The Royall House & Slave Quarters invites you to a family-friendly evening of music and conversation with acclaimed Medford musician Balla Kouyaté on Facebook Live. Balla will play traditional West African music on the balafon in the only remaining freestanding slave quarters in New England, where the majority of those enslaved were of West African descent. Played with mallets, this centuries-old traditional instrument — considered the antecedent of the xylophone — is made of wooden slats and rows of calabash gourds, which serve as natural amplifiers.

Joining Balla in concert is Amadou Kouyate, who will play the kora, a West African stringed instrument that most closely resembles a harp. The artists will team up for an exciting and innovative concert that combines the musical tradition of the past with contemporary sounds.

This entertaining collaboration with the museum will also serve as an opportunity to explore different approaches to memorializing the history of enslavement and Black cultural production on both a local and global scale.

The concert will be recorded and posted on our museum’s YouTube channel at youtube.com/channel/UC6Q3Ce9eA_AxZ4O-yzo-6Xw