Official site of Yerba Buena Gardens Festival
Free outdoor performing arts in downtown San Francisco
Born in Ethiopia and raised in an academic family in Iowa, New York and Florida, Meklit found herself as an artist in San Francisco. A luminous songstress and a cultural visionary, she’s a TED Global Fellow who spearheaded the transformational Nile Project with Egyptian ethnomusicologist Mina Girgis, bringing together musicians from the 11 nations traversed by the world’s longest river. With a supple voice that can waft ethereally or take on red-clay grit, she’s a songwriter, guitarist and bandleader who has crafted a singular sound drawing on Amharic folk melodies, soul, hip-hop, and whatever else comes her way. More than an artist, Meklit is an agent of transformation who seduces with sound.