Hannah Mayree’s

Workshop Offerings

All About the Banjo– Folk Music Cultural Context and Information on the Black Banjo Reclamation Project

Hannah Mayree (they/them) is the founder of the BBRP, a folk school and cultural eco-system designed to re-establish folk traditions in Black communities using the banjo as a tool for healing, historical and musical education and a connection to land-based craft. In this hour-long program, we investigate banjo history and come to understand the current resurgence of Black banjo players and why this is significant to music lovers of all backgrounds around the globe. With music as a tool for research, cultural understanding and in this case even racial healing, Hannah facilitates conversation and encourages cultural reclamation as a form of solidarity and collective liberation amongst diverse populations of musicians and music enthusiasts.

Beginning and Intermediate Banjo Group Classes and Jams

Over the last 15 years of banjo playing, Hannah has an extensive repertoire of music that spans across folk genres. As a collector and excavator of Black musical traditions, Hannah loves to share songs and musical experiences amongst string band musicians in both instructional settings and in Jam sessions. Hannah has the ability to cater to beginning banjo students as well as advanced players who can pick up melodies on the fly. At music camps and festivals, Hannah can offer music that will expand any player's connection to tunes old and new.

Community Singing

Bring your voice to the circle and experience community singing led by Hannah Mayree. With connection to song traditions from around the world that connect communities in harmony, Hannah is offering songs ranging in style from the African American and diasporic cannon, folk ballads, and improvisational style singing inspired by Bobby McFerrin’s Circle Singing. Accompanied by the banjo, Hannah has a way of inviting people into the art form to create rather than spectate, allowing music to emerge and new ways of existing together to become manifest. No experience necessary.

Song Writing

Blending compositional instrumentals with the written word, Hannah facilitates song-writing craft as a form of continued liberatory practice. Often creating ways of making songs together as well as individual authorship, Hannah holds space for the practice of expression and empowers artists to collaborate and learn their gifts through trial and error on the paper in a judgement free setting. We look at the purpose of song and craft with intention aligned with our needs as humans navigating societal breakdown.