Welcome!

We teach, perform, and build community as we honor the legacy and celebrate the current makers of African American music. History is made every day.

"People all over the world
Join hands
Start a love train, love train"

– The O'Jays, Kenny Gamble, & Leon Huff

Lead singer and band performing on an outdoor stage.

Our 5-Part Mission

Educate
Build & Preserve
Perform
Inspire
Accurately Represent

Man playing drums as a young boy watches.

To educate the public about the contributions of African Americans to American music and American History.

To use music as a tool for building community and to preserve the cultural heritage of African Americans.

To stage, produce, and publicly perform musical, dramatic, and other multi-media artistic works that further the organization’s educational mission.

To inspire creativity and encourage personal expression in others.

To create and distribute curricula to educators and educational institutions that more accurately represents the origin and importance of African American cultural traditions and values.

Bald Black man in blue jacket by lake under blue sky

Bruce A. Henry, Executive Director

I grew up on the West Side of Chicago, where—long before I had language for it—I felt a powerful connection to Africa through the Black churches of my childhood. In those sacred spaces, I experienced a living musical tradition: call and response, processional and recessional song, holy-ghost dancing, speaking in tongues, and a deep spirit of improvisation. Music was never fixed. Each song was shaped in the moment, personalized by the performer, and offered as a present-tense expression of faith, feeling, and identity.

As I grew older and began to study this music more deeply, I came to understand what I had felt all along—that these practices were rooted in African musical traditions carried across generations. Over the last 400 years, this inheritance has evolved into the many forms we now recognize as African American music: spirituals, blues, jazz, gospel, soul, hip-hop, popular music, and even military and ceremonial music. When we listen to artists such as Aretha Franklin, John Coltrane, Mahalia Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, Beyoncé, or John Legend, we are hearing African musical values at work—rhythm, improvisation, call and response, emotional honesty, and communal expression.

At EVAAM, we call these elements Afro Music Distinctions (AMDs)—the musical building blocks that shape African American music and continue to influence global sound today. Through EVAAM’s performances, educational programs, and community experiences, my goal is to make this history come alive in ways that are joyful, accessible, and empowering. EVAAM exists to honor the past, activate the present, and inspire new creation—using music as a tool for learning, connection, and community building.

“Bruce is definitely one of the best artists in education out there today.”

Randy Jennings

Director of Compas Arts Education Programs, Minnesota

Bruce's music has taken him to five continents, and he has recorded for Disney, HBO, and numerous national ad campaigns. In addition, Bruce has performed with and opened for the likes of Doc Severinson, Roberta Flack, Chris Botti, Ramsey Lewis, Stephane Grapelli, Jimmy Jam, and The Sounds of Blackness.