The Black Banjo Reclamation Project, Living Cultures Grantee
December 15, 2025

Hannah Mayree, Founder and Executive Director of The Black Banjo Reclamation Project (a Living Cultures 2024 Grantee), shares a reflection on an intergenerational learning experience that advanced cultural ties to Black music, craft, and land-based traditional practices related to the banjo and the Black string-band Tradition. This community engagement initiative happened over the course of one week in mid-July 2025 in Oakland, California.

The Banjo Building Cultural Initiative in California’s Bay Area was a major highlight for our organization and for our Bay Area community in 2025. We are a small cultural arts organization that has a local and national presence as an associated group of musicians, advocates, folk practitioners, and crafters learning the art of lutherie (designing, building, and repairing string instruments) in the context of banjo building and repair. 

Although California is far from the epicenter of Black culture in the United States, we have been honored and enthusiastic about the part we are playing in building cultural ties to musical practices from across the African diaspora rooted in the African continent. 

It takes a long time to master anything, and I feel as if we are still a long way from mastery of this art form. But after 5 years, we have made huge strides in developing methods to replicate banjos that can tangibly be played with the intention of ensuring practical retention of knowledge and keeping ancestral wisdom preserved and innovated in Black communities. 

Tonya Abernathy with her completed gourd after attaching the goat skin head during a workshop series led by the Black Banjo Reclamation Project in 2025. Photo courtesy of the organization

As a Living Cultures grantee, we created a week-long program where we spent approximately 50 hours using hand tools to shape wood, gourd, and goat hide into working banjos.

This experience was extremely significant to each participant and instructor for personal reasons—coming from backgrounds of arts and craft practices, spirituality, herbalism, community organizing, performing, and musicianship, this project pulls together aspects of knowledge we hold from our experience living as Black creatives. 

Instructor Sulé Greg Wilson assisting a participant with their goat skin head being put onto their gourd. Photo courtesy of the organization

As a community, this marked 5 years since we held our inaugural banjo build in the same location: the historic 924 Gilman. This space is where we started this banjo–building journey as a community, so it was incredible to have the chance to do it again, having learned so much in the past half-decade. 

Our first build was in uncanny timing, given the context of the COVID-19 outbreak. We had a wonderful experience building together, but the uncertainty of the world meant we did not have the opportunity to continue growing the connections in the way we had wanted and anticipated. We had to take breaks from this work and learned how to use Zoom. We had opportunities to work in other cities, and this carried our organization further into growth that has allowed collaborations around the country to grow. 

When we applied for this grant in the summer of 2024, we knew it had the ability to change the future of our local Bay Area community and bring an energy back that we felt had been lost.

We made a point to have all the participants that joined us be local residents of the East Bay and close surrounding areas. We had a life-changing experience over the course of our cultural immersion week. We faced challenges and questions, and left with many answers fulfilled. We documented our journey and held a final event for our community to both celebrate our accomplishment of collectively building 12 gourd banjos, and to commemorate and express our joy through music. 

Gourds for banjo construction during the Banjo Building Cultural Initiative workshop series in 2025. Photo courtesy of the organization

Unfinished bodies for banjo construction during the Banjo Building Cultural Initiative. Photo courtesy of the organization

Since our build, we have met up on a monthly basis to learn our instruments together as a commitment to continue this cultural work. There have been many improvements in our playing and the ways we communicate and teach each other what we know. It has been amazing to witness everyone grow and support one another since last summer. 

We are incredibly grateful to ACTA for supporting our vision in action. Thank you for making it possible for us to accomplish great things. 

Are you working on a project that helps folk and traditional arts continue, grow, and remain active within a community? Apply now for the Living Cultures Grant — applications are open for our Living Cultures Grant and Apprenticeship Program from March 3, 2026, until April 27, 2026.

ACTA Story Music Visual/Craft/Material Arts Bay Area Alameda County African/African-American

Related Programs

Living Cultures Grant

The Living Cultures Grant Program supports and strengthens traditional arts by providing project funding for California-based nonprofits, community groups, individual artists, and Tribal Nations.
June 20, 2019
View All Programs

Invest in California’s cultural wealth.

Every gift is a commitment to a culture bearer, and the people of California.

DONATE
Alliance for California Traditional Arts
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.