The BOTMC is pleased to welcome back the Inaugural Black Banjo & Fiddle Fellows: Patrice Strahan, Darcy Ford-James and Joseph Z. Johnson, who have been mentored during the past two years by some of today’s most important Black old time musicians, including Jake Blount, Rhiannon Giddens, Earl White, Dom Flemons and Tony Thomas.  Darcy, Patrice and Joseph were the very first cohort of the Black Banjo & Fiddle Fellowship,  Oakland Public Conservatory of Music’s innovative collaboration with the Berkeley Old Time Music Convention. The BBFF project aims to repatriate old-time music in African American communities and illuminate the Black experience in creating old-time music. BBFF is a two-year paid fellowship program that trains Black musicians in old-time music and its rich history. To repair the historical and cultural ruptures that erased the Black origins of banjo and fiddle music and to ensure that the tradition is sustained in Black communities, the BBFF is also a teacher-training program, ensuring that the music can be passed down from generation to generation.