Blues to Green

The Garifuna Collective will perform at an opening concert for the 2023 Springfield Jazz & Roots Festival on July 20th. This multi-generational, Afro-Indigenous ensemble from Belize will also conduct a workshop for Springfield area youth and a public talk prior to their performance, sharing their unique culture and history through story, music and dance. The Garifuna have communities in Belize, Honduras, and neighboring nations, and are descendants of maroon communities of free Africans who found refuge among the native Arawak population, resisted enslavement and developed an independent culture. They have retained African-inspired language, customs, and music, and the Collective is on a mission to share their culture and history with the world. As part of the annual Springfield Jazz & Roots Festival, which celebrates music and cultures of the African diaspora, the Garifuna Collective's performance and community activities will intrigue, inform and inspire our festival audience.