The Fort Worth African American Roots Music Festival (FWAAMFest) is celebrating its fifth anniversary in 2025.
It’s a milestone event founder and organizer Brandi Waller-Pace has diligently worked toward — and one all the more impressive given the considerable headwinds she’s faced since she started the festival, on the cusp of a global pandemic.
“I’m happy we’re still here,” Waller-Pace, who uses they/she pronouns, said during a recent conversation. “I think [the festival] has evolved a bit in terms of bringing in more of an innovative aspect to how we celebrate the music. … We started out more with me wanting to show the roots of everything, and bring them into the modern day, but we’ve been able to show more of a progression.”
The fifth iteration of of the festival kicks off at noon on March 15 at Fort Worth’s Southside Preservation Hall, and will feature a broad spectrum of performances, lectures and events, including appearances from Dom Flemons, Kyshona and Rissi Palmer.
I spoke with Waller-Pace about balancing the academic and artistic, what has surprised them and the importance of community. The following conversation has been lightly edited and condensed.
Over time, it feels like country music, obviously, but also folk, Americana — that whole diaspora — has been driving toward more of an understanding of literal roots. A project like Beyonce’s Cowboy Carter, for instance, throws a spotlight on a corner of the story you’re telling. Is that sort of trend helpful for people coming to Fort Worth African American Roots Music Fest?
I think it’s a good gateway point. The obvious issue with something like a Cowboy Carter — not saying there’s a problem with the album, but because it’s very, very much the center of popular music, we have all these stories that we have built up around a lot of the most popular music forms and those in the spotlight. … It’s important to have accurate information, accurate stories, stories that don’t sensationalize or homogenize any particular group. Or that threaten to take away the incredibly nuanced way the music has developed, and Black folks’ part in it. And we should tie names to the music that show, you know, we’ve been here a long time.,
As someone who’s studied this and paid very close attention, is there anything you’ve learned in the course of working with the festival that’s really surprised you, or maybe upended an assumption you had?
Oh, that’s a really good question. I think — maybe not an assumption, as just not really knowing how many folks had their own organizing work brewing. It’s not just connecting with other musicians. … There’s always been people out here organizing and stuff. But now that I have the role that I have, I get to see it through the lens of industry and organizing, in addition to the folks I’m in touch with. It seems like we’re all moving forward together.
That has to feel both validating and heartening — more people want to push, more people want to explore, more people want to uncover and understand.
Part of it, too, is realizing that, you know, we’re in tumultuous times, but there are still people out there who are still very willing to support the arts, broadly [and] these particular traditional music forms, like Black folks reclaiming their history. There’s still a big audience for it. … There’s still a lot to do, obviously, you know. Huge funding disparities, all kinds of stuff we’re dealing with. But I go to the festival, I see all ages and colors and shapes and sizes. It’s worth having the reminder that when we are actually looking at community, and people being in community with one another, there’s still some really beautiful stuff happening.
The Fort Worth African American Roots Music Festival at Southside Preservation Hall, Fort Worth. Noon March 15. Tickets are $20-$50.
Preston Jones is a North Texas freelance writer and regular contributor to KXT. Email him at preston@kxt.org or find him on Bluesky (@prestonjones.bsky.social).Our work is made possible by our generous, music-loving members. If you like how we lift up local music, consider becoming a KXT sustaining member right here.
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