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Updated August 21st, 2025 7:00 PM:

 

Our Gallery of Music Instruments has been open since Sunday! We hope you’ve had a chance to explore the beautiful instruments and discover the importance of the Gourd/Calabash from a new perspective.

 

 

We’re taking a short rest today as we’re under the weather—but we’ve got an incredible lineup for the rest of the week and weekend:

 

Friday | 4:00–8:00 PM

Record listening with @chancehaki & @ian_as_a_musician

 

 Saturday | 4:00–8:00 PM

Screening of Black Girl by Ousmane Sembène at 7:00 PM

 

Sunday | 12:00–8:00 PM

 

Special guest for our closing celebration is Gideon Ampere of Zikina Music who will join us at 5:00 PM to demonstrate instruments from Central Africa (mbira, inanga, and more)

 

 

You don’t want to miss this weekend of music, film, and community!

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PVD World Music will host a multi-event pop-up series from August 15-25, on the theme of the gourd, or calabash, as a unifying symbol that connects diverse musical traditions around the world. The central event will be “Finding the Spirit of Inanga” a curated exhibition of Indigenous African musical instruments. The Opening Reception & Concert is on Sunday, August 17 at 2 pm, followed by a vibrant lineup of special cultural events including a weeklong Kora workshop during which participants will be able to learn how to play the Kora directly from master musician Yacouba Diabate, and perform with him at the end of the week on Friday Aug 22. 

 

Overview

 

At PVD World Music, we celebrate our common ancestry by exploring and sharing Indigenous music from around the world, with a special focus on Africa and the African diaspora in Rhode Island. We trace our connections across diverse communities and cultures through the common threads of music that link us across and through shared waters.

 

At this pop-up, we would like to invite anyone wanting to be moved by music, to

move with music, to come explore how water-rich gourds have sustained people and their musical cultures, historically and today, in Rhode Island. Whether in the form of Kora and Balafon from West Africa, the Shekere in Matanzas, Cuba to the Berimbau in Brazil or the Hulusi in China, gourds have been essential to carry water, spirit and sound for so many of our ancestors. Sharing Banjo spiritual songs or Kora epics, gourds have also nourished and preserved important Indigenous knowledge for future

generations.

 

Exploring how gourds link our musical ancestries, this pop-up will include a specially curated gallery of traditional musical instruments made from gourds, offering a unique cultural learning experience, taking visitors on a historical journey highlighting the Inanga, a musical instrument cherished by diverse communities of the Great Lakes region of Africa. It will also include live performances by maestro Yacouba Diabate on the Kora, enlivening the gourd as a tool of resistance and continuity. 

 

In addition, the pop-up will also include a a weeklong Kora workshop (Monday 18 to Friday 22) led by master musician Yacouba Diabate, who will be teaching for an hour from 6 to 7 pm every day from Monday to Thursday, culminating in a group performance on Friday evening from 6-7 pm, when the participants will get to perform with Master Diabate. This is a rare opportunity to learn the nuances of a truly unique and special traditional African instrument, the Kora, directly from one of its great masters! 

 

Gallery Hours & Schedule of Special Events

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Sunday Aug 17, 2025 2:00 PM - 8:00 PM - Opening Reception with live performance by Yacouba Diabate

 

Monday August 18-Friday August 22 — Kora Workshop with Master Musician Yacouba Diabate ($200 per person for 5 sessions from 6-7 pm)

 

Monday Aug 18, 2025 12:00 PM - 8:00 PM - Rare African Records Listening Session (FREE)

 

Tuesday Aug 19, 2025 12:00 PM - 8:00 PM

 

Wednesday Aug 20, 2025 4:00 PM -8:00 PM 

 

Thursday Aug 21, 2025 4:00 PM - 8:00 PM (Unfortunately we are closed today. We are under the weather) 

 

Friday, Aug 22, 2025 4:00 PM - 8:00 PM 

 

Saturday, Aug 23, 2025 4:00 PM - 8:00 PM

 

Sunday, Aug 24, 2025 12:00 PM - 8:00 PM - Closing Reception at 5 pm

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Please join us!! 

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