Cheick is also a griot (a member of an 800-year tradition of traveling advisers, storytellers, poets, musicians and oral historians) counseling African presidents, Malian villagers, and members of the U.S. Congress. The Institute will be an extension of Cheick, a real and tangible symbol of Griot culture, a nurturing storyteller promoting people, place and music throughout the world. This is a place of making and celebrating. The Institute is located approximately 4 miles from the center of the Kita, a town in remote sub-Saharan, equatorial Africa.

The flat site is framed between beautiful rock outcroppings and the famous Niger-Dakar Railway. Diagrammatically, the performance space occupies the complex center; surrounded by four linear building forms that are arranged to create 3 major shaded courtyards: administration & living, performance, and education. The composition pattern references the region’s textile and arts history—from colorful hand-woven blankets to the found-object work of El Anatsui. The project marries traditional methods of construction with advanced technology; hand-molded masonry walls, strategically placed shade trees and simple corrugated metal roofs all combine with state-of-the-art recording and video equipment assimilate into a symbol for future Malian people.

Passive techniques are critical because the site is not connected to any existing infrastructure; metal roofs are folded to collect rain-water for cisterns while also encouraging air flow in and through interior spaces below; for power, PV panels take advantage of the abundance of equatorial solar days.