleventh-generation farmer and author of the forthcomingAfriculture: How The Principles, Practices, Plants and People of African Descent Have Shaped American Agriculture maintains his family’s century farm in Orange County where Freetown was located.

Join Michael in a conversation on Black land sovereignty and African contributions to agriculture in the American South as we celebrate the launch of his upcoming book along with the 50th anniversary edition of Miss Lewis’ seminal 1976 cookbook The Taste of Country Cooking, which lovingly chronicles her upbringing amongst Freetown’s plots, streams, and most importantly, people. We’ll explore Freetown along with what’s grown from their soil since. Moderated by Danielle Davenport, co-founder of BEM | books & more.

Curated by BEM | books & more, a New York-based bookstore & culinary hub dedicated to global Black storytelling and foodways.

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Doors close at 5:30pm and re-open at 7:30pm.8:00-10:00pm

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Evening frolic: a line and square dance

Music from Jake Blount, Justin Robinson, Rhiannon Giddens, Jason Sypher and Demeanor.

Calling by Phil Jamison and Malinda D. Evans.