Rhiannon Giddens Announces New Non-Profit Foundation

Rhiannon Giddens announced the launch of the Biscuits & Banjos Foundation on April 27 at a sold-out concert in Durham, North Carolina. The Biscuits & Banjos Foundation is a new non-profit organization established to celebrate the role of the African diaspora in American music, literature, food culture, and community. The organization began operations with support from several institutions and foundations, including the Ford Foundation and the WMG BFF Social Justice Fund.

Among the first initiatives planned by the Biscuits & Banjos Foundation will be providing banjos to people. The foundation will also provide instruments directly to Black music education organizations. Furthermore, the non-profit will invest in Black-led artistic programming in specific musical genres, including folk, old-time, country, and roots music.

The initiative is connected to history dating back to 2005, when Giddens attended the Black Banjo Gathering in Boone, North Carolina. During that gathering, she met fiddler Joe Thompson, an encounter that led to the formation of the group Carolina Chocolate Drops. For the twentieth anniversary of the Black Banjo Gathering, Giddens curated the first Biscuits & Banjos Festival in Durham in 2025.