Our Community Artist Visiting Educator Program (CAVE) presents innovative educational sessions and/or performances throughout Fort Worth.
Christopher Mena
The first Community Artist Visiting Educator (CAVE) Program session was held at Rocketship Dennis Dunkins Elementary in Southeast Fort Worth. Music and Ethnic Studies educator, Dr. Christopher Mena, visited students to teach them about the history, music, and dance of Son Jarocho- a regional Black and Indigenous folk tradition from the state of Veracruz in Mexico.
Dr. Tammy Yi
In July of 2023, we offered a low-cost, local professional development session with Dr. Tammy Yi- Conductor of the 2024 Texas Music Education Association All-State Philharmonic Orchestra, Assistant Professor of Music Education at Chapman University, and Conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic YOLA Youth Orchestra.
Dr. Yi facilitated a two-part day of training: Nurturing Culturally Responsive Orchestra and an orchestral reading session, including Mary D. Watkins' "Five Movements in Color" and "The Initiation."
Amadou Kouyate
In July of 2024, musician and storyteller Amadou Kouyate presented a free, family-friendly performance featuring a Q&A, as well as an evening concert.
Kouyate performed on kora and djembe and taught attendees about the instruments and their history. He also discussed his lineage as part of the Kouyate family of Manding Diali, renowned oral historians and musicians of West Africa.
Rhiannon Giddens
In May of 2026, DTMR partnered with The Dock Bookshop to present an event with two-time GRAMMY Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning musician, composer, scholar, and author Rhiannon Giddens. In conversation with DTMR Founder/Executive Director Brandi Waller-Pace, Giddens discussed her work uplifting the banjo and Black people's obscured contributions to American roots and country music and her book "Go Back and Fetch It: Recovering Early Black Music in the Americas for Fiddle and Banjo" - sharing a few tunes along the way.
View the event here.
Miriam Hacksaw
In May of 2026, Malayali-American musician and songwriter Miriam Hacksaw presented a collection of songs in Malayalam from Kerala, India, learned firsthand from singing with her elders, and the stories behind them. On fiddle and banjo, she shares not just the music but the stories behind it: the cultural context and meaning that make each song come alive.
Woven throughout were old-time tunes and songs Miriam gathered from traditional musicians of color, honoring and uplifting the vital — and often overlooked — role of BIPOC artists in contemporary folk traditions. She also performed original music written in the spirit of these traditions, with lyrics rooted in her long history as an activist in climate and racial justice movements.
The event took place at Keith House in Fort Worth, and Miriam’s set lists were designed to flow with its featured Come To Good welcome and sunset sequences.
