Black Earth SWAY (BE SWAY), founded by award-winning creative flutist and composer Nicole Mitchell, sings liberation through Afro-Folk-Futurism. BE SWAY is a celebration of open spirits and sisterhood and is a platform for new mythologies in Black American storytelling in a liquid melding of funk, blues, experimental jazz, and more. Putting the “fun” back in music, each member brings songs, seeking realness, joy, and honesty in their free expression.

All of the multigenerational sister friends of BE SWAY have creative and family connections to Chicago and its great cultural legacy. As one of the newest groups of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), they traverse the endless possibilities of Great Black Music. BE SWAY is unique in that it showcases the storytelling work of Coco Elysses, who modernizes the diddley bow (an African American folk instrument). Percussionist JoVia Armstrong plays an original cajon set (a box drum with cymbals). Zahili Gonzales Zamora effortlessly handles the piano with Afro-Cuban rhythms. Nicole Mitchell brings otherworldly sounds with her processed flute sounds and electronics. Together, these sonic ingredients are baked up into Afro-Folk-Futurism. 

BE SWAY started in 2021 and has brought joy to audiences at Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art, Harvard University, Sao Paulo's SESC Jazz, SF Jazz, Dartmouth College, Pittsburgh's City of Asylum, Chicago's Promontory, and Jazzowa Jesien (Katowice, Poland). Outside of the group, each member has an outstanding career as a composer and performer with her own projects.