2014-106 Arts - UNC Center for the Study of the American South - Fall 2013 Arts Grant Agreement

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was close to equal,with many families and community members attending the festival during the day and the festival becoming more student-centric after sundown.The diversity of attendees is,in large part, dependent on the performers at the festival and their followings.We plan to focus on this area in 2014 by booking a range of acts that will attract a more diverse audience. The artists we will apply Arts Council funds towards booking will represent a diverse offering of the many kinds of Southern Music.As our vision indicates,the goal of our lineup is inclusivity and distinctiveness.We aim to present a unique snapshot of some of the many different things Southern music can be and to then put those different sounds into a conversation with each other.That way,we can appeal to people from a huge diversity of demographic groups and hope to bring them,too, into conversation. In 2012,this snapshot took the form of 9 acts: Hiss Golden Messenger, Mipso, Some Army,Virgins Family Band, Kaze,Turchi, Ironing Board Sam, Boo Hanks, and Ben Payton.These acts range from folk to rap, psych-rock to blues. In 2014 we hope to expand on our first year and present an even greater range of Southern music.The OCAC funds will help us accomplish this goal by expanding our ability to book local artists and also make it possible for us to book key artists who are based outside the Triangle. Our booking decisions will be informed by our full advisory board,which includes experts in country,bluegrass, Cajun, Latino, and electronic music,plus input from students and other community members. This year's lineup has not yet been finalized*,but the CD we've sent features tracks from three artists we anticipate including.Alice Gerrard, now based in Durham,is a legendary bluegrass/old-time singer, and she will also be a panelist in our discussion on Saturday morning.The Lost Bayou Ramblers are an innovative Cajun band out of the hearth of the tradition, New Orleans. Rey Norteno is a group from Raleigh headed by Fred Huerta and his brothers,playing the norteno music of Mexico that had a heavy influence on the development of Tejano or"Tex- Mex".The track we choose comes from a compilation called "Viva Cackalacky", a collection of North Carolina Latino music put together by one of our advisors, UNC Music Professor David Garcia.These tracks give an example of the diversity in representation of musical communities to which we are committed for ConvergeNC 2014. *Because we don't know for sure which artists we'll be booking,we have included resumes instead for our advisory board members,who will assist us in selecting the lineup.