OneBeat Ghana announces 2023 fellows

The news follows a call for applications in June for socially engaged artist-entrepreneurs from Ghana, Nigeria and the US aged 19 to 35.

OneBeat Ghana, led in collaboration with Accra-based Black Girls Glow founder, author and OneBeat alumna Poetra Asantewa, serves as an iteration of a fresh OneBeat Abroad music exchange model with a primary emphasis on creative entrepreneurship and solutions for challenges encountered by musicians worldwide.

Selected fellows include seven Ghanaians, namely The Masked DJ, Agbenorxevi, Susan Augustt, Essilfie, Eli A Free, Marince Omario, Megborna, as well as Tommy WÁ and Onyebeat from Nigeria.

They join multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Hannah Standiford and MC and songwriter Alfred Nomad from the US to build strategies for stronger local artist communities and creative economies in the region.

The OneBeat Ghana fellows will convene at Stone Lodge in Asutsuare, near Accra, for a week and a half intensive residency, focusing on creative exercises and professional development workshops. This residency aims to nurture and advance their independent artist projects through peer-to-peer exchange and guidance from guest artist mentors.

Following this, the fellows will head to Accra to showcase their work at Impact Hub, a hub for social innovation, on 18 November. This public event will feature performances, discussions and presentations by OneBeat Ghana Fellows to an audience of fellow artists, community leaders, industry experts and funders.

“Leading Black Girls Glow for the last seven years has taught me that there is and there’s always going to be a wealth of talent in Ghana,” Poetra Asantewa said. “What we are severely lacking are solutions for both artists and their communities to thrive. My hope is for OneBeat Ghana to be a way to imagine tailor-made and better futures for artists of today and tomorrow.”