FirstWorks

FirstWorks is celebrating an exciting year of anniversaries: 20 years as an organization and 5 years of our “Summer Beats” concert series, a program at a pivotal moment with growth opportunities aligning to FirstWorks 2024-2026 Strategic Plan. In this celebratory year, we will bring award-winning interpreter of Black folk music, Jake Blount (Providence, RI), to the stage at the historic Roger Williams Park Bandstand. Noted as “an Afrofuturist in roots-music garb” (Ann Powers, NPR), Jake will engage audiences in a free outdoor concert along with frequent collaborator and Odanak First Nation bassist/singer-songwriter Mali Obomsawin. Aligned with the artists’ advocacy for social and environmental justice, audiences will be engaged in a pre-show workshop on the history of Black/indigenous string music, as well as a “Markers Market” with our local indigenous community – creating arts-based connectivity and access in a public space in July 2024.