Celebrate the roots and pathways of the Black music diaspora in this show, featuring talents from New York, New Orleans and West Africa.

Family Affair, a new album by Senegalese bassist and composer Alune Wade in collaboration with New Orleans's Neighborhood Story Project, is rooted in Afro-Atlantic memory and contemporary dialogue. In the fall of 2026, it will be released alongside their documentary film TUKKI: From the Roots to the Bayou and accompanying book A Family Affair: Conversations Across the Atlantic (University of New Orleans Press). Building on the acclaimed album New African Orleans (2025), which drew widespread praise for its fluid dialogue between West African traditions, contemporary jazz, and Louisiana heritage, Family Affair has the feel of a reunion — one that stretches across centuries of shared and scattered memory. It is not a tribute project. It is a celebration of what these connections actually sound like when musicians on both sides of the Atlantic meet in a room.

With West Indian roots and a NYC upbringing emerges faiith, the current generation's newest voice that amplifies the in-between. Hailing from deep-seeded jazz study and pulling from foundational R&B culture, lives the compositions and eclectic energy and presence of faiith. Appearing on her debut album, Answer to Love, showcases genre bending artists and collaborations with kyngstxnn and donSMITH blending the sounds of Chicago, L.A and NYC into one seamless storyline. faiith’s emergence into the industry marks a turning point in self-development and an effortless blend between her traditional jazz training and her unique yet familiar songwriting. Answer to Love is a culmination of stories and responses to self-love, familial - love, romantic - love as well as love for the culture and the community. Answer to Love will be available on all streaming platforms August 2026 on Next Music Company.

Presented by the JGI in collaboration with National Sawdust.