African American Music Series featuring Grammy Award Winning "Ranky Tanky"

Concert begins at 7:00pm.
Free and open to the public.

Ranky Tanky is a quintet who performs playful game songs and heartbreaking spirituals. The band specializes in jazz-influenced arrangements of traditional Gullah music, a culture that originated among descendants of enslaved Africans in the Lowcountry region of the US Southeast.

The Gullah lyrics and melodies that Ranky Tanky uses range from traditional spirituals to children's rhymes and dance music. Due to its relative geographic isolation, the Sea Islands region preserved more of the West African rhythms, dialects, and musical traditions than the mainland US, which once combined with British colonial influence emerged as the distinct Gullah culture. 
 
Ranky Tanky's performance and residency is funded in part by a grant from South Arts in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and the North Carolina Arts Council.