11/05/2026
🌿Kadialy Kouyate 🌿 Live at Flourish Fest ‘26 🌿Sunday 17th May 🌿11:00 - 16:00 🌿at Roots and Shoots, SE11 6DN
John Keats often describes the garden as a place of "sensuous dreaming,” providing the atmosphere necessary to stay in a state of wonder. Kadialy Kouyate performing on his kora in our UNESCO award-winning garden will undoubtedly inspire the dreamer.
Kadialy sounds beautifully fresh, but behind his mesmerising songs is a lifetime of learning the traditional Griot music of the Mandinka people in North West Africa. Born into the family lineage in Senegal he became a virtuoso on the 21-string kora, a harp-lute-like instrument synonymous with the tradition. Honest and truthful, his songs bridge the gap between the “living archive” of his ancestors and living here in London. They focus on topics such as friendship, unity, migration, homesickness, social values, ancestral truth, and identity. 🌍🪕
Our gardens are also our living archives - a record of human intent, values, history, migration, identity - and require continuous performance and growth to stay recorded. It’s amazing what our hands can do when given a voice.
Photograph of Kadialy by Adelina photographs
