Program areas at Freight and Salvage Coffeehouse
In 2023, the organization presented over 270 performances of Traditional Music from around the world in support of our mission. Annual attendance at our events reached 80,000 audience members. We also live-streamed 28 events which expanded our reach beyond our venue walls. We offer reduced price/free admission to those who cannot afford to attend otherwise and produced freightfest, a day long free Music celebration as a gift to our community. In 2023 we presented artists from canada, france, peru, cuba, korea, ireland, scotland, haiti, mali, tibet, iran, colombia, mauritania, scotland, ethiopia, zimbabwe, and india.
the Freight welcomes our diverse bay area community with an inclusive, accessible gathering space for performances, cultural festivals, conferences, fundraisers, ceremonies, and celebrations. We aim to create enduring partnerships with local groups such as young musicians choral orchestra, new apollo youth orchestra, de rompe y raja peruvian cultural association, oakland school for the arts, the Berkeley high drama department, golden gate blues Society, Berkeley public library, uc Berkeley mariachi club, interfaith movement for human integrity, bay area book festival, and osher lifelong learning institute. Our lobby gallery space displays works from local visual artists of color with a strong connection to Music.
Our education programs continue to thrive, with over 300 instrument instruction and vocal classes, targeted workshops & weekly jams in bothin-person and virtual formats with almost 2,000 participants annually. Our innovative hip-hop is folk Music school program, which connects Traditional Music to popular Music, reached every middle school Music student in the Berkeley unified school district in 2023. We also piloted our innovative 4th grade arts integration program golden state of song in 2023, which aims to enhance and enrich social studies curriculum with Music.