FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The Folk School of Fayetteville is a community music space inviting all to join in on the harmony.
The school comes from the husband and wife duo that ran the Fayetteville Root Festival for over a decade. Bernice Hembree is now the co-founder and director of the school.
"We have concerts, jams, workshops, lessons, anything under the music umbrella can happen here at the Folk School," Hembree said. "We wanted to be able to continue the body of work that we really put into those 14 years, but not just in one weekend. We wanted to really have the spread out of year-round offerings to the community. So here in this building, we're able to do that."
The community school receives as much as they give to their community. Their space, one of the oldest buildings in the city, was provided by Experience Fayetteville. Supporters also sought more ways than just money to give back to the school; instead, they donated instruments.
The wall of instruments now helps fund the school.
"We have guitars and banjos and ukuleles and dulcimers, hammer dulcimers, basses, violins, cellos, I mean, you name it, we probably have it. Lots of weird instruments no one's ever heard of, and lots of everyday instruments," Hembree said.
Hembree encourages all to join despite any confusion over what folk music is.
"Folk music is the music of the people. So folk music, people, and that can be a lot of different things. I always like to say that rock and roll, that's our American folk music," she said.
"We really think that there are people in every community here that deserve to share what they want to put out to the world, and we hope that we're here for that,' Hembree added.
The school is hosting a fundraising concert at George's Majestic Lounge on October 17.
You can get tickets to the Helm Family Midnight Ramble at their Stubs event page. You can also visit the Folk School of Fayetteville's website to connect with the community music space.
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