This show features Abdoulaye Diabate, Abdourahmane Mangara, Yacouba Diabate, Mamady Kouyate, Mamady Kourouma, Famoro Dioubate, and other griots from Burkina Faso, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, the Gambia, Ivory Coast, Mali, Senegal, and Sierra Leone. They will perform on guitar, timbin (flute), gambare (lute), ngoni (lute), kora (harp/lute), balafon (xylophone), and djembe (drum), and they will be joined by special guest vocalists. Curated by Sylvain Leroux. Popularly known as "praise singers," griots also use their songs for gossip, satire, historical (and other types of) storytelling, or political commentary. An extraordinary chance to hear more than a dozen traditional storytellers, musicians, and oral historians from seven countries finding common ground and trading licks.