What is the Griot Project? 

THE GRIOT PROJECT is a new multi-year international performance. This project explores the role of griots and how they use oral traditions to impact the communities, lineage, and culture where they live. 

We also ask, how does this living archive of tradition and culture exist in a diasporic context? In movement, music, and text we will draw connections from West African griots to Black elders in the Diaspora. We will investigate how the griot’s mix of virtuosic talent, lineage keeping, and essential presence exists in communities today. Rejoice Diaspora Dance Theater will draw bodily connections through story, memory, rhythm and movement to create an evening performance that merges history with current experience. THE GRIOT PROJECT will elevate the living history of the griot, drawing connections between artistic communities in Senegal, Brazil, and the United States, and shining a light on the diversity of Black communities around the world.