Northwest Folklife
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Unbroken Circle: Youth Residency Project - Tap your roots and become a culture bearer.

In partnership with Rhapsody, young musicians learn to become culture bearers through Unbroken Circle, a new residency hosted at Hillman City Collaboratory. The program empowers youth to transmit their personal, local, and cultural history through their art. Facilitated by Seattle’s songster revivalists, Joe Seamons & Tina Dietz, students study with a range of musicians, artists, and activists to develop a program of music and art that reflects the diversity and history of Seattle’s Rainier Valley. Due to COVID19, this program is currently paused as we navigate responding to the pandemic.

  • Photo by Christopher Nelson

    Photo by Christopher Nelson

  • Photo by Christopher Nelson

    Photo by Christopher Nelson

  • Photo by Christopher Nelson

    Photo by Christopher Nelson

  • Photo by Christopher Nelson

    Photo by Christopher Nelson

  • Photo by Christopher Nelson

    Photo by Christopher Nelson

Unbroken Circle: Youth Residency Project will encourage students to learn from one another, family, and the broader community as they refine their craft and collaborate to share their artistry and stories. Students will delve into the heritage of their geographical community, roots music, and song while utilizing creative expression to explore their own identities. This program is designed for young musicians with basic musical knowledge who want to take a deeper dive into their creative forms.

Join Unbroken Circle



Meet Ben and Joe, Project Managers for Youth Residency Project: Unbroken Circle

Seattle songsters Ben Hunter & Joe Seamons give life to voices that have long been silenced in American culture. Their award-winning performances are highlighted by story-telling that, rather than bringing the past to life, vividly shows how the past still lives in the present.

Through their songs, audiences witness current issues crop up again and again in folk songs, dance tunes, acoustic blues, and prison ballads. Ben & Joe bounce from fiddle & banjo breakdowns to a cappella field hollers, early jazz to gospel songs featuring Piedmont guitar style and rattlin’ bones.

With the same versatility that won them the International Blues Challenge in 2016, and allowed them to record with National Heritage Fellow Phil Wiggins, the duo celebrates the ways Americans have triumphed over oppression through the vitality of their art. Audiences walk away from Ben & Joe’s concerts and workshops inspired to learn more of their own history and engage more deeply with their communities.