Tickets Available Now for Gaines Center's Bale Boone Symposium With Rhiannon Giddens

The Gaines Center for the Humanities at the University of Kentucky will welcome Grammy and MacArthur “Genius Grant” award winner Rhiannon Giddens as the featured speaker/performer of the 2021 Bale Boone Symposium. Tickets for this free public event, scheduled for Nov. 11, are available now.

A critically acclaimed musician, Rhiannon Giddens, is the co-founder of the Grammy award-winning Carolina Chocolate Drops. As a soloist and collaborator, she has also been nominated for six additional Grammys. Her recent album, “They’re Calling Me Home," was recorded with multi-instrumentalist Francesco Turrisi in Ireland during the recent COVID-19 lockdown. The new album explores “the longing for the comfort of home as well as the metaphorical 'call home' of death” that has become a reality for way too many during the pandemic.

Much of Giddens’ work lifts up people whose contributions to American musical history have been erased, giving a more accurate understanding of the country’s musical origins. Featured in Ken Burns’ "Country Music" series, the artist shared details on the African American origins of country music. Giddens is also a member of the band Our Native Daughters with three other Black female banjo players, Leyla McCalla, Allison Russell and Amythyst Kiah, and co-produced their debut album “Songs of Our Native Daughters,” which tells stories of historic Black womanhood and survival.

All attendees of the 2021 Bale Boone Symposium will need to show their COVID-19 vaccination card or a negative PCR COVID test within the last 72 hours in order to enter Haggin Auditorium. This will be checked against ID upon entry. All attendees must wear masks for the duration of the event.

For more information on the Rhiannon Giddens event, contact Gaines Center Associate Director Chelsea Brislin at clbris4@uky.edu.