Urban Foxes Hosting OneBeat 11–Buried Knowledge On-Tour May 9

OneBeat Fellows and organizers, in collaboration with the community centered cafe Urban Foxes, will host a house concert and gathering of artists, cultural workers, and creative thinkers on May 9 in Jackson, MS.

OneBeat 11 welcomes 25 innovative musicians from 17 countries to communities in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi from April 17- May 14, 2023. OneBeat is the leading multinational music exchange of the U.S.Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) that uses the power of creative collaboration as a gateway to civic discourse and cross-cultural understanding.

Moving into its second decade, OneBeat 11 will begin new partnerships with The Mississippi Center for CulturalProduction (SIPP Culture), The Briarwood Arts Center, Urban Foxes, and Significant Developments in Jackson and Utica, Mississippi that will be revisited this September during the OneBeat 12 program initiating year around programming for the decade old music diplomacy initiative.

OneBeat 11–Buried Knowledge tour examines the connections between place and memory and invites fellows to use music as a tool to unearth, revive and celebrate hidden or suppressed histories, traditions, and cultures. OneBeat 11 fellows will create original music that reveals buried knowledge, inspires deeper connection to diverse cultural heritage, and stronger appreciation for forgotten wisdom. Fellows will work with renowned musicians, and cultural leaders including Lonnie Holley, Carlton Turner, and Matthew Evan Taylor. Collaborating musician and visual artist Lonnie Holley, says “I’m really looking forward to spending time with so many musicians and art makers from all parts of the world and really thankful to be a part of the work OneBeat is doing to bring people together through music.”

“Through this expanded programmatic offering OneBeat hopes to build long lasting relationships with the many wonderful, creative, and innovative organizations, collectives and individuals who are shaping the future of art-making, community engagement and building more sustainable and healthy creative economies across the United States,“ says Kyla-Rose Smith,OneBeat Programs Director, “Through music, we hope to uncover stories and voices that have been marginalized or silenced and to create a space for cultural exchange and artistic innovation."

The OneBeat 11 residency will be held at the Atlantic Center for Arts from April 17 to May 1, 2023. During the residency, fellows will collaborate on new music and participate in professional workshops and masterclasses in response to the program’s theme. Following the residency, the fellows will tour to Gainesville, FL; Jackson and Utica, MS; and New Orleans, LA, where musicians will engage with diverse arts organizations– PULP Arts, HOWBĀZĀR, Self Narrate in Gainesville FL; SIPP Culture in Utica, MS, and more – to lead youth workshops and collaborate with local artists to explore different approaches to storytelling and the preservation and memorializing of memory. Fellows will make a special visit to the Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, AL, a powerful memorial that reckons with the horrors of the past.

On Friday, May 12, OneBeat 11 will culminate in a final performance at the Toulouse Theatre in the heart of New Orleans’ French Quarter.