Founded in 2021, the multigenerational “Afro-Folk-Futurism” outfit Black Earth SWAY is the latest expression of the creative flutist, composer, conceptualist, bandleader and educator Nicole Mitchell—and of a multifaceted musical sisterhood between Nicole, the percussionist JoVia Armstrong, multi-instrumentalist composer, beat maker, and diddley bow player Coco Elysses, and the pianist, vocalist, composer, and producer Alexis Lombre. Spanning multiple geographical connections, including the music worlds of Detroit (Alexis and JoVia) and Chicago (all four), as well as longtime musical and political collaborations through Nicole’s Black Earth Ensemble, Chicago’s AACM, and many other projects, BES members have both witnessed and defined a significant part of the last quarter-century (or more) of Great Black Music.

For this conversation, JoVia, Coco, Alexis, and Nicole will discuss their musical trajectories and creative geographies, individual and collective experiences in jazz, and new links between jazz and other popular/hybrid forms.

Sheree Renée Thomas is an award-winning and widely-anthologized fiction writer, poet, and editor. Her work is inspired by myth and folklore, natural science and Mississippi Delta conjure. Sheree is the author of Nine Bar Blues: Stories from an Ancient Future (Third Man Books, 2020) and the Marvel novel adaptation of the legendary comic Black Panther: Panther's Rage (Titan Books, October 2022). She edited the World Fantasy-winning groundbreaking black speculative fiction anthologies, Dark Matter (2000 and 2004), and is the Associate Editor of the historic Black arts literary journal, Obsidian: Literature & the Arts in the African Diaspora, founded in 1975 and the Editor of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, founded in 1949.