Rhiannon Giddens Announces Biscuits & Banjos Foundation

April 28, 2026 -Rhiannon Giddens has announced the Biscuits & Banjos Foundation , a new nonprofit organization celebrating the African diaspora's role in creating American identity and culture through music, literature, food, and community. The Foundation envisions a world where the full story of American music, literature, food, and culture is told - and where the communities that created it are resourced, visible, and thriving.

Giddens revealed the Foundation during her sold-out hometown performance at DPAC in Durham, NC on April 27 - a concert that also marked the one-year anniversary of the Biscuits & Banjos festival, which brought thousands to Durham in 2025 for a citywide celebration of Black music, art, and culture.

Building on the mission-oriented work that has defined Giddens' career, the Biscuits & Banjos Foundation will serve as a long-term home for cultural work that is too often unpaid or underfunded - investing in Black-led traditions and the artists, culture bearers, educators, and communities who sustain them.

The Foundation curates programming that traces the roots of American music and culture back to the people and communities of the African diaspora - contributions that have been erased, exploited, or forgotten. Through concerts, community gatherings, educational projects, funding initiatives, and partnerships with artists and organizations across the country, the Biscuits & Banjos Foundation creates opportunities for audiences to engage with a fuller, more honest history of American culture, while taking meaningful action to support the communities it comes from.

As an initial initiative, the Foundation will provide Black music education organizations with banjos, expanding access to instruments and supporting the next generation of players and tradition-bearers.

● Invest directly in Black-led artistic programming, with a focus on traditions rooted in folk, old-time, country, and roots music.

● Support cultural education through grants, sponsorships, and partnerships with mission-aligned artists and teachers.

● Produce and support community engagement events that pair music with food, storytelling, and dialogue - experiences rooted in place and designed to strengthen connections between audiences and local communities.

● Partner with organizations doing parallel work in cultural preservation and community resourcing.

Biscuits & Banjos traces back to the 2005 Black Banjo Gathering in Boone, NC - the event that led to the origin of the Carolina Chocolate Drops and where Giddens met and learned from legendary fiddler Joe Thompson, who passed down songs, traditions, and stories he received from elders before him.

That gathering underscored the vital contributions of Black voices in American roots music - contributions that have long been subject to attempts at erasure. Combating that erasure has been central to Giddens' work from the beginning, honoring and uplifting Black artists, storytellers, authors, and culture bearers.

For the twentieth anniversary of the Black Banjo Gathering, Giddens curated the inaugural Biscuits & Banjos Festival in Durham in 2025. Over three days, the city hosted performances, workshops, jam sessions, culinary events, films, readings, square dances, and panels - with the centerpiece being a reunion of the Carolina Chocolate Drops for the first time in over a decade. The Biscuits & Banjos Foundation carries that spirit forward year-round.

The Biscuits & Banjos Foundation was launched with the generous support of partners who believe in this work and helped make the 2025 founding event possible. Major support for the launch of Biscuits & Banjos was provided by WMG BFF Social Justice Fund, Ford Foundation, North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, Duke Arts and Duke Community Affairs, Tejemos Foundation, Harper House Music Foundation, Red Light Management, Smithsonian Folklife Festival, Danielle Rose Paikin Foundation, Mary Duke Biddle Foundation, City of Durham, and Durham County, along with a host of additional generous individual donors, foundations, sponsors, and civic partners.

biscuitsandbanjos.com

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Upcoming Rhiannon Giddens Dates

Apr. 27 - Durham, NC - Durham Performing Arts Center

Apr. 28 - Athens, GA - Hodgson Concert Hall

May 1 - Houston, TX - Jones Hall for the Performing Arts

May 2 - Austin, TX - Bass Concert Hall

May 3 - Dallas, TX - Longhorn Ballroom

May 5 - Philadelphia, PA - Miller Theater

May 8 - New York, NY - Carnegie Hall

May 22 - Limerick, Ireland - St. Mary's Cathedral

May 24 - Nijmegen, Netherlands - De Vereeniging (with Francesco Turrisi)

May 27 - London, England - Wigmore Hall (with Francesco Turrisi & Crash Ensemble)

June 19 - Tulsa, OK - Guthrie Green *

June 25 - San Francisco, CA - The Fillmore

July 17 - Trumansburg, NY - Finger Lakes GrassRoots Festival

July 18 - Oak HIll, NY - Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival

July 19 - Hanover, NH - Hopkins Center for the Arts

July 22 - Wilmington, NC - Greenfield Lake Amphitheater

July 25 - Lyons, CO - RockyGrass

July 28 - Bar Harbor, ME - Criterion Theater

Aug 20 - Lenox, MA - Seiji Ozawa Hall, Tanglewood *

Aug 21 - Waterloo, NY - The Vine Theater at del Lago Resort *

Aug 22 - Chautauqua, NY - Chautauqua Institution *

Nov 01 - Minneapolis, MN - Walker Art Center (Mack Lecture Series)

Nov 14 - New York, NY - Carnegie Hall (with Silkroad Ensemble & Yo-Yo Ma)

Nov 25-29 - Hamburg, Germany - Elbphilharmonie

* Performance with Silkroad Ensemble - Sanctuary: The Power of Resonance and Ritual

American Tunes: Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing Tour

June 26 - Seattle, WA - Chateau St. Michelle (with Mary Chapin Carpenter and Hurray for the Riff Raff)

June 27 - Bend, OR - Hayden Homes Amphitheater (with Mavis Staples, Mary Chapin Carpenter and Hurray for the Riff Raff)

July 30 - Bentonville, AR - The Momentary (with Mavis Staples, Mary Chapin Carpenter and Hurray for the Riff Raff)

Aug 1 - Asheville, NC - Hellbender by The Orange Peel (with Mavis Staples, Mary Chapin Carpenter and Hurray for the Riff Raff)

Aug 2 - Pelham, TN - The Caverns Outdoor Amphitheater (with Mavis Staples, Mary Chapin Carpenter and Hurray for the Riff Raff)