BlackAmericana Fest

BlackAmericana Fest is a New Orleans-based nonprofit dedicated to honoring, celebrating, and sustaining the legacy of Black artists in Americana, country, folk, and other roots music traditions. Our mission is to reclaim and uplift the Black roots of American music while creating spaces of joy, belonging, education, and cultural memory for artists and audiences alike.

While many people know us through our annual festival, BlackAmericana Fest is much more than a once-a-year event. Throughout the year, we present concerts, educational programs, artist showcases, panels, community gatherings, and storytelling experiences that highlight the deep and often underrecognized contributions of Black musicians to American roots music. Through programs like our Southern Nights songwriter series, Roots of Rhythm educational panels, national conference activations, and community-centered festival programming, we bring together artists, scholars, culture bearers, and audiences to explore the music, history, and stories that shape our shared cultural landscape.

BlackAmericana Fest creates paid performance opportunities for Black artists, builds platforms for emerging and established musicians, and helps audiences understand Americana, country, folk, and other roots music traditions as deeply shaped by Black creativity, resistance, innovation, and joy. In our first two years, we have reached thousands of audience members through our festival, concert series, educational panels, and national conference activations, while investing more than $80,000 directly into artists and cultural workers.

Our audience surveys show the power of this work:

• 97% of attendees said they felt very welcomed and included.
• 95% said they learned something new about Black history, culture, or music.
• 97% said they would recommend the festival to a friend.

Our 2026 GiveNOLA Day Goal

This is BlackAmericana Fest’s first year participating in GiveNOLA Day, and our goal is to raise $5,000 to support artist programming for our 2026 festival, taking place September 25–26 in New Orleans.

GiveNOLA Day gifts will help us support songwriter and culture bearer honorariums and create spaces dedicated to intimate performances, storytelling, and cultural memory. Contributions will also help cover the behind-the-scenes costs that make meaningful festival programming possible, including production support, artist hospitality, staffing, coordination, and the care it takes to create a welcoming, well-run gathering for artists and audiences.

At BlackAmericana Fest, we believe music is more than entertainment. It is a vessel for truth-telling, healing, connection, and cultural reclamation. Your support helps us continue this work year-round: producing powerful live music experiences, compensating artists fairly, preserving overlooked histories, and creating spaces where Black roots musicians and the communities who love them can gather, learn, celebrate, and be seen.

Learn more about BlackAmericana Fest

View our 2025 Main Stage Performances on YouTube