Folk musicians gathered at the American Center to perform Bhawaiya, Bhatiyali and Bangla Qawwali on March 24. The music followed the launch of three CDs by US consul-general Helen LaFave on the three musical forms.

The programme marked the completion of the project, "Documentation of Bengal Folk Music Genres - Bhawaiya, Bhatiyali and Bangla Qawwali", supported by the US Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation (AFCP). The grant was awarded to Banglanatak dot com to identify practising artistes and document their folk music forms. As part of the documentation, 150 songs have been recorded.

Consul-general LaFave spoke about AFCP and the importance of saving such intangible heritage from extinction.

"The preservation of these traditional music forms will go on to protect long-term cultural preservation objectives and engage the communities who are the practitioners of these art forms," she said.