Islands Elementary school fifth-graders are experts on the akonting, a West African musical instrument that was developed into the African-American banjo. The students participated in a two-day ...

Five days ago, Rhiannon Giddens returned from a week in the mountains of West Virginia. She was giving lessons on how to sing old-time ballads and blues to traditional music enthusiasts at The Augusta ...

With a cookie tin, a broom handle, weedwhacker string and a little hardware, we ambitiously set to work. Master instrument crafts-men? Maybe not. But the akontings and banjos we built Saturday at the ...