Rhiannon Giddens was the opening day keynote speaker at this year's World of Bluegrass Business Conference, hosted by the International Bluegrass Music Association. Her speech directly addressed diversity in bluegrass and earned the GRAMMY-winning singer/songwriter a standing ovation.
"In order to understand the history of the banjo, and the history of bluegrass music, we need to move beyond the narrative we've inherited, beyond generalizations that bluegrass is mostly derived from a Scotch-Irish tradition with influences from Africa.," Giddens said, according to No Depression. "It is actually a complex Creole music that comes from multiple cultures. … The question is not how do we get diversity into bluegrass, but how do we get diversity back into bluegrass?"
In 2016 Giddens became the first woman of color to win the Steve Martin Prize for Excellence in Bluegrass and Banjo, an honor indicative of both her ability and the gravity of the words contained in her keynote speech.
In true scholarly form for the occasion, Giddens tweeted the bibliography for her speech before going on stage, also admitting she was quite nervous. Considering her words were very much in line with the theme of "Community and Connection" for this year's conference and the warm reception from the audience, I'd say she nailed it.
