Where The Roots Were Buried: The Forgotten Roots Festival Rises

In an era where representation in the arts is still often surface-level and symbolic, the Forgotten Roots Festival emerges as a powerful act of cultural reclamation. Created and led by artists of color, this new festival challenges the narrow, Eurocentric definitions of "folk" and "roots" music that have dominated mainstream festivals for decades.

The inaugural event takes place on Friday, July 19, 2025, at 5:30 PM at Interwoven Artist Studio, 634 Pleasant Street, New Bedford, MA. It promises to be more than a performance - it is a declaration.

"By definition, Hip-hop, Soul, and Moana are folk music and folk art forms," says Raeha Ramos, Executive Director of Oversoul Theatre Collective, Inc., the festival's presenter. "There comes a point when you stop asking for a seat and inclusion, and allow the narrative of truth to create your own table."

The Forgotten Roots Festival was born out of a shared frustration among artists and cultural workers with the deeply embedded gatekeeping that characterizes most roots and folk festivals. While performers of color are often invited to participate, they are usually positioned as tokens - programmed to check a diversity box, not to reflect the authentic cultural foundations of American folk traditions.

In truth, the American concept of "folk" has been curated and crafted through a lens of racial and cultural exclusion. One of the lesser-known but impactful examples of this was Henry Ford's campaign in the early 20th century to popularize square dancing and similar traditions derived from English, Scottish, and German roots. Alarmed by the growing popularity of Black American music and dance - especially jazz and blues - Ford funded massive initiatives to elevate what he saw as "wholesome" European-derived folk culture, helping define the sanitized vision of "folk" that persists to this day.

In contrast, the Forgotten Roots Festival embraces a broader, truer definition of folk music - one that recognizes the spirituals sung in fields, the chants and drums of Indigenous ceremonies, the work songs of railroad builders, the street rhymes and beats of Hip-Hop, and the harmonies of island nations as all part of the American roots tapestry.

The festival's 2025 debut is a bold and joyful step toward centering those narratives. It showcases the work of artists deeply rooted in Black, Indigenous, and diasporic traditions - not as side acts or "diversity pieces," but as the foundation.

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